Sharing baby names - how right you wise ones were!

[Namiemcnameface]

Have read on here sooooo many times to not share baby names before the birth (apart from on this wonderful forum obvs). Honestly didn't realise quite how right you were!

We have the 'long list' up on a wall and have been slowly adding/crossing off for months. Now, there are all kinds of names on there....classic, modern, long, short, made up names from my other children etc. Girls include Elizabeth, Carrie, Athena, Anna, Ella, Meg, Enid, Emily (we seem to like e's), Mango (spot the sibling suggestion!), Alexandra, Daisy, Lottie, Laura, Mia, Sarah, Lydia.... Boys includes Casper, Gilbert, Elliot, Cosmo, Toby, Forest, Alexander, Gus, Rufus, Daniel, Thomas, Eric, Luke, Zach, Archer, Christopher, Jasper, Fred, Peter. In my opinion there's a real range!

This weekend we invited guests to put a star by any they liked.

They struggled to like ANY OF THEM.

After about 5 excruciating minutes of me saying 'you really don't need to vote if it's this tricky, you can just pass' they each begrudgingly said that one name (each) wasn't as bad as the others.

So, for anyone who is feeling affronted that they shared a name before birth and it didn't go down well take heart. We shared about 40 and whilst three of them now have stars next to them it was in a 'I guess if I had to vote then this one is okay' 🤣😅

Not going to change our opinion on the ones we like, but it made me laugh at how accurate the advice on here was so thought I'd share.

We had fake names 'picked out' for each DC before the birth that we shared if people asked. They were dreadful names. People either shut right up or came up with actually useful alternatives.

I really like Mango! Surely if there were joke names on the list, they could have starred one of those if they genuinely didn't like any of the others. Do they have kids?!

Mango's sibling is Peaches, Clementine, Zara or Chutney?

I love the name "Myhsteria"

Chutney 🤣

That's only one of the suggestions from my current children, thought some of the others may have been a bit outing but they've certainly been novel!!

@BendingSpoons I did actually meet a kid called Mangolisso once. No clue if that's the correct spelling. Italian apparently 🤷🏼‍♀️ I agree with @ScruffMuffin it could be a cool pet name.

They do have children yes, who knows! Was only meant to be a bit of fun. I think perhaps the pressure got to them and they over thought it.

It might not be thst they didn’t like any of the names, it might be they didn’t want the weighty responsibility or choosing, that they didn’t want to offend you by picking the “wrong” name or even cause and argument with your DH if they unwittingly voted for someone’s preference and not the others.

You thought it was a fun, non serious game - they might not have.

Never, ever ask for input on names!

It's a mistake to ask your children for name suggestions. Our 4 year old wanted her new sister to be called Rosebud but we compromised and offered Rose as a middle name. DD1 then got upset that she herself only had one name and her sister had two. DD2 hates having Rose as a middle name. You can't win!

I loved knowing what people thought of our name choices! I think I must be the only person on MN who thought it was a good idea. I hate the thought that they’d be saying “oh how lovely” to my face and internally thinking WTF.

I love two of your girls names but struggling with your boys list tbh.

It's a mistake to ask your children for name suggestions. This.
Little children only know a few names so will suggest from those you know. The poor baby risks being called Peppa, Tinky-Winky or Bluey, or their best friend that week's name.

Son's thrown a new entry into the ring... | Mumsnet

Around 30 years ago, someone I knew called her daughter Apricot. My first thought was, "Seriously?" but in no time at all I saw it as just being her name.

Like a PP, I gave all of my babies just-believable names picked from books and films while they were bumps and didn't disclose my actual naming intentions to anyone other than their father until they were born, and it almost backfired when he decided that he preferred our youngest daughter's fake name to the actual name I'd chosen for her.

@TeaAndStrumpets @HugoThatway perhaps that's your experience. We've had a good giggle with some of their suggestions, they've made very level arguments against some of ours and have been listened to. They didn't get upset when we vetoed 'tree' and 'scarecrow' just as I didn't get upset when my son vetoed a name as he associates it with someone who hasn't been kind to him at school. Between them they've chosen the middle name for both genders and have imo chosen well. It's been a joy going through it as a family. We're all different!

Bluey is on the list 🤣

@NotMyRealAccount eep!!

Do they still get referred to as their project names ever? We had bump names and they're still brought out as nicknames now and again 🤩

I regretted sharing what we were going to call dd2 as friends of ours who were expecting before us said they might use the same one as they liked it. Luckily we ended up having different sexes as was irritating that it would look like we copied them

@Sanguinello noooooo that's the worst! Haven't ever heard of it happening in real life. A friend who was quite close to due date with her second revealed their name to someone and was told that would be the name of their second so she couldn't use it....the person attempting to veto wasn't even pregnant! Thought that was pretty cheeky. However my mate pointed out that if the other woman had used that name she'd have called her children after a well known character duo, which put her off, so all was well in the end.

I would love a guinea pig called Mango.
Me and my sister were assured that our new sibling would have the (unusual at the time, a bit less so now, and we would have spelt it wrong) name we chose - we were most betrayed when she actually got a very similar name that kind of rhymed (much less unusual then and now!).