Naming multiples

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

Okay, please excuse me if you don't find this topic as interesting as I do. It came to me in the wee hours of the morning while I was trying desperately to get at least a couple of hours sleep before my second day of nursing school. I tend to come up with the best topics when I'm delirious. :P

If you had twins or higher order multiples, how would you name them? Not what would you name them, but how? Would you name each baby as they were labeled on ultrasound (Baby A, Baby B, etc.)? Name them based on the order they came out? Have names picked out, but wait to see them to decide which was which? If you had a favorite name already, would you split it in half or come up with an original name for the second baby?


Any parents of multiples out there? What did you do?



I thought of this because I was already at risk for multiples with my fertility meds and now we're looking at treatments with an even higher risk of multiples. We have had our next girl's name picked out for years and are pretty sure what we want to name a boy. It occurred to me this would mean using our super forever favorite name and then a new name for the other baby (if they were same sex) and I realized that that might feel weird, or it might at least be difficult/feel weird trying to decide which baby to give the name. Anywho... :D

Comments

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

i'd pick out names but i wouldn't assign them to each baby until after they were born and then decide what felt right then, including the favorite name. just because you like the name better doesn't mean you're playing favorites with the kid.

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

Wow - I have never thought about this! Great question.

Obviously I have a long list of names from which I'd choose for the multiples. Once I knew the genders, I'd finalize my choices. Then I think I'd name them when I "met" them.

I don't think I'd feel that weird giving the super favorite name to one of the multiples; I would probably pick the oldest child to give that one to, though.

[archangelsmack.livejournal.com]

I'd probably choose names from the same trend or the same origin (no Apple and Charlotte for me). I'd pick names for every situation (b/b, g/g, b/g, etc...), then I'd wait and see.

But the big no-no would be matchy names, in any way. My dad used to work for an insurance company in his youth, and still can remember a couple who named their twins Tom and Jerry. Over my dead body.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

And of all matching names. Ben and Jerry would have been better, but Tom and Jerry is just like asking for violent sibling rivalry or something.

[beanxsprout.livejournal.com]

I am a twin, and my mom says she had four names picked out {two girls and two boys} and then just named us differently altogether. She says that she can't even remember what the names were that we "could have been". Lol. From the way my parents talk about it, all four of us were named after we were born, she picked out our first names, and my dad picked out our middle names.

[satunian.livejournal.com]

I like more than one name thankfully so I would just pick another favorite name. I can't really imagine I'd ever have anything like octuplets but Ican think of 8 names for each sex that I like.

[ealexsism.livejournal.com]

yea, I think having something more than 1 or maybe 2 babies at one time would be such a shock, names might be the last thing on my to-do list lol

[mrssubee.livejournal.com]

I guess it would be easy if it were boy/ girl I'd have a name for each
if it were 2 or more girls- I'd have 2 or more names and as they came out I guess we'd decide which one looked most like an Alexa or which one looked like a Katherine, etc.
good question though..I never think about those things- but, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be at risk for multiples

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

If I had names picked out in advance and the babies were of the same sex, I'd go with the alphabetical order. The first born gets the name with the letter closest to A. I thought a lot of people did that, maybe not.

[fleckerbug.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what's the most common, but from what I've seen a lot of people name each baby before birth based on what they're labeled by ultrasound (ie. Baby A is Emily, Baby, B is Issac, Baby C is Eleanor), which is not necessarily the birth order.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

Silly question, but how do you know Baby A is Emily if she isn't born first? How can you tell from ultrasound to after they are born?

[smallandneedy.livejournal.com]

I think it is usually determined after where they are placed in the uterus. Like, one of them is maybe placed higher in the belly than the other, etc etc. In natural births of multiples, obviously the one closest to the bottom of the uterus will come out first. During C-sections I'm pretty sure they know which baby is taken out first and which comes next due to where they are located.

I only know this from documentaries on the Discovery channel so I'm sure someone who's actually given birth to multiples would know more than me :)

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

I think that I would definitely keep my favorite name (Landon Nicholas) together for a boy, but there are a lot of close seconds that I would use for other boys. I would try and pick which one "looks more like a Landon," and then give the other boy(s) names that go well but aren't too matchy. With girls, it wouldn't be as big of an issue because I have a favorite name (Iris) but not a favorite combo.

