The most asked question we’ve heard from friends and family lately is what our baby girl’s name will be. Actually, people have been asking since we announced our pregnancy. I’ve known since before I became pregnant that I would not want to share the baby name ahead of the birth, though. I don’t think these are groundbreaking reasons, but I want to write about whyΒ we aren’t sharing our baby name yet.
A commonly cited reason for not sharing the name would be that you don’t want people to ruin it for you with their opinion. I get it. I really do. For me it goes a little beyond that, too. I don’t want to hear positive opinions about it, either. I’m not looking for reassurance that I made the right choice. Basically, I don’t want to hear either that you think it’s cute or that you hate it. I wanted this decision to be only ours, not influenced by anyone else.
Some people might think we deem ourselves to be overly important because we aren’t sharing it. That’s not the case, either. I don’t pretend to think people are obsessing about our baby’s name like they do with celebrities’ kids. I simply want to keep the name to ourselves. It’s been so special keeping something only between Graham and me for months. It’s been about the only thing we can keep to ourselves amid all the questions people seem to ask pregnant women.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with announcing the name the minute you know it or using it throughout the pregnancy, but another reason I don’t want to share it yet is that it doesn’t feel natural for us to do that. I want to see her and use her name openly for the first time then. I am tearing up just thinking about it.
In today’s social-media driven world it seems like we feel the rush to share things as soon as they happen. I didn’t want to do that with the name. I wanted to allow myself to think about it for months and carefully consider middle name options. I don’t want to feel pressured to make such a big decision on anyone else’s timetable.
Would/did you share the name of your baby while pregnant?
