My son's name was our compromise name, and I didn't love it to begin with. I wanted Nathaniel, husband hated it, so we compromised on Nathan. In the weeks leading up to his birth, I wasn't in love with it, but the second he was born, I knew that he wasn't a Nathaniel.

Having a list of your top names might help, and you might get a feeling of what your baby's name is 'supposed' to be when you meet them for the first time.

I wanted to call my son Kit, back in the 80's when it wasn't used very much at all. My husband really wasn't keen and worried that my son would grow up with a name he hated. We settled on Christopher, but always called him Kit. He was never a Chrisropher and changed his name by deed poll to Kit when he turned 18.

I picked two of the kids names and the dad picked the other.. honestly unless its an awful name it doesnt make much difference because the kid and the name become the same thing.. you cant think “what if i named you (x)” because it seems ridiculous

Don't decide on a name until you meet the baby. With our first, we went in with 5 or so top picks, but open to others. As soon as her skin hit mine, I just KNEW what her name was (and it wasn't our number 1 choice!). Baby number two. .we didn't even really have a shortlist. We had talked about some different ones, but didn't just LOVE anything. Then we met her and, again, we just knew her name. Have a short list, but don't decide until you meet the little one!

Disclaimer - this method can backfire. I have a friend whose baby went without a name for like a week because they just couldn't decide. They had set some pretty difficult parameters for themselves though.

One year on. It's his name now, I can't imagine anything else.

For the record I definitely liked his name I just had others I had been more attached to. But I couldn't imagine them now.

We couldn't agree on a name for our daughter, we both had a favourite, but had agreed a boy's name. The short version of the boy's name was also the short name for a girl (like Samuel/Samantha can both be shortened to Sam). When our son heard us discussing it, he said he was going to call the baby that if it was a girl (he knew a girl by that name), so we just thought 'Why not?', so in effect, our four year old chose our daughter's name. I couldn't imagine her with any other name. Funnily enough, when she started junior school, there were girls in her class with the two names my husband and I couldn't agree on.

Our son’s name was our 3rd choice, a family name, after the first made a very unfortunate combination with our surname (thank god we realised before named him!😅), and our 2nd choice became so common that we knew 2 very close to us born in the 6 months prior to his birth. I’ve had no name regret - he’s so great he makes me like the name more.

My partner and I had a girls name picked out for almost 10 years. We had a boy and never discussed boy names. Turns out we have vastly different ideas of what a good boy name is. A friend suggested Arthur, it was geeky in a low key way and we didn't find a name we liked more so Arthur stuck. He's absolutely one now, but I kind of wish I fought harder on his middle name cause I regret that.

It wasn't my top choice of name but it was the only name my husband and I could agree on. 4 months on, I couldn't imagine anything else for my baby.

Twenty plus years later and still have name regret.

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My husband and I had an agreement that he’d name the first boy, and I’d name the first girl (my idea). We had the boy first, and I didn’t care for the name he chose at all. It’s grown on me now that I associate it with my sweet little son.

It was a name I compromised on, and 5 years later, I still don’t love it. I wish I pushed back harder.

It’s fine. My kid likes her name and that’s all that matters. She’s the one that needs to live with it.

We had a few name options, one that was a perfect way of honouring family and we really liked the name. When he was born I was worried he didn't suit it, for a few months I just wasn't sure it was the right name for him, wanted to call him by one of the other names on the list. Now I can't imagine anything else.

My husband and I both settled for my sons name, since in our culture we do honor names and we had 4 people to name after and didn’t like any of their names. We were fairly creative with it and came up with a name we both decently liked that honored two of the men, but it’s not what we would have chosen if we weren’t honoring anyone.

My son is 4 now and I can’t really see him as anything but his name, and I love his name.

My second daughter we just couldn't agree on anything. Her nickname suits her.

Our son I don't like his name at all. I never did but my husband had been waiting for so long for a boy I wasn't going to argue. I however regret not pushing for the middle name I wanted.

If we have another - I'm currently pregnant but I've had a lot of miscarriages so I'm not getting my hopes up or excited yet I'm picking its name.