It would definitely be about what name felt right, not about birth order.

[so-there.livejournal.com]

I'd probably name them in the order they came out, based on which name I came up with first. for example, if I surprisingly had same-sex twins this time around, the first one would get the name we currently have picked, and the second would get the other name we come up with.

[jexia]

I have B/G twins. We had G/G names early on (Genevieve Lucy and Madeleine Lindsey). We would have *probably* named the firstborn Genevieve but would wait to see who looked more like which name.

When we found out it was B/G, we picked Genevieve Madeleine early on. We joked that since she was G for girl, the boy had to have a B name. Finn didn't get named until he was a day old.

[juniorfan29.livejournal.com]

My mom's cousin named them based on Baby A and Baby B. The mom named one (Baby A) and the dad named the other (Baby B). I'd probably do something similar.

[duck-deluxe.livejournal.com]

I'd probably just have a list and then whoever came out first would get name #

[duck-deluxe.livejournal.com]

#1 off the list (sorry hit comment before i meant to) and the next one would get name #2, etc. My theory is that if I like the names enough to have them on my final list, it won't matter who gets what.

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

if I like the names enough to have them on my final list, it won't matter who gets what.
Right now that's how I feel too.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I would just discuss some names ahead of time, come up with a bunch that we liked, but not put anything in stone. Give birth and look at them and hold them and see what name comes to us. If it's not one previously discussed, that's great too.

[pleasure-past.livejournal.com]

If I were having, say, twin boys, I would have three male names picked out, and when they came out, I'd give them both the name that fit them best, and the remaining name would go in the 'maybe next time' bin. Ditto for girls.

If I were having triplet boys, I would want four names picked out. Three of them would go to the boys they fit best, and the remaining one would go in the trashcan of my mind, because after having triplets there would be no way I would even think about having another kid for quite a long time. Ditto for girls.

This conversation stops at triplets. Only four people (including me) are allowed in my body at once, end of discussion. :l

As a general rule, I would want to have one more name picked out than I expected to need for both males and females. So, if I expected to have one boy and one girl, I would have four names picked out. If I expected to have two girls and one boy, I would have five names picked out. Even if I expected all girls, I would probably still have one boy name picked out (and vice-versa) just because I've heard of several cases where doctors had trouble seeing twins in ultra-sounds, and one of them wasn't what was expected and the parents had to make up a name on the spot.

Of course, I've been working on my baby-name list since I was like fifteen, so it's unlikely that I would end up in the "make a name up on a the spot" situation.

And, of course, I would make sure that all of the names that I had in mind went well together. No Aerith and Bob (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AerithAndBob) for me.

[designingdreams.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting question! When we named our daughter, our early favorite was Lillian (her name), but we came to the hospital with a few options. She looked like a Lillian, so we chose that. I kinda believe in seeing the baby before officially naming them.

However, with multiples, I think I'd actually want to name them ahead of time, because I'd have a bit of a hard time connecting with the names 'baby a', 'baby b', etc. With a singleton, it's easy to refer to 'the baby' or 'he/she'. With multiples, I think I'd want a more personal way to refer to them.

[ealexsism.livejournal.com]

is that Lillian in your user pic? She is adorable!!!

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

My dad claims that my sister and I were named due to the "Baby A, Baby B" thing. (First born has an A name, second born has a B name).

I haven't given it much thought, though twins seem to run in the family. Though I think, I would name them as they were born.

[ealexsism.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity: what are your names (you and your sister)?

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

Angela and Bethany.

[becomingun.livejournal.com]

I would have names planned and picked out more than likely, but I wouldn't do anything for sure until they were born and I met them. I might even planned names if the kids just... Weren't those names.

My parents were only having me, and they had two names they really liked and even a nickname(Mina) that I'd been in the womb and they figured the nickname would stick forever no matter what the name. Well, they didn't pick the name that Mina was the nn for, and it didn't stick, because as soon as I was born they realised I just wasn't a Mina.

[ealexsism.livejournal.com]

Have names picked out, but wait to see them to decide which was which?

Likely, this.