Ok so there are a few standard questions you get asked when pregnant. It goes something like this, "When are you due? Is it a boy or girl? Have you picked a name?" There are some other ones as well, but those 3 are almost guaranteed. Now the first two answers are pretty straightforward. Everyone has their due date ingrained in their mind, so that's easy. And well, you either found out your baby's sex or you didn't, and so that's that. Then we come to the third question. The name. Now here's the thing, I'm a little weird about the baby naming process. I mean, it's only natural to want to know what someone is going to name their baby. Before I was pregnant, if I knew someone who was pregnant, I would want to know what name they picked. But now that I am pregnant, I wouldn't ask another pregnant person what name they picked for their baby. Nope nope nope. "Why?" you might ask?
Here's the thing. (1) Everyone has opinions when it comes to a baby's name. And often times, I don't share those opinions. So you see, I don't want to tell you what name or names we are thinking about, only to have you say, "Oooh, I knew a [insert name here], she was a real brat." Or how about, "Oh [name]? Well that's... nice" (when clearly the person saying that does NOT like the name). But once the baby is actually born and has been given a name, is anyone really going to tell you they don't like it? Me thinks not! I prefer to be blissfully ignorant and assume everyone loves the name we've chosen, rather than know in advance these friends and those family members don't like it!! But maybe that's just me.
Second reason... I don't know why, but I think it's weird to refer to our baby by her name before she is born. Maybe I think I want to see her in person or something before she actually gets a name, or maybe it's hard to refer to someone in my uterus as a real live person yet, but there is something weird to me about referring to her by a name. Which means it would be even weirder if we chose a name, and OTHER people referred to her by that name before she was born. That's just a weird quirk I have, I'm not sure why!
So then, how do you answer the question of, "Have you picked a name?" Originally my plan was to keep it 100% a secret. As in, just me and Mark, and nobody else. Not even telling our parents!! BUT, that was clearly never going to work, because when our mothers ask us about names, the old "it's a secret" excuse was never going to fly, and telling them "we haven't really thought about it" would clearly a lie. Mark suggested telling them like 5 we were considering, but leaving out "the one," buuuut we ended up just not being able to keep a secret, and we just had to be honest and reveal the names we really were considering. :) Lucky them. And, actually, no negative responses so far! In fact, all have been pretty positive! So ok, we have shared with family and a few close friends some names we are considering... but what about strangers, or people not that close to us? This one lady asked me the other day, "So do you have your list of super secret names yet?" and I was like, "yeah, we do." And I thought we were on the same page here, since she said "super secret list" and all, but then she just looked at me, waiting for me to tell her what they were. Oh no no. Key word there was "secret".
So my question is this... when we come up with a name (which we may or may not have already chosen one), do we tell everyone, or tell only close family and friends, or keep it a secret?? We already told you it's a girl, shouldn't something be a surprise for when baby is born? If we do decide to tell you all, just know in advance, whatever you think about the name, unless it's overwhelmingly positive, just keep it to yourself and lie to me and tell me you love it. :)
So summary: I will think about it. Maybe you get to know the name in advance, maybe not. We shall see!
Here's the thing. (1) Everyone has opinions when it comes to a baby's name. And often times, I don't share those opinions. So you see, I don't want to tell you what name or names we are thinking about, only to have you say, "Oooh, I knew a [insert name here], she was a real brat." Or how about, "Oh [name]? Well that's... nice" (when clearly the person saying that does NOT like the name). But once the baby is actually born and has been given a name, is anyone really going to tell you they don't like it? Me thinks not! I prefer to be blissfully ignorant and assume everyone loves the name we've chosen, rather than know in advance these friends and those family members don't like it!! But maybe that's just me.
Second reason... I don't know why, but I think it's weird to refer to our baby by her name before she is born. Maybe I think I want to see her in person or something before she actually gets a name, or maybe it's hard to refer to someone in my uterus as a real live person yet, but there is something weird to me about referring to her by a name. Which means it would be even weirder if we chose a name, and OTHER people referred to her by that name before she was born. That's just a weird quirk I have, I'm not sure why!
So then, how do you answer the question of, "Have you picked a name?" Originally my plan was to keep it 100% a secret. As in, just me and Mark, and nobody else. Not even telling our parents!! BUT, that was clearly never going to work, because when our mothers ask us about names, the old "it's a secret" excuse was never going to fly, and telling them "we haven't really thought about it" would clearly a lie. Mark suggested telling them like 5 we were considering, but leaving out "the one," buuuut we ended up just not being able to keep a secret, and we just had to be honest and reveal the names we really were considering. :) Lucky them. And, actually, no negative responses so far! In fact, all have been pretty positive! So ok, we have shared with family and a few close friends some names we are considering... but what about strangers, or people not that close to us? This one lady asked me the other day, "So do you have your list of super secret names yet?" and I was like, "yeah, we do." And I thought we were on the same page here, since she said "super secret list" and all, but then she just looked at me, waiting for me to tell her what they were. Oh no no. Key word there was "secret".
So my question is this... when we come up with a name (which we may or may not have already chosen one), do we tell everyone, or tell only close family and friends, or keep it a secret?? We already told you it's a girl, shouldn't something be a surprise for when baby is born? If we do decide to tell you all, just know in advance, whatever you think about the name, unless it's overwhelmingly positive, just keep it to yourself and lie to me and tell me you love it. :)
So summary: I will think about it. Maybe you get to know the name in advance, maybe not. We shall see!
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