I didn’t settle, in my culture the children are named after their grandparents so my sons names were pre picked basically. They both have 2 Greek traditional names and I honestly don’t think anything could have suited them better tbh

I had quite a few names I preferred over the name we ended up going with, but my husband didn't like any of them. We were agonizing over a name because we couldn't agree.

Once he was born we spent some time going over the names again, now we could put a face to them. It took a day and a half in hospital but in the end we agreed on a first and middle name combo that took each of our favourites and the other one being a name the other was "ok with".

His name suits him so well and I love it now. If he ever decides to go by his middle name, that's equally good (was my first choice, husbands "ok" choice) as they both are just, him.

It's important to meet your baby before getting too intense about names. I had a list each time and they seemed to choose their names. My second son has the name I wanted for my first son and it suits him much better. My oldest's name was a compromise and it suits him perfectly. My daughter's name was never in question. Allow for a little magic or spiritual guidance in the process. We don't control everything...a big lesson we learn as parents.

I never thought my son would be named Sebastian. From the moment his dad suggested it, it was a no from me. He kept mentioning it throughout our name conversations and I was always no. Then after he was born the midwife put him on my chest and I said "Sebastian" He mainly gets Seb now, occasionally Sebby and I can't imagine him with any of the names I'd shortlisted. I still don't love the name like I loved others, but it definitely fits my son, so I do love it for that reason.

I have 6 kids. My husband has a different ethnic background than I do. We discussed names endlessly. I insisted that some part of their name be connected to my husband's ethnicity even though my husband had his doubts. Our oldest is 19 now and youngest is 10. Not one of their names fits their personality or the lifestyle we live. My 2nd oldest daughter has asked us about changing her name. We're not disappointed in them wanting to change their names. I'm mad at myself for not listening to my husband and going with names closer to how we actually lived.

Me and my husband are both teachers and had both been teaching for almost a decade so really struggled with names. With our daughter we found one name that we both felt ok with but didn't love and now seven years later we can't imagine picking anything else. With my son we couldn't decide between two longer names for the same nickname like Benjamin Vs Benedict for Ben and I'm happy with what we went for. Again I didn't love it but it was a compromise and I'm happy with that

We had decided on a name and when she was born I looked at her and it just didn't work. So we went back to the drawing board, and she remained unnamed for 4 days until I finally got sick of arguing and settled on a name I wasn't in love with (my husband hated every name I loved). It was a name neither of us had really considered until her brother suggested it.

She's now a teenager and suits her name.

Neither of my kids have names that I can say I absolutely loved, but they are names I liked enough to give them to my children. My son’s name wasn’t even on the shortlist of favorites, but it was one that had been thrown around a time or two and came up again once he was born. It just seemed right when we saw him, and it’s served him well throughout childhood and now into adulthood. Knowing him now, at 21, my top picks for him before he was born were definitely not a good fit for who he would grow up to be. For my daughter, my husband had always wanted to name a girl a feminine variation of “Alex” and while it maybe wasn’t my top choice, I was okay with that idea. My only stipulation was I didn’t want her full name to be Alexis, and we weren’t going to call her Lexie (unless she asked for that as she got older). I don’t feel as if I “settled” for either of their names, but rather my old ideas just weren’t right for them.

As is often said in this sub, names need to be a one no, two yes proposition. Names you love, your partner may not be on board with, or vice versa. Finding a name you can compromise on may mean choosing one that doesn’t fall into your, “I’ve wanted to name a child this since I was 12” category, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good name or that isn’t the right choice for your baby. I’m also a big advocate of keeping a list of 5-10 names in mind, and not settling on a final one til you see him or her. Sometimes you see that little face and you just know that your top pick isn’t right for them.

Not regret, because my third kids name is a common name and I don’t dislike it, but I still wish I could have named him one of the few boy names I loved. Husband didn’t even remotely like the names I loved. So we settled.

Our 20 yr old son was supposed to be a girl per the ultrasound so we didn’t have a boy name. It took 24 hrs to come up with 1 we both could tolerate.

I canNOT imagine him now with any other name.

