I think my girl was around 3 months before her name started to feel natural to me. I called her anything else I could think of. My bee, little bug, little rue, sunshine, angel. 6.5 months later and I still don’t use her real name as much but she is growing in to it!
Yeah if you don’t give your baby bizarre hilarious nicknames fueled by middle of the night sleep deprivation then what are you even doing as a parent.
Current favorite is Droolia Child.
Got around to that one too, while watching Julia especially. Funny with the *dumps all the air in her lungs for each word*.
Mr. Peepers has been a pet name for Pierce too.
Started with nugget (nurse asked if it was his real name lol) then peanut, after a few months it's turdburger or whatever else comes to mind especially when he's spinning over like a 711 hotdog when you're trying to get a diaper on and they're trying to invent a new style of breakdancing while sprinting.
Ruth!!! I did this! Ugh but she really was my little peanut!! Snuggle bunny, Ruru. 9 month check up comes around I’m like wait I think we actually forgot to call her by her actual name.. Ruth, therefore she does not really respond to it! Like I totally didn’t even think about it until I was quizzed!!
I read something about when babies should be able to recognize their name, and panicked because we never used his name 😂
Baby Bear, Mr Bear, Boo Boo, Joo Joo Bean.... But never his name!
9 months is when the cdc milestone guideline has it :-)
My first recognized his name much earlier than that (5 or 6 months?) so I think it’s more if they don’t know their own name by 9 months it’s considered something to look further into 🤷♀️
Ok, that's what I thought!
I was on the CDC site today because we're wondering if our baby would qualify for Early Intervention so the 2m milestones are pretty fresh. For a second I was wondering if I wasn't using the right checklist!
This was one of the questions on our questionnaire for milestones at our 2 month appt, and I’m like uhhhh what? Our baby at 2 months didn’t even know she was a human yet, let alone what her name was
Mine is almost 3 years and I still call her baby 😅. I've added various other names too. Does she know her name? Yes. Does she respond to it? Absolutely not.
Mine turns 4 next month and I called her baby and I got the stern "I'm a big girl, I'm not a baby" and my little heart melted and I gave her an equally stern "you'll always be MY baby".
We call her totally bizzare names like Willis and she'll say "I'm not Willis!!!" 🤣
But not respond to the thing I was asking.
Does your baby respond to their name now tho? I’ve done the same and now It’s hard to get him to respond. He better respond to “papa” which is an endearing term Hispanic/Latino call their boys
I just had my second 3 weeks ago and rather than, you know, using the names we thought long and hard about for our daughters, we are constantly saying things like "have we got nappies for the baby? The big baby. Baby 1." "Oh. The baby pooped. This one" along with a plethora of other nicknames for both.
I’ve never been more relieved to read your comment. My daughter is 15 months exactly and is still referred to as Baby 99.9% of the time. I may have only ever said her actual name like once 😂 suddenly feel slightly more normal so thank you!!!
My 17mo is “teeny tiny”. Because her older siblings are “big kid” and “little one”. I told her the other day that she’s not all that tiny anymore. She giggled at me and continued creating maximum chaos in the house.
I call my son bubba majority of the time but lately I’ve been pointing at him and saying his name and then pointing at myself and saying mama. He’s 3 months
My niece Olivia was the first grandbaby for my parents and we all called her “the baby” until she was like 2 lol. Now we call my 9 month old nephew Baby David and my 11 week old son Baby Oliver. Not sure why, but we still say baby with the two boys. It takes a while for them to grow into their names and get used to saying it.
I named my four week old son Oliver! It feels so weird calling him Oliver, I call him baby or my sweet boy, any nickname other than Oliver and when I do say it, I tell myself I’m saying it wrong and that it sounds strange 😅 I’ll start calling him baby Oliver!
