Since the last post was a bit of a tease (though not intentionally), I thought tonight we could unpack the actual subject of baby names and where we’ve landed as we arrive at five-ish weeks left on the baby countdown.

Spoiler alert: We never share names before we introduce baby to the world, post-delivery. 😉

Now that we’ve got that bit out of the way, here’s a little more about our baby naming process and how it’s going this time around…

1. Since we don’t find out baby’s gender, we try to take two boy names (1st and middle) and two girl names along with us to the hospital. You never know if baby will look remarkably like the first or second name, so it feels good to go in with options. So far, we haven’t had a baby who either of us decided was something different than our top name pick once they were born. Can we go four for four? Time will tell.
2. We’ve usually landed on baby names by this stage in pregnancy. This time around, I think it’s fair to say we likely know what we’d name the baby if they were born tomorrow, but we really haven’t fully committed to a name for either gender yet.
3. Naming the baby is a huge part of the preparation process for me. Once we know what we’d choose, I feel so much better about heading to the hospital. Maybe that’s one sure-fire way to be sure I don’t go into labor too early?
4. We care a lot about the meaning of a name. There have been so many that we both liked, but where the meaning was just something that didn’t strike us well. I guess that’s a tactic for shortening the list more quickly?
5. I have a really hard time with people suggesting names. I don’t know. I just feel like it’s a super personal thing, and that if a name we absolutely love gets thrown out in conversation, I feel super awkward and bummed about it. I just want our babies to be the first ones to hear it, and for our rationale to be our own and not tied to anyone else’s thoughts or expectations. I don’t mean to get all soap-boxy about it, and I don’t have opinions about how other people go about the process. I just love the element of surprise for all when baby is here and suddenly it’s time to know who they are, boy or girl, full name and all of the fun details like weight and height and such.
6. Our kids have LOTS of opinions about names. C will often just make up new sounds to suggest as names, but he also has strong feelings about what works for him and what doesn’t. H has been pretty quiet about it, but he mentions a name here of there from time to time that he likes. E is like I am. She likes to try out the names with all other kids’ names, likes to think about how they sound with our last name, and wants to consider how the name works through all stages of life. It’s true. If I can’t see this baby as a sweet old man or a little old lady with their name, it’s not likely to stay on the list.
7. Our kids have all been true to their names so far. I love that. I love how God works, and I trust He has a name for each one of us before we’re ever born. I think this process matters to me so much because I want to honor whoever God has made each of our kiddos to be, and I think we can discern the right fit if we give it enough thought and time.
8. After all of the suspense of waiting to know this baby’s gender, our kids have all agreed that they don’t want to know the baby’s gender or name before meeting him or her in person. Because of current visiting restrictions at the hospital, this means that our crew is up for waiting until we get home from the hospital to know who this little honeybee is! And since we’ve always wanted our kids to be the first to know before anyone else, it also means we won’t be making any announcements until a few days after baby is born. That feels so foreign and hard to me, but I know it’s super important to honor our commitment, so we’ll be tight lipped for a few days until we can be home together as a family of six. Six! How crazy and amazing is that?!
9. I’ve had a hunch on gender each time so far and started thinking of baby as their name before ever knowing if they were a boy or girl. This time, I’m really not sure at all. I’d love to be able to say I went four for four on guessing baby’s gender, but I don’t think I’ll have a set guess for this one. If I had to bet, I’d wager, but it would be something like a 52/48 split.
10. One fun fact for good measure: Jason and I have always agreed on names for our children. Not once have we gone in to have a baby and disagreed or still held things up for debate. I’m not sure why we’ve been so in sync on this, since our styles vary greatly in many other ways, but it’s truly a sweet spot every time to be of one mind as we decide together.

So, there we have it. Baby Names 101 in our household. It’s such a privilege to name a baby, and I’m so honored by the chance to do it once more. Now if only to land on some options before too many more days get away from us…

MM