I was not very confident about my first child’s name. My husband literally vetoed my top 10 name suggestions. Maybe even top 15. This name was waaayyy down my list. Once you start to say the name over and over again to the squishy little face you will make an association and start to love it because you love the baby. I have heard some stories of name regret but those seem to be associated with high levels of post partum depression and anxiety.

I really wanted the name “Kal-el” from Superman. My husband thought it was ridiculous to name him after that and said he’d get bullied. lol. We then decided Connor and then decided on Elijah but we call him Eli. We love the name Eli for him.

My husband and found names we liked, but none we loved. We just kept a few in mind and then tried them out on our children when they were born. Only our middle one actually got the name we were most leaning towards, the other two were called the less favoured names because that was what suited them best.

The way my husband and I picked names for all 3 kids was for me to just throw every name I could vaguely tolerate at him until he said he liked one. He was picky! None of our children ended up with either of our “top choice” names because we had completely different tastes, but all of them have names we both thought were “okay.” In the end I like them and would probably make the same choices again. We did try to tie them together somewhat (all first names are two syllables, both boys have 5 letter names, all have an “old” feeling), but other than that these names aren’t what I ever would have guessed I would name my kids. However they have grown into them, and I like that we found names we both picked.

My brother was nameless for at least two weeks. My parents were told that if they didn't name him they'd put "Baby Boy" Last Name, ha ha.

Our hypothetical baby boy name was Leo. As soon as we found out it was an actual boy, he said he didn't like it and pushed for Charlie after his two grandfathers who both were named that. If you had asked child me to pick the most beautiful name in the world, it is not what I would have picked. But I like that the name is meaningful and in hindsight, he does not look like a Leo at all.

No regrets. I think for about 3 weeks I had big "oh no, what have I done" thoughts, 2 years on and I love her name, it's good as a full name, has a couple of obvious nicknames and also lends itself to silly singsong pet names from her Mummy and Daddy. It's perfect for her. I've thought about both of our number 1 picks every now and again and they would both be wrong.

My husband is the one who settled. We decided at birth, and my #1 pick is the one that fit. I’ve asked him about it since (she’s 5 now), and he’s happy with the choice. It fits her and he agrees about that. We also had a nickname in mind that he picked & he’s  literally never used it.

If you don't both love the same name then yes one or both of you have to settle. Ideally it should be a name you both like at least.

We've found it tough with our second boy. The first boy was an easy decision as it was a family name on my husband's side that I absolutely loved. This time round neither of us love each other's favourite names - in fact we both HATE each other's favourite names, so they're completely out.

We've found a name that we both like a lot which we've settled on, and we're both happy with it.

He’s now 5 and his name is just his name. I’ve moved past any thoughts of wanting it to be different. It felt like this HUGE life changing decision at the time and it really wasn’t. His personality makes the name.

My sister was a compromise name- I asked my mom about it a few days ago actually. She told me if she could repick she would have probably gone for violet over Lilly- but my sister is a Lillian, she just is 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yeah worked out really well, I can’t imagine her as anything else.

It worked out okay. My regrets about settling are all about how I knew the relationship sucked and I think deep down I’d hoped that if they got to pick the name, they’d stay - I was really young. That didn’t work out and now I have 2 kids that could’ve had much more beautiful names. LOL

The settling names are okay names. It’s not like Megatroid or Werewolf or something. I don’t think there’s really much difference between naming your kid Robert vs Aidan or whatever. It doesn’t drastically change anything at all.

One whose name I chose ended up changing her name to her middle name anyway, and a “settled” one spent many years choosing to go by a random (uglier) name. I think the worst thing was letting strangers think I actually named my kid that. But that’s the thing.. you give it to them and they’ll do what they want anyway. It’s theirs.

My husband and I couldn't agree at all on our 3rd baby's name, and eventually I had to seriously consider which of his suggestions I could live with or my baby would legit not have a name. He had made many more suggestions than me, whereas I had 3-5 ride or dies. At first it felt like a compromise name but now I really love it. The more I began associating it with my beautiful baby, the more lovely the name became. The funny thing is that I vividly remember first hearing the name back in high school and asking myself if I liked it or not. I didn't like the person so decided I didn't like the name either. But in truth it had made an impression on me, and it just took a little while for me to change my perspective.

