"Protecting" your favorite names from "stealers"

[retrodancekitty.livejournal.com]

I know names are not property and there's not really such a thing as "stealing", hence the quotation marks

Let's say you have your favorite names picked out to for your kids, although the reality of having kids might lie several years ahead. Let's also say that you wouldn't be comfortable if someone close to you (family, friends, etc.) ended up using the same name as you.

I've been thinking and haven't been able to decide: on one hand, I believe in not telling anyone so as not to give anyone "ideas", leading them to use the names before you, if they get the chance first; on the other hand, I'm beginning to think maybe there are advantages in letting people know, so that you get to "call" the names.
In the first case, there's the chance someone will autonomously think up the same name as you, and if they get to use first, you can't come out then to say "but that was the name I was planning to use".
In the second case, you get to establish your "name territory", but it still might inspire someone who doesn't see the problem in using the same name as you.

Which of these strategies do you think works best?
Does it make a difference if the names you've picked are on the less common side of the spectrum, possibly affecting the chances that someone else might want to use them?

Comments

[bandnerd88.livejournal.com]

My name tastes tend to be on the uncommon side, so when I do eventually start having kids I will probably keep our final choice to myself until the baby is born, mostly just so no one says anything about it! I do talk about my name tastes now, usually with my best friend or my mom, but it's different when it's hypothetical. Plus, my best friend and I have fairly different tastes and my mom is done having kids, lol. :D My mom usually thinks most of my names are "weird," so when I do have kids I'd rather tell her the name after the baby's born, so that she has a cute little baby to attach the name to. I know she won't be complaining much then!

Really, the only people close enough to me that might be having kids around the same time as me are my best friend and my boyfriend's sister, and I'm not that worried that they'll use something I absolutely love. There's only maybe three names that I would be incredibly disappointed about not using - the rest, well, there's other names in the sea! (And the kid would be my niece/nephew/godchild anyway, so I'd still get to "use" it all the time!)