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since I'm a big ole post whore today: baby name poll
I just read this post on another board about keeping baby names a secret. I was really surprised at how many people are annoyed by this - I guess I never really thought about it one way or another, really. It doesn't bother me either way - parents can shout it from the rooftops or keep it to themselves, and either is fine with me.
Ben wants to keep our names a secret until the babies are born. (I don't think he'd mind if I told everyone here, but no family/IRL friends.) He simply doesn't want to get all of the "oh I went to school with a kid with that name and he was a big jerk" or "all the Names that I've ever known were really ugly" or "ewww, I don't like it at all" type of comments. He figures people will be less critical to our faces if the cute little baby is already there and already named, and I can see his point.
I know that other parents have other reasons they might not tell (e.g., they don't want people to 'steal' the name, or aren't really set on it), so I'm wondering...
Re: since I'm a big ole post whore today: baby name poll
We've decided on a boy's name and a girl's name (the girls name took SO long to agree on...only decided on it about 3 weeks ago).
I just don't divulge it because I like the element of surprise, in that I like to keep people hangin lol. We have told our parents though, that's it.
Also, we'd most likely get comments on the girl's name. It'll be annoying but it's a name that our generation will go "Oh, like the girl in ______?" probably followed by a screwed up nose, if we end up having a girl.
We don't care though. It's a pretty name.
The boy's name will be a case of constantly having to spell it out, as there are two ways of spelling it and our way (the Japanese spelling) is the less common way.
We did not keep it a secret, but after months of people telling us they didn't like it and hearing my MIL leave VMs with suggestions of "better" names, I can see why people do! Once the baby is born, people won't usually tell you to your face they don't like a name. The worst I hear now is "oh, that is interesting/unique/different."
Not pregnant... not trying anytime soon but I voted that we would probably keep it secret because of the whole changing our mind thing. I think I'd have a really hard time settling on a name... nine months is a long time to think about a name. So I wouldn't want to tell people and then say "oops, we changed our mind".
Also, after reading all these posts... I really would not want anyone putting in their two cents about the name WE have chosen for OUR child. So I think we won't be telling many people the name ahead of time.
I voted yes, due to comments - but it's also partly yes, due to stealing.
We're not TTC, but when we eventually get PG and choose a name, we'll probably tell people. I don't think any comments could keep us from sticking with a name we really liked. And for selfish reasons - it would be easier to for me to refer to the baby by his/her name than to constantly talk around it.
We told but heard the "name her Isabelle or Isabella or Izabella or Izabelle then just call her Bella"... um no we want to name her what we'll call her, thanks though! We also heard, oh but I like X for a girl... we heard this from a few people, my mom included and I said "well it's a good thing you had 2 kids and got to name us, you can have another if you want to name another one." I also heard "give her my middle name from a couple of people" to which I responded, you can give YOUR child your middle name or your name but we're naming our baby 2 names we love that mean something to US because she's OURS!
There was also a GIANT family uproar about our boys name... long story... but now we told our name for a boy when/if we have one and have staked our claim. We nicely informed others that it was OUR name and if they try to steal it (like what happened with our last boy name), we'll disown them
Yeah we're nice I know!
We lucked out when we found our we're having a girl...we're naming her after our mother's and so no one has had a negative opinion about it whatsoever (family, I mean). Some do question our choice of nickname (Libby) rather than other standard ones like Beth, Liz, etc. but we like Libby and tell them that when she's old enough to have an opinion about it we'll call her whatever she wants us to call her.
Now, had we been team blue I know we'd probably kept it a secret from family/friends since they already had SO many ideas for us. Ugh.
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But with all that said, it's all in regards to IRL. We're not sharing our name publicly online anywhere (sorry, that includes TN, because it's a public board, although I'd happily tell anyone via PM or email), only because MH and I don't want our LOs to have any public presence on the internet until they're old enough (we haven't decided when yet) to have their own email accounts, fb accounts, etc and make that decision for themselves. Until then, we don't really want them to be googleable.
I voted for Yes/No/Yes/No. There's really no rhyme or reason to it.
We aren't 100% set on names, but sometimes I tell our favorite boy's name and girl's name to close friends/family and sometimes I keep hush. I have a feeling we'll stick to these names, but I am hesitant to announce them to too many people because I want them to be *ours* until they actually belong to our baby. (And yes I know we don't actually OWN them. It's just a nice feeling to have them for yourself for sometime.)
Then again, sometimes it is fun to share... makes it all seem more real! Even when people comment about them. After all, who cares?!
Well, as you all now know, this is a sore subject for me. But I guess I'm over it.
I didn't see any reason to keep the name a secret but B wanted to wait until she was born. He didn't have a reason, really. And then the whole cousin/dog thing came up so now I'm just telling people because I want everyone to know that we chose the name a LONG time ago.
And, btw, B spoke to his cousin and she said they'd try to alter the name a bit so it's not exactly the same. She said she understood and that she'd be upset, too, if she were in my shoes. So we'll see what happens. Either way, it's still weird.
I voted for the 'NO, we want everyone to know our name' option. We really don't care what people say about our name but have had not a single negative remark, only good ones. Our son's name is pretty old-school normal though (Christopher Ryan). There are many Christopher Ryan's in the world and if someone we know likes that name enough to name their child that too, then good for them. The only bad remark has been from my bf because we're calling him by his middle name and not first name which irritates her (oh well!).
If we would have had a girl, or when we do, we are naming her Elizabeth Louise. It's after our mothers. I know it seems like we are copying MarriedtoMrWright but I swear we're not, we decided this around the time we got engaged. Other names we're thinking of are Levi for a boy and Isabella Sophia for a girl. We've told family & friends this because if they get to use those names first (which is fine w/us), we are still using them. I guess it's kind of like we're putting our reservation in for those names so others don't get pissed.
Oh this is good news! I know it must still be a bit awkward for you, but I'm really glad the cousin was flexible with her dog's name.
I like the element of surprise. I secretly knew I wanted to change my daughters name. She was baby Leilani in my belly and the day she was born I canged it to Julissa.
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LOL! You name stealer! J/K What's hilarious is Elizabeth Louise is the name I'd probably had chosen if I had a daughter with my first husband. His mom's name is Louise. Anyway...I think it's a GREAT name! Elizabeth is one of those names that has been popular for centuries...I guess that's why there are so many nicknames for it (Betty, Beth, Lisa, Liz, Lizzy, Libby, Eliza, Lily, Lilybeth, etc.)
I'll chalk it up to great minds thinking alike!
And who knows...maybe some day we'll have daughters that are "sisters from another mister" too!? 
We hope to have a boy next and already have a name picked...if we have another girl who knows? Probably another standard/old-fashioned name with lots of nickname options (like Margaret or Catherine).
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Catherine was one of our picks if we were having girls.
We both love the name Cate, but wanted a longer, more formal name for her to use. The other girl name we'd picked was Eleanor (Ben liked Ellie for a nickname, I liked Nora). We both like having longer names with shorter nicknames...even our boy names follow the same pattern. 
I was supposed to be an Elizabeth before I was born, but my parents took one look at me and decided I wasn't one and was an Alyson instead.
Frankly, I'd prefer not to name the potential person before I saw them and was sure that was their name... And, with so many miscarriages in my family, I don't want to jinx it by naming the baby before it's born.
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