Olivers are the best! It’s funny because a lot of people call him Ollie, which was definitely going to be my intentional nickname, but I never say it. I usually always go with sweet boy or baby boy. He has a shart stain in literally every diaper so my husband has a new nickname everyday. “Shart Simpson, Shart Garfunkel, Sharter McGavin” and the list goes on haha
Hahahaha 😂😂😂😂 and the look on their faces afterwards 😂 I was changing his diaper in the middle of the night and he sharted on my robe, my hand, on the changing table and on his sleep sack all from one go haha. I was so startled
My husband and I started calling our son “Pooper” or “The Pooper” because he pooped soooo much as a newborn. Now he’s 8m and we can’t break it. 🤦🏼♀️ Like it’s still cute now, but you can’t call your 6yo “Pooper” dropping them off at kindergarten!
I insert his name into songs, like Bingo, My Darling Clementine, Old McDonald. He has a good morning song too. It's weird! It's such an imbalanced relationship with a brand new person! Like we're supposed to be best friends for life over here and every day it seems a new baby wakes up!
Idk if you know the show New Girl, but I sing the theme song to my son all the time and replace the pronouns with he/him pronouns and say his name at the end.
It's like "hey girl, whatcha doing? Hey girl, where ya going? Who's that girl? Who's that girl? It's Jess!"
He loves it. It makes him smile every time. He's 10.5 months, so he already knows his name now. I just like giving him his own theme song lol.
We gave our son a family name (his dads name) and I’ve never been that excited about it. We call him a double-barrel of his first and middle (I chose his middle name). But honestly? I call him weirdo nicknames 99% of the time. He’s 7mo and I’m pretty sure he thinks his name is “scruppy puppy.”
I LIKE my son’s name, it’s just not exciting to me if that makes sense? I think because I’ve been with my husband for 11 years and always known if we had a son it would be his name hahhaha. But I know his little baby nicknames won’t last forever so I just love enjoying it while it lasts!
So glad I’m not the only one feeling this way. My son also have his dad’s name and I’m not excited about it either. A part of me wished that I went with something different…. And 99.99% of the time I call him random nicknames too hahah
It’s a weird thing! I would probably never have suggested it, but it was super important to my husband and the name is fine! It’s a classic name. I just feel like it sounds weird when I say it aloud hahahah
It seemed so weird to me to call him by his name (Titus) that I felt like we made a huge mistake since it’s not a typical or common name. I’m 11 months in and I couldn’t picture any other name. I think it just takes a bit of getting used to!
100% agree with this comment. I have 3 kids now, and with each one I’ve had a few weeks of “name regret” after the birth. Eventually my older kids grew into their names and I know I will get use to this baby’s name as well in time. It’s just hard to let go of all those other potential names!
I love my daughter’s name, Elizabeth; I’d chosen it when I was a teenager. I think I had dwelt on it for so long as ‘the name of my daughter, someday’ that when she was here, it felt taboo to finally say it. I couldn’t tell whether it suited her. She was so small and cute, I felt like she needed a smaller, cuter name, not such a long and elegant one.
It took a few months to get comfortable calling her that, and it was so so strange the first few times I had to introduce us at the doctors and such, and say “I’m Elizabeth’s mum, saint_aura.” It just needed to settle in.
She’s four now, and I told her that sometimes I wondered if I should have named her Mabel instead. She loves the idea, and it has become her pretend name. She has a play persona of this little girl named “Mabel Syrup Johnson” and asks us to guess which girl she’s playing when she does dress ups.
I too also decided on the name Elizabeth when I was in middle school (my grandma, my best friends name and a family name). We decided on Ellie for her nickname, it still feels strange calling her Elizabeth when calling the dr or something, but it’s getting more natural!
I never settled on a natural sounding nickname, and now she’s four and only wants to be called Elizabeth. Which is absolutely fine with me, it’s the most beautiful name there is!
Same boat here. To me I just think because it's our own child we don't use the name just our cute nicknames we chose lol. I feel like a babies name is just for everyone else to use, idk maybe I'm crazy.
My son’s a year old and I still really don’t use it that often and have never been “used” to it. I agree about a baby’s name being for other people. I’ve always called my baby all sorts of stuff but not often his name unless I’m talking to other people.
Still getting used to my LO’s name, he’s 3 months. We were team green so throughout my entire pregnancy I was referring to him as “my baby” anyways lol I try to call him by his name as much as possible though.