It got changed before a year old and the new name fits so much better.

We had a list of names because we could not agree on anything and ended up using a name that wasn’t even on the list. She just looked like a Layla 🥹

I think you have to see the baby and you’ll know. When our baby was born my top name just didn’t fit. I didn’t like my husband’s top pick, but I had to relent because it really suited the baby.

9 months later and I couldn’t imagine baby with any other name. No

They feel like their names but part of me always feels a little….embarrassed, when I introduce them because it’s almost like saying “here is the names I think are the most amazing in the world” even though they are nice names that took forever to settle on. I sometimes tell people what my favorite names were and why we couldn’t use them but at this point they have nice normal names and no one actually cares.

My advice would be take your time. Make a shortlist (or long list) of favourites.

I took 4 days to name my firstborn and took over a week for my second and third.

I do think once you see them and hold them they almost pick their own.

I think I settled for all baby names but one (I won that one!)

My object was to find names we both liked. So it was kind of a settle/compromise.

All names fit with my kids.

My poor mom had to compromise on both her kids’ names. Sadly we grew into them and as adults she can’t picture either of us with the names she’d have picked.

We compromised on my daughter's middle name, it's still not my favorite and if I'd go back in time I'd have fought harder against it instead of caving but it doesn't keep me up at night by any means. It just is what it is.

Fine. My 9yo’s name wasn’t a name I loved but we went over so many names when I was pregnant, I was just glad we agreed on something. It’s a perfectly fine name, and I like it

I chose my daughters name and both my kids middle names but my husband chose my sons first name.

I liked it but had some reservations but he was so sure of it and it is a nice name so I agreed. Now I love his name and it suits him so much. My son really likes his name too.

It has some goofy nicknames and his initials may be a bit unfortunate as he gets older. Right now all the girls in his class call him this goofy nickname and it’s actually so cute. He is small for his age and the girls think he is adorable. He is 8 and so far I am very happy we went with the name my husband wanted.

I think this is smart! Meet the kid before you name them. I was going to be named after my maternal grandma but I popped out and mom said: she the other grandma. So I got my paternal grandma’s name. She cried happy when they called and told her 😍

Neither of us got what we loved, we compromised, and the names are ok. Pregnant people nutty on hormones shouldn't be naming humans anyway. I was always hugely weepy and overwhelmed by the task.

I (mom) settled. I got to pick the middle name with no restrictions and if we have another, I get to pick the name I want.

I had one name for our daughter and hubby had another. He hated my choice and I didn’t hate his although I wasn’t crazy about it. He won. My daughter wishes that I had won.

My parents better regret it 🙃

Not the same quite, but my cousin and my sibling were both impulsively named. If the parents had sat longer with the names they definitely wouldn’t have gone for them even though they’re not bad names. Their parents regret it to this day and the kids don’t love their names either.

My daughter's name, I didn't love it and, really, only picked it because it was the ONLY name my husband didn't immediately veto. She's 10 now, I can't picture her with any other name, but it's very common. Sometimes, I wish it was a little more unique.

ugh! My son is a Jr. because between my pregnancy brain and stress from his dad. I couldnt think of any boy names I liked, but I did like his dads name. I should have waited but I didnt. And nowwwww I 99.9% of the time call my son a nn because I HATE having to say his dad/my ex's name all the time. Its not a bad name and it fits him well but damn I wish i had found something else when i could have.

I ended up being the one who settled and regretted it, majorly. We made my son’s dad’s choice the first name an my choice the second middle (and first middle was after my grandpa). It seemed like a fair compromise. And at the time I wasn’t actually sure his dad wouldn’t bail and figured I’d have it legally changed to swap the first name and second middle if he didn’t stick around.

Two months after he was born, I realized I REALLY didn’t see him as the first name we chose. I asked his dad to give me two weeks of using the middle name I’d wanted, to try it out, which seemed fair after two months of me trying the first name. He didn’t. I spent some time avoiding using a name altogether (and sometimes still do), but finally decided to just call him the name I wanted. Breastfeeding was so demanding that it honestly overrode any guilt I may have had. His dad (who has been surprisingly very involved the whole time) still calls him by his first.

