Do the mom or dad name their child?

My ex-husband named our first two kids, I named the third.

Is it more common for one to name them?

Both I hope!
It took two to make it, why should one have anything over the other?
Work together and cherish what the two of you have created.

Both usually. Why would the name of a child be important to one parent only?

Like the rest of parenting, they often do it together.

The couple should should decide together.

Who named peterpothead?

It depends on the parents. Some fathers may not care at all, and others will insist that their child be Peter the Pothead Jr.

But I think most parents choose the name together.

@Tink1113: Where did you get that odd idea from? I know of no parents who didn’t choose their child’s name together; it is one of the best, albeit brief, parts about having a baby.

My husband came up with two out of three of the names for our children. He really liked the names and I agreed with him. Yes, most men do care.

They work together.

@gailcalled – Well my aunt named her kids and my uncle didn’t really care he was just happy his child was born

In some cultures the namer of the child is a specified person. In the U.S., couples typically agree on who will do the naming, and it varies:

—both agree on all names
—parents take turns
—one or the other always has the major say
—mother names the girls and father names the boys, or vice versa
—one chooses but the other has veto power
and many other possible arrangements: consult Grandma, whole family chooses newborn’s name, follow some family tradition, etc.

It is up to the parents to decide what their practice will be. I’ve never heard of a father (or mother) who didn’t care.

I believe it was my mom who proposed the name “Dominic” originally. But she also proposed the name “Avery”, which was the other name my parents were considering for me. It was up to both of them to decide between those two names. “Avery” is now one of my middle names, but I still think it would’ve been a cool name…I always wonder what life would have been like if my name had been Avery…

Naming our children was a project that we both took on with gusto. And it was clear that we had to agree—it would not have been okay if only one had liked a name. It’s a good first task, when you think of it, for working together to raise a family.

We both made them, we both named them.

Good idea

My mom named me after her mother, and my dad went along with it without realizing I was being named after someone :-p

I’m sure it varies from couple to couple.

I chose the name for our son. I think my husband was afraid of me while pregnant, I did turn into quite a nasty being. you try gaining 50lbs of baby. I didn’t want to follow his family tradition right away. I wanted to name the baby, but we both agreed upon the name. He helped with the middle name.

He gets to name the next child, be it a boy or girl. I’m a little bit of a wreck because of this, because I like unique names, and he likes more traditional…but, he’s letting me do the middle name for a girl (I have no say in the boy name, I’m still trying to come to terms with this)

We each had favorite names so we collaborated. Each child got one from each side of the family, giving them each a first and middle name. My daughter ended up being named for both grandmothers, and my son was named for an uncle on each side who died just before he was born (they had the same name) and his great grandfather on my husband’s side.

It was important to both of us that each child have a name that wasn’t going to let people confuse them with someone else in the family. There are several names used so often in our family that if you call them out you will get six or seven people responding.

It was also important that the kids each have a name that wouldn’t be viewed as weird. We both have relatives who have peculiar names. Nebelow is one from my family.

My parents worked together taking turn with who chose first and middle names on their three kids.
My husband I would only choose a name that we both agreed on.
I don’t think it’s true that a mother cares more or vice versa. It depends on each couple. From everything I have ever experienced both people work together on choosing a name.

I named my first son, Hubby and I both came up with the second. My son named his first son, the second one they both agreed on a name, and his wife named the third on. My youngest son let his wife come up with a few choices, and then picked the ones he liked.

Each couple probably works it out their own way.

I picked the names for my son. She thought they were good names. Though she changed one of the middle names.

Actually thinking back, my parents did basically the same thing. Each of us kids has one name from my mom’s side and one from my dad’s, and they tried hard to pick names that weren’t too commonly used among living family members.

We chose them together, giving each of our daughters a first name unique to the family and a middle name referencing one of our grandparents.

Hopefully, both. It was the one thing me and my ex wife agreed upon from the start with no problems. But there is this unwritten rule where we got married that helped us: the first boy gets the name of the father’s father, and the first girl the name of the mother’s mother. And then usually they swap if they have up to 2 and 2. So our girl would have gotten the name of my ex mother-in-law. But since neither me nor my wife liked that name as it was, we agreed to change it a little, and come up with something we both liked. It was her idea, but I liked it.

For our daughter, we both came up with names we liked. We couldn’t agree on either one. During lunch one day, a group of my husband’s fellow firefighters called and suggested the name Hailey. I loved it, and my husband did too. We decided to name our daughter Hailey. After she was born, I found out that all of the firefighters watched All My Children faithfully after lunch. The firefighters were in love with Kelly Ripa’s character, Hailey. That is why they suggested that name.

My husband and I both agreed on our daughters name. When we were having our son he wanted to name him Augustus and I wasn’t on board. I wanted to name him Jack. I won, kind of, because his name is Jackson but we call him Jack.

My dad came up with my name and my mom named my sister, so I think it just depends on the couple.

wow! Knitfroggy named her son after my internet nickname? :D

My husband and I both picked names, but went with a name my mother picked, instead. It just fit and seemed perfect. My husband cared, very much, what our son’s name would be, in fact, our entire family seemed to want some part of naming him.

@Jack79 I’m cool like that

my mom chose my first name, my dad chose my middle name.
turns out my dad named me after one of his exgirlfriends…
weird.

@amoreno06 – Whoa what did your mom say?

she didn’t find out till WAY later. she doesn’t really say anything, she just shrugs it off.
my middle name- edith.
ew.

Teheee :) I don’t have a middle name

@amoreno06 These are just my thoughts about what you wrote.

It’s common that people name their kids with names that for them symbolize and hold certain qualities and values that they would like to give to their children. If your father loved this woman, she might have been a good person, whose qualities are encapsulated in the gift that is your name and his hopes and dreams for you. I don’t know your father and why he wanted that name for you. You know him, of course. But maybe I would want to see the gift that it is. It’s still a good name, and it’s yours not her’s.

I asked a friend of mine if he and his wife would name one of their kids after me. They said “Sure.” Turns out the baby was a girl. Feh.

So she was named Rachel Jeanette. RJ is one of my nicknames, taken from the first letters of my first and middle name. I think it’s pretty cool.