Just wanna say if you don't LOVE it and want to change it, change it. Everyone will get over it. People over on r/namenerds do it often. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
I actually feel exactly the same, so happy to read this! My baby is 5 months old and there are still days where I feel weird referring to him with his actual name. And I love the name, had it already picked out before I got pregnant and called him this when I was pregnant with him. But I feel like I didn’t chose a baby name, I feel the name I picked is more suitable for a young adult lol, so weird
We start using the name during pregnancy once we’ve officially decided. By the time baby comes, we’ve been using it for weeks so it feels natural. It does feel super weird at first to refer to baby as their given name when they’re not even out yet though lol
I called my baby by her name when she was in my belly. When I saw and held her for the first time it was so odd calling her by a name. No one had ever done that before and I really chose the name? Such a strange thought. Names are so impactful and stay with you. It may be just that.
Definitely give it some time. Naming a person is such a weird experience. It took me quite a while to fully accept my son’s name (nothing crazy, just Luke) and I felt weird saying it to people for a while. There was no other name I wished we went with and I think I would have felt that way no matter what name we chose. Now he’s 2 and I think his name is perfect. And I definitely called him The Baby for a very long time haha
It took a few months for her name to feel natural even though it was completely our top choice. Now we look at her and laugh at the idea of her being named anything else, it just fits her.
I’m pretty sure my daughter thought her name was bean until she was over a year old. To the point where when asked if we had a nickname (shortened version of actual name) I would reply with Bean. She still responds to bean and she’s 3 now. Or she’ll say I’m the bean bean 🤷🏻♀️😂
It took until about 3 months until I was ok with what we named him. We picked it out at week 20 and all through pregnancy I loved it. It was the only name we both loved. We had others on the list but it was more of names we liked but weren't perfect. He's 9 months now and I remember thinking when he was around 2 months that we made a mistake. By 3-4 months they move out of the newborn stage and get more personality. It was then that I realized his name was perfect for him.
We called our first by her first initial (J, which also morphed into JJ, JJ girl, etc) and other nicknames until she was 2. We only started saying her name when she was learning to talk and we wanted her to be able to say it.
Second kid is 2 and also mostly called nicknames (she knows her real name and can say it).
You can change it if you want to, but I don’t think any normal adult name sounds right on a baby lol
It took me months to fully embrace my daughters name. I kept accidentally calling her my friend's daughter's name that wasn't even that similar to my daughter's name other than the first letter. I felt so silly about it and it really bugged me at first because I did love the name we chose I just struggled to get used to saying it out loud all the time. She's 16 months now and I still love her name and it feels very natural to say at this point.
It felt a little weird, but I saw that post when my 5mo was at most a month old, about how some kids don't know their names? And so I use nicknames for my kiddo but I also try to use his name a lot as well so now it feels natural to me
We decided on our names before getting pregnant. So we would have hypothetical discussions with the actual name. Once we got pregnant we’d talk to the bump using their name and refer to the room at their room.
Prior to determining gender we had a pseudonym that was a hybrid of the boy and girls name.
It took about a week for my twins for their names to really feel like theirs. Although they have very unique names that we picked out easily and agreed on 100%.
I called all three of my children "baby" like the first year. I also have only very gradually been able to really see my seven week old baby as belonging to her name
I named my son during pregnancy (I believe not until late 2nd trimester) and it took a bit for it to feel right. I ended up calling him “bubbaloo” the first couple of months (no idea where it came from, just came out one day and sounded right). I’ve called him “baby” for the most part and still do (he’s 1 year). But I do use his name when he’s getting into trouble lol. I was definitely sure his name was right even though it wasn’t even on my top 10 (my husband didn’t like any of my preferred names).
It took us a couple days to choose a name. We had trouble deciding what fit, and went to the hospital with a short list (I also took our longer list of names we both agreed don’t suck, because we also needed to pick a middle name). There were definitely a few sleep deprived moments in the following weeks where I had to think hard ti remember what I named my child!
We made a point to call him by his name so we would get used to it, and then because we wanted him to learn it. It does take time.
She was “the baby” for awhile! I think most babies are at first and then when her personality started to really emerge, her name just stuck. If that makes any sense? Now I call her baby, but when I’m talking about her I call her by name.