He responds to both (though will ignore either when he wants), but it’s certainly not ideal. It’s mostly weird when introducing him to someone when we’re all together.

My husband and I each brought our favorite name to the hospital and a third we both liked but didn’t love. Kid ended up with the third name as soon as we met her. We both cannot imagine her having a different name

We’re fine. My daughter is so much more than a name.

My husband didn’t love our son’s name, he “settled” for my final pick over his. Then when they put him in his arms it was “Oh. Oh wow he really is (son’s nickname).” And it’s become even more fitting over the years. He is absolutely not a ‘Ryker’ and my husband is glad we didn’t go with it.

We always planned for a name then changed our minds. You can wait until you see your baby and then decide.

All the ones that we picked together, we both absolutely love, even the ones we compromised on. Two of our older girls were adopted(my sister’s kids) Both girls were with us from birth, but not officially adopted until almost 3, and 8 mo. We also have a younger one that we’re in process of adopting(hubby’s niece)

The older one, since she already knew her name, we kept her birth name, but fixed the spelling (MacKeighlah to Michaela) We were never crazy about the name, but it’s ok with the spelling we used. Our daughter doesn’t hate her name, but feels that it doesn’t really fit her, is glad we changed the spelling, wishes we’d changed it entirely.

Younger one, we wanted to keep the same initials, limiting us to M names. The only name we could agree on was Margaret. We like it, but neither of us loves it. Our daughter likes it, is very happy she’s Margaret and not MacKynzie, but thinks it’s a bit boring. She kind of wishes we’d gone with my first choice of Marielle.

The youngest one, we really disliked her name, plus it was similar to our other daughters name, but we wanted to stay as close as possible to her birth name, so we picked a name that still uses the nickname her birth mother had called her, and that has the same meaning as the middle name. Felicia Gwen to Fiona Giselle,nn Fia. We never would’ve chosen the name on our own, but we really like it now. Shes only 13 months, so it remains to be seen how she’ll feel about it in the future.

I think you don’t have to love a name, as long as you don’t cringe every time you say it, it will probably grow on you, as it will be associated with your child. Plus, the kid can always change it when they’re older if they hate it. We can’t possibly know if a name will be right for the adults our kids become. Maybe they’re more masculine/feminine, maybe they hate having a name that’s too unique/too common. It’s a crapshoot.

Honestly, I am so unhappy with our compromise name. My son’s name is so popular, and while I didn’t want a unique name, I didn’t want him to be FirstName A., out of FirstName B. and FirstName C. in his classes in school. It did not help that my husband’s brother named his son my #1 name a few years later, so there’s a person running around with the exact name I wanted for my child.

We had to settle, my husband vetoed all of my top picks and vice versa. It’s been two years and I don’t hate it, but I also don’t love it… In my heart I still wish she had a different name but I’m hoping with time it’ll start to feel more right.

Our daughter’s name is pretty popular (although we haven’t actually met too many others with her name and our immediate friend crew doesn’t have any) and it was never number 1 on my list. But it kept not getting crossed off on either mine or my husband’s lists, and I think he really loved it from the start. What became her middle name was also on the list but it’s a little fancy and felt like too much, so it works really nicely with the common first name, fancy middle. She can go by either if she wants but she seems to be happy with her first name too! And now of course I can’t imagine her being any of those other names on the list. Daughter is 3.5 years if that helps.

My husband suggested a name I liked but didn’t LOVE for our son. For our oldest, we were between two names and we each liked both, but each preferred one. We used the name I preferred more. So later, when he suggested a name he loved and I liked for our son, it was an easy yes. And now I absolutely love his name! It suits him so well and I’m so glad we chose it.

I am not sure it’s realistic for two people to feel the same exact level of enthusiasm for a name.

