Don't share your names. Someone will steal it and everyone will have an opinion on it.

Both my sister's went crazy when I picked Brayden. They begged me to spell it Braden. They said a million times, kids were going to call him Braaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyden. Like a donkey says brayyyyyyyyyy. I told them that if a kid was going to make fun of him, it didn't matter if it was spelled with a Y or not. Kids don't look at how something is spelled. I just ignored them and still named my little sweetie Brayden. After he was born they shut up about it.

I say name that baby whatever you want!!

I'm sharing, and sticking with our choice. We are not going to be naming our child after anybody, too much opportunity for hurt feelings.

Yeah, I think we'll keep it to ourselves. My poor Mom doesn't get that partly it's because of her. I told her why we didn't want to broadcast names because "some people" say bad things about our choices. She "couldn't believe some people" would say anything!

I love the name Brayden - my nephew is BraEden, and calls himself Bay-den so I've adopted that name for him.

Lorioz - share the name! I love hearing them.

They name we have choosen is Alara. It is a Turkish name. My husband is Turkish and it means 'the water that angels was with.'

Very nice! We seem to be crossing messages!

I'm not even pregnant and my mother already gives me name ideas!

Jonathan's family (and Jonathan) mentioned making our little guy a junior. Personally, I am not down with that, but I did want him to share something family-related. So, he has his own unique first name (Jackson), his father's middle name (which is also his grandfather's middle name and his great-grandfather's first name), and, of course, his father's last name. They share the same initials, and I figure Jackson means son of Jack, and Jack is a nickname for John, and Jonathan is a derivative of John, so we're square. The next child will have a middle name from my family.

When we chose Jackson, everyone had an opinion. My family liked it, but his did not. We didn't budge, and it suits him perfectly - everyone is happy with it now.

PS - That is awesome that you are going for the surprise! Friends who had their baby the day before Thanksgiving went that route, and it was really fun for them. I have some friends in OR who had the doctor write the sex on a piece of paper and give it to their 8-year old son. He was the only one who knew the gender of his sibling, and other family members were trying to bribe him with gifts and such so he'd spill the beans to them. (He didn't.)

I think Jackson is a great name, and it is great that you could come to a compromise about it.

Yeah, I love the name Jackson. That's cute about your friend's son. I allowed only my 7-year-old niece to come up with names. I now know all her friends names In her list, which my sister doesn't correct, I have
Zowie
Chlowe
Mathew
Mikeall

Ha ha ha - that's really cute! Mikeall.

We didn't find out what we were having either, but we did share our names. We never said what teh definites were and until we were getting to the hospital and I wrote them down for my husband they were not definite.

I actually didn't encounter any problems with sharing names BUT I have known some ladies who chose to keep it under wraps. I totally understand!

Cute story about your friend's kid, MotoLinz!

I feel your pain C. My husband and I are keeping that a secret. The family pestered us about whether we were going to find out the sex. They assumed sooo much based on mere old wives tales that I got sick of it and decided to tell everyone we were having a boy.

Let people suggest all the names that they want. If you have visitors tell them they can write their suggestions on the 'names' list on the fridge. And then pay no attention to it. Most people don't actually believe you'll go with their suggestion but it's fun to play the 'what to name the new baby' game. So let them play.

In the meantime, you and your husband should have your own seperate, secret list. the final choice should only be revealed once the baby is born.

That is what we're doing! We've already decided that if anyone has anything negative to say after the baby is born, our response will be (with a straight face)- "Well, it was either this name or we were going to name him after my grandpa Zooie." And yes, that was his real name - and he was a Junior!

Good luck

~bj~

I think you should go ahead and name the lil one whatever you want!
I originally wanted to do the Jr. thing, but my husband said no, because he's not so crazy about his name (Kenny). I love it, but he was named after his fathers nickname..kinda weird, but ok...

SO, we named our son after my father and his father- Oliver (my dad) Henry(his dad)
and it suits him perfectly!

You know your baby better than anyone-
I love the idea of a surprise!

Enjoy your pregnancy girl!

For twenty years I was an ultrasound technologist. I LOVED my job and miss it tremendously. One of my favorite questions was "What names do you have picked out?" It was interesting and sometimes a bit scary. Because patients only knew me in a clinical environment they usually told me more than I ever wanted to know, so sharing baby names was easy.

Yes...when you share names with people you do get their opinions about them. I rarely said anything critical to my patients about a name those chose. One of those rare occasions the Mom had "made-up" a name she thought sounded really cool BUT I had to let her know that it was the name of a disease. Sorry..I couldn't let a beautiful baby spend her life being named after a venereal disease.

Once I regretted not saying something...the couple decided they would combine their names to create a unique name for their daughter. It has been many years so now somewhere there is a woman named "Claudawnia"... and if she always hated her name all I can say is that your parents were so excited about their choice I kept silent. Your Dad "Claude" and your Mom, "Dawn" were SO excited and proud. Be proud of their choice.

Each person is unique and rarely does just a name completely define them. I went by my middle name during my childhood. Why? One side of the family called me by my first name, the other by my middle name. On the way to my first day in kindergarten I asked what they would be calling me. My Mom said I had to decide.

Mom had called me by my middle name when we talked about it...so I assumed in my little head that she preferred the middle name. When I went into the Air Force later in life as an adult, they made me fill everything our First Name, Middle Initial...so I have gone by my first name ever since...that person is a grown-up...the other..a child.

I had a friend that had a huge and lengthy last name, married and then hyphenated it which made it even more of a nuisance. When she divorced she changed her last name legally to "Myself" which was unique and to the point. Totally cool!

My husband and I shared our name (that we'd decided on before we were even married) with a close relative who just found out they were expecting. They liked it, so much so that they took it. When I said something to them about it (basically called them out) their response was, "Well maybe you shouldn't have waited to have a baby, then you could have used it already." Ah, family.