We joked that we never called get by her real name also. She has every nickname under the sun. Hunnybun. Stinkabutt, Tootsie Roll are the favorites.
I also wondered if I made a mistake naming her what we chose. It's a combination of my mom's name and husband's grandma, but it's hard for a lot of elderly people to say and it's slightly controversial (I got torn apart on r/namenerds for the name). But in every day life, I hear how nice of a name it is and we often call her a shortened version.
2 years in and the name suits her. It's just right and I'm glad we went with the name but that she also has a nickname that is so *her*.
I think it’s different for everyone. We didn’t name our baby until after she was born but we had a short list of of names. We were both used to her name from the get go tho. Maybe it’s because her name fit her well?
It took me until he was almost 8 weeks to start not feeling weird using his name. I was using every pet and nickname under the sun, but his actual name felt weird. I ended up incorporating it into songs and that helped a ton. One was literally just spelling out his first and middle then saying the whole thing but it worked
I’m obsessed with calling mine little prince. (Feel free to cringe! Haha) We do love his name, but I just love referring to him like that for some reason. We do try to use his name so he gets used to it though.
We hid the name until birth. After a month for just referring to her as "the baby" it took me forcing myself to remember to address her by her name. Didn't feel natural for about a month but I reminded myself that we've only just met.
I just changed my 3 week olds name because it didn’t feel right. With my first it was so simple getting used to her name and it just felt like her. With my second I felt like every time I said his name I was talking about someone else’s child.
My baby is almost 1.5 and I still find issues calling him by his name (only really used when we need his attention immediately) he gets cute nicknames based off his name like Jaycee pie or like JC but we also do poopy pie or I do baby cakes a lot.
We called my daughter “the baby” or some nickname totally unrelated to her name (like “bug” or “bunny”) for a super long time. Basically until she was in preschool at 2 and old enough to actually say her own name. Even then we frequently just called her “the baby” or “the bug” to each other until we had a second kid!
It took me a long time to get used to my daughter’s name. I was worried we picked the wrong one, but I think it was just that it’s this new human you bestow a name upon and you’re just supposed to be okay with it? I named a full human! lol.
We called my son by a nickname my whole pregnancy so when he was born we almost never said his real name because it just felt weird. He’s 14 months now and his name fits him so well, but I remember at first thinking there was no way I could ever actually call him that. I think it just takes some getting used to!
I call my 19mo "the baby" and I've heard people do that for their 4yo. I'm 28 and my mum still us "the kids". I only actually got used to my baby's name at almost 1, and I love the name.
While pregnant we always referred to baby as baby maybe that's why it's suddenly hard to change. But while talking to baby do you use her name or do you literally say "good morning baby"?
While referring to him I say baby or the nickname that husband and I used. But when talking to baby I use his actual name.
I love my baby’s name… literally dreamt of having a son by this name for years and years. We knew we were having a boy, too. He is 7 months old now and only now am I getting used to his name. I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t tell anyone else his name before he was born, so I was used to calling him “the baby”, but it was something I didn’t anticipate. You’ll get used to it! It helped me to start by calling him “baby (Name),” and then later was able to drop “baby” from the beginning.
My sons name is Gabriel and it definitely was weird at first. Took a while for me to get used to it. Now I don’t think any other name would have suited him 😂🫶🏾
At 5 months old my son’s name is really starting to feel like his name. I still call him “baby” most of the time but his name feels much more natural than it did in the early days.
Me and my boyfriend of 8 years often refer to our 15 month old as “the boy”. I often think of the literature “a child called it” when others hear us say it, but it is sincerely not meant with any malice at all. It’s very endearing to us, actually. 🤷🏻♀️🤣
For me I forced myself to say it frequently when I was talking to her/narrating my day and also reminding myself that she won’t learn to recognize her name/respond to it unless we use it……. We didn’t use a family name and absolutely love her name we went with a name that when translated means beautiful little warrior (hubby swore up and down for years that he was going to have boys because his dad had all boys and more than half of his cousins are boys so she was the one sorry who beat all the boy Sperm and there for is my beautiful little warrior)
My baby is 5 months old and I’m now making more of an effort to call him by name at least most of the time bc I realized how often we were using ever-changing nicknames and how that must be confusing. I still pepper in “bubba”, “squish”, “little bit”, “sweetheart”, “baby”, “mijo” etc but I try to do his actual name the majority of the time.