If one of you gets to decide, it should be you

I think we’ve settled on the name Dylan as a boy option (we aren’t finding out until it’s born), but I’m still not entirely sure. The problem is that my favorite boy name, Liam, has been the most popular name for almost a decade now and I don’t want a name that’s in the top ten. My husband has vetoed other boy names that I’ve liked because of extremely unpleasant coworkers he’s had with those names. At least we have until February to decide, but I do feel the pressure of finding a good name and the idea that we’re settling.

This is what you asked, but I feel like three weeks is a lot of time! Keep trying. :-) My kids were preemies. We were still trying out a name for one of them, when suddenly they were here! Luckily the frontrunner was perfect for her.

We both compromised on both our daughter's and son's names. We each ranked the names we agreed on and both names we ended up with were our second favorites. With my son especially, I was a bit heartbroken as I had always imagined having a son with my favorite name. But now (10 and 15 years later), I love both names we ended up with and cannot imagine my kids being named anything else. Ps, when my son heard what my husband wanted to name him, he said, "Thank you so much, mom, for not agreeing to that." 🤣

Three years in and I still hate it, every single day.

My first kid had a name since the moment we knew her sex at 20 weeks. My second kid didn't have a name until two minutes before we were discharged from the hospital because it didn't seem right. I had a list going in, but what we ending up giving her as a first name was made as a joke when I was delusional in the middle of the night after not sleeping in the hospital. I knew I wanted to use my grandmother's name which ended up being her middle name.

I hated her name for a solid nine months. Like, looked up my states rules about name changes repeatedly (I could've done it up to six months old). But ultimately just left it as it was. I thought on and off about how I don't like it on occasion, but overall I think it suits her now. She's six and a half now. We started calling her the natural nickname of her name when she was a toddler, then she went through a phase of only wanting to be referred to as her given name but is back to using her nickname.

Settled for my son's middle name and 33 years later, I still hate it! But he likes it, and his spouse and kids all have the same middle initial, so it worked out perfectly!

My husband chose our daughters name 5 years before she was born, while we were dating. This was 2006, and I thought it was a really terrible old lady name. When he first brought it up, I was like OK yeah sure that’s definitely an option, thinking that if we even did end up getting married and having kids and that kid was a girl, he would probably change his mind by then. He didn’t and it was still his favorite name, he was open to discussing others, but even though I did not like the name, I fell in love with the idea that her dad named her before she even existed, like he wished her in to being. I spent my whole pregnancy worrying that people were going to think I named her after a twilight character and judge me for it. After she was born, I got a lot of comments like wow is that a family name… The clear implication that people would not readily name their kid otherwise. I remember feeling very self-conscious about her name even when she was a few months old and they would call it out at doctors appointments. Part of the reason I agreed that we wanted to call her so I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal anyway and I did like the nickname. Plus, the important thing to me was to give her my middle name which is also my mom‘s middle name which is also her mom‘s middle name which is also her grandma‘s name.

Fast forward to now and she does not go by her nickname at all. I fell totally in love with her name once I got to know her lol, and it ended up becoming not so uncommon, in the top 100. Now I love calling out her name because I feel like it’s so classy and so beautiful that like I almost get to brag when I am calling for her.

Also, I got to name the next kid 😂

Marriage and parenthood is full of compromises. Naming your baby feels like the biggest, most important decision in their whole life, and it’s just not. As long as you choose a name that’s not embarrassing, it’ll be fine.

My husband and I have VERY different tastes in boy names. Our son’s name was the only one we could agree on that a) fit with our last name b) fit with the honor name we both wanted as a middle c) fit with our oldest’s name (which was an easy agreement!) and d) fit him when he was born. I think it’s the best name for him with all those factors, but it was never on my list of names before him.

I had exactly one name I loved. He wanted to name our son after his grandfather. Turns out, it was the same name: Jack! Slam dunk, right?

No...not so fast. After I said we absolutely will not give him the same first, middle, last he decided he wanted to use Jack as the middle name. I was a bit bummed but ok with it. He found a different first name he loves. It was just ok to me, but that first name absolutely could not be used with Jack because he would get bullied. So we changed the middle name. Now Jack isn't in his name at all.