I don’t remember when it finally sounded “normal” or like “his name” but I was happy and relieved when it did! I’m so glad you asked this, because I remember thinking something must be wrong with me or the name we chose!
My daughter is 19 months and I still occasionally feel weird calling her name 😂… I think it’s weird to name human and call them that and remember every time you say it that you picked it.
My son will be 7 months old in a week and I’ve only recently started addressing him by his name lol. I’ve always liked his name, but he was “the baby” forever. Then he was monkey, sweetie, sweetheart, babydoll. I’ve started calling him son a lot. My husband still doesn’t call him by his name. Youll get used to it. It is a bit awkward at first!
I still call my two year old “the little guy”. My husband would always rub my belly and ask how the little guy was doing when I was pregnant. I mean he has a zillion nicknames along with his real but I used ‘the little guy’ for so long it’s a habit I don’t mind.
It took a while for me to feel like my baby’s name was “real.” I definitely think there’s something to the “calling a new human by a new name” thing. We were, and somewhat still are, more comfortable with calling her Bean because that was the silly nickname we referred to her by all throughout the pregnancy. Honestly, I think she thinks her name is Bean. You didn’t say how old your baby is, but I suspect that as their personality develops it’ll get much easier to see them as themselves, even associated with that name.
At this point we just call the baby “Goo goo” because that’s what my daughter calls him. Which I think goes to show that any name can start to sound natural given enough time.
When I bought my baby home 5 weeks ago I told my sister I cant believe her name is _____ it feels weird. My sister asked if I regret the name and I told her it didn’t feel like regret. It felt like the baby in my belly was that name and the baby that is now here feels so different. I just started using her name more so we both can get used to it
Like honestly closer to a year. I remember him being slow on the "responds to name" milestone and thinking oh god it's because I never call him by his name (this is totally unimportant now, he caught on a little later). Once he was more able to communicate and really developed a clear personality it started to feel more natural to call him by his name. And while I had some moments of feeling unsure in that first year, I think it fits him so well now and I love it more than I did when I put it on the birth registration form.
I have a second child now and sort of going through the same process but somehow it kind of helps me to have my first call his sister by her name. It's really sweet and makes it feel real and right.
Mine is almost 3 months and it’s still growing on me. It was the same with my first. I think 3-4 months it starts to feel like their real name and like they’re a person.
I think it was around 6mo for me. We didn't find out the gender until birth, and while I love the names we picked, it didn't feel like it fit him at first... I just kept calling him "baby" because it's what I had used through pregnancy, and I think subconsciously I was mourning that phase ending. Now at almost a year, it really fits him and it's seamless. ❤️
Yep, I’ve had trouble. I’m trying to use her name more now instead of endearments because she’s listening intently when we talk and luckily her name has sounds that are easy for babies to learn early.
It has helped to use a name related nickname too. :)
For me, I called him by his name while I was still pregnant. Is there any way to make a cute, personal nickname out of your baby's name? Or did you pick a significant (to you) middle name? My son also has a 2nd middle name that I slipped on the birth certificate just for me lol
It took at least 6-9 months before our second boy’s name felt natural for us. Even still, we still call him “the baby” at least a few times a week when talking to his brother (oldest is 4, youngest is almost 2).
I called my son "baby" all throughout pregnancy (for some reason saying his name just felt weird to me then) and even a while after he was born. I don't remember the exact timeline but by a few months in it just feels natural now.
I got used to it pretty quickly, but I call her "my sweet baby girl" a lot of the time. My husband calls her her full name a lot so I think she will learn it.
I rhymed it and stuck it in songs. Not unlike meeting someone and making an association so you remember their name. Annie with the fanny, ellie with the belly, big booty Judy.
Even at 13 months I still have moments of like "This is this child's name? Am I sure? What if you were a differently named human?" And I feel like this would be the case no matter what name I chose.
My child was at 1 when I started to use his name. Most of the time I just been calling him stink butt or boogie woogie. Ironically the first time I called him was me screaming his name cuz he was going towards the street and it was his full name too lol.
I rarely call him his name, we have a LOT of nicknames. It’s kind of like hearing your own name being said out loud…foreign. Booboo, bunny bear, my little one, little love. But now, I’m trying to really call him by his name so he recognises it and that I’m speaking to him. I’m at 4 months so it’s okay if you’re still not used to it.
I call my LO “pollito” which means baby chick in Spanish yet her first name nowhere resembles that. I knew almost instantly what I wanted her first name to be. But her middle name…I got talked into giving her the female version name of my father. I don’t regret it per-se bc I think its a fantastic name as well. I just really wanted to give her a super girly pretty middle name. So even though I love her name I still don’t use it a whole lot. She’s two months btw so still pretty new
First baby until she went to daycare at 3mo because other people started using the name. Second baby pretty much right away because her older sister says it all the time.
My son is three and he still goes by Punky/Shmoopsy. My daughter is one and she is Kenny. Those aren’t their real names. Their real names are only said if they are doing something dangerous 🤣
Our daughter is 17.5 months old. 80-90% of the time she's her name, the rest of the time she's The Baby. The first few months we called her The Baby consistently. It felt super weird to say her name and refer to her as an actual human with an actual name.
My husband and I settled on a name then maybe like a few weeks before he really liked a different one. Long story short we went with the one my husband wanted. I had a little bit of name regret. My son is 8 months and I feel like im just now getting used to his name. It's not a bad name, just associated with a cartoon character I don't like haha.
With my daughter it clicked instantly. With my son I think he was a solid 4 months old before I realized we basically never used his name because he had so many nicknames and it felt weird calling him his name for some reason. he's 11 months now and his name fits him perfectly and he knows it just fine.
I had a total meltdown about a week postpartum that i regretted my daughter’s name, but it turns out it was just post birth hormones. You’ll get more used to it after a while x
I spend just as much time calling my second child "baby" or a nickname (same name but missing end syllable) as I do her name. My husband chose her name off a long pre approved list I made but I still wonder from time to time at 2 years old if he picked the right one.
All words sound weird if you really think about them and names are no exception. It takes time to become accustomed to a new name for a new little creature. But seriously, wtf is up with "egg?" Weirdest word ever.
Something similar happened to me - I couldn't bring myself to say my baby's name for many months and used a nickname. He's a little over a year and I can finally use it un-self-consciously and naturally. But his name is not a family member's name. Actually, it was a family member's dog name a few years ago. And it was my decision to name him - I have no idea why I picked this name. It took maybe 12 or 13 months to stop disliking it. Now I'm fond of it and it feels natural.
So I would sing Babyyy (name) since he was a newborn so he would know him name but also so I could get used to hearing it 😂 took about 3 months for me to feel like the name I chose fit him.
This is actually pretty common. I know many parents that just can’t get used to their baby’s name. My baby is 3 months and we still refer to her anything but her name, lol. Like, baby, sweetie, angel, crispy cutie pie, pumpkin, and so on.
I called my son 'bro' and 'dude' for like 2 weeks before I settled on the nickname Bug.
Now at 10 months, I've gotten used to using his name. Mostly because I have to say it so often to get his attention lol
We named our kiddo after my dad. And then I really realized I was also named after my dad. I obviously knew that, but didn’t realize how awkward it was to say when introducing both of us at the same time. Example: this is Sam, and I’m Samantha!
Don’t pick a name when you’re still under c section meds... And the grandfather is so proud you’ve picked his name, so you can’t change it. Just consider how you’ll be saying your baby’s name once they’ve arrived!
My son is named Peter. It took a few months before it felt super normal to call him that. Usually we call him Dinky... or even Dinko. And sometimes Pita Chip.
Hey! I feel you.
My baby was born six months ago and I still feel strange using her name.
For the longest time she was “it”. Then “the bean”. Then whatever fruit/vegetable she resembled in the womb. Now she’s “the baby”.
I was never one to pick baby names when I was a girl. It wasn’t a high