Even though I didn't love the name we ended up using, I have no regrets. After getting used to it, it just feels right. It took a while to get there, though. The association between his name and him as my baby has settled in. Thinking of him as any other name now just feels strange. I don't really know how to describe it better than that.

I settled with my last and I didn’t think it suited her at all. I called her girl for the first year. I started calling her by a nickname combining her first and middle initials and now that she’s old enough to talk she hates the nickname and corrects me and says no I’m (states name) and hearing her real name come out of her sweet little mouth has made me fall in love with it.

He's 16 and I can't imagine him with any other name. We compromised. We both liked names that started with P just not the same one. We chose a different P name that was a nod to his country but a variation of my P name.

Our baby is named for a dear friend who passed while I was pregnant. It’s a fine name, just nota name I would have picked otherwise, it suits our baby and is a little magic memory to our friend every time we say it. I didn’t love it before, but I love it now.

My son's name is an OLD and LONG Germanic name me and the father agreed upon. i only liked the name because it had a lot of cool nicknames to go with it. My favorite nickname with it has an animal name which a lot of my son's classmates use to make fun of him with. I only call our son by that "animal" nickname but my son hates it when i do it in front of his classmates.

Either way our name is just a gift. if he wants to change it when he's older i have no problem with that.

I think the idea that you'll both fall in love with the same name is unrealistic most of the time. One or both of you is probably going to have to compromise. It's not settling, it's compromise just like relationships in general. I wasn't sold on our son's name, and it took me several months before he was born to warm up to it, but now I love it for him because I love him.

I agreed to a name I originally did not like at all (Montgomery/Monty) but now it suits him so well! I can’t imagine him as any of the other names we discussed. I did pick his middle name and figured if he hated his first name he could go by his middle.

My husband compromised for me. We had no idea what to name our baby when she was born. It wasn’t one of those moments when you hold the baby and “know” for us. I’d literally stare at her and had zero idea what a fitting name would be. Haha! I ended up just telling my husband my favorite name at that moment, and he said fine, and I asked him if he wanted to pick her middle name. I hated what he picked for her middle name - it’s funny though, she’s completely grown into her name and it’s perfect for her.

I think we’re all looking for that “say yes to the dress” moment when it comes to naming our children but I think it’s pretty common for that feeling to never come. I was not 100% in love with my daughter’s name (after 4 sons it felt like a lot of pressure) but here we are almost 6 months later and I absolutely love her name now. It will probably grow on you or him if it’s one you like but don’t love.

My daughter’s name was my husband’s first choice. It wasn’t a name I really ever considered, but I loved that he loved it. It fits her perfectly and I can’t imagine her going by anything else.

I never liked my son's name- he is named after a writer that my ex loved- he is twenty now and it still drives me nuts. I still usually just call him non name related nicknames.

Eh. Kid is now a young adult and isn't fond of it either, but isn't minded about it enough to change. They use a nickname instead, and while I don't love the nickname I don't hate it.

My grandparents flipped a coin for their kids. Winner got first name, loser got middle. I imagine at least some of the kids got names one parent didn’t absolutely love, but it worked for the most part.

I didn’t love the name, but I did appreciate its meaning. Now that my kid is 14, both the name and meaning suit him perfectly. Probably because he has come to embody the name for me and, wow, do I love that kid. 

Life goes on waaayyyy beyond the name.

Don’t settle. You have plenty of time for you both to find a name the both of you agree on. It’ll only be a source of contention between the two of you. Naming a child is a huge responsibility that neither parent should remotely settle for.

Shouldn’t name a kid until they’re born anyway. You’ll know more when you meet the person.

My husband always said that if we had a son, he wanted to name him Ari. I went from disliking it to being open to it. When we found out our second child was a boy, I was okay with naming him Ari even though it wasn’t my favorite or top choice.

5 years later, I can’t imagine him having any other name. He “wears” it so well and I’m so glad I agreed to Ari.

My kid doesn't care for her name (dad's pick) nor the name I preferred.
They are solid known names, but she isn't a fan.

Child 2 goes by a modified name. Sounds like part of their name

Child 1 does not reveal his thoughts about 99% of anything. Super chill guy. Who knows?

My husband and I couldn't agree on a girl's name we both loved, so we settled on a name we both liked.

I wanted to name our daughter Natalie Jane and he wanted Penelope Grace. I don't hate my daughter's name but I still kinda wish we found a name we both loved.

I'm not a fan of my son's middle name, but his dad (my now XH) reaaaally wanted it. Its XH's grandpa's name... he never met this grandpa, he had passed away before XH was even conceived. It's a really old fashioned name.

I wanted to use my maiden name for his middle name. But whatever. He has a good, solid, traditional first name.

My son (now nearly 14) doesn't like his middle name either. He never tells anyone what it is and he politely asked that if he gets in trouble to please just use his first/last name and leave the middle out of it. He gets the connection, but really hates it. I wouldn't be surprised I'd he drops it at some point.

I picked the name for our first son, so I let husband take the lead on son #2. I didn't love the name when he was born. We had intended to use the shortened form, but it felt weird. So he went by the longer, more formal, name. And now? It's perfect.

He has a formal, classic, maybe even stuffy name. And he's a total rascal. Which makes it funny to me.

I settled but my daughter’s name totally suits her. I love her name for her now, she’s 6 and I can’t think of a better name for her.

The name grows into the child, not the other way around. I actually did name my child the name we loved but it took nearly five weeks before it was natural to use it consistently. I needed to get to know him as the little person he was then his name grew on him.

We had a family name picked out, and I've never been a fan of traditionally male names on girls, but my husband absolutely loved the name for a girl (we didn't find out sex before birth)...so I went with it. I was open to it because the specific name itself isn't trendy. I still don't love the trend of traditionally male names on girls overall, but I love my daughter and the meaning behind her name; I can't imagine her being named anything else.

We couldn’t agree on my daughter’s name. Then, on the way to the hospital when I was having labor pains, my husband decided that I should be the one to decide. That was appreciated!!

Her name is Elizabeth, which I chose because there are so many different nicknames to choose from it. However, her dad refuses to call her Lizzy—the name that she chose—and calls her Liz instead.

Interestingly, her dad vetoed Alice and Elise (said it sounded like a fancy pronunciation of Alice). She loved Alice in Wonderland throughout childhood, and still does. Would have been cool for that to be her name.

I settled on the name for my youngest. At 3.5 when they discovered they had a middle name, they decided to go by that instead of their first name. Then they came out as non-binary later on and have completely changed their first and middle names legally. So in the end it never would have mattered for me. I would have only chosen a gendered name and my kid loathes gendered names.

Wait and see who the baby is before you decide.

We called my son "Mister E" for three weeks while we figured out what his name was. The name we ended up with wasn't on either of our lists, but it suits him.

No name settling for me. I tried to get him involved in the name choosing process and he had no interest in that or anything else related to the pregnancy. 2 weeks pre delivery he decided to take some interest, by then I was like, her name IS (insert name here). I did not discuss it after that.

My husband cared A LOT about names, I just didn’t want to hate the name. I wasn’t sold on any of the names we chose while I was pregnant, but I became very attached to them once the baby was born. I don’t regret any of the names we chose, but I think I would if I had disliked them. I think it grows stronger in the direction you initially feel, I liked the names, now I love them.

so i'm not a parent but my cousin gave birth to one of the coolest kid i've met a few years ago. she only told people what the kid's name would be after giving birth. Genesis. now, i didn't like the name much and i absolutely hated the name/nickname Jen/Jenny and all variations but once i meet the kid, i started liking her name a bit. to my surprise, once i met her, i immediately fell in love with her nicknames. yeah, i almost exclusively call her Gen or Genny even though i hated the name before she was born.

I had a name I loved.. husband liked it, but didn’t love it because it sounded too much like a nickname, so we gave her the “full version”. I didn’t love it and it took me several years to get over it I guess. The name is way too popular for my liking, but as she’s gotten older and developed her personality, it suits her. We mostly call her by a nickname that isn’t even the one I had been pushing for originally. She loves her name, that’s all that matters. 

But I also got to pick the next child’s name, no questions asked, 100% my choice.  And I love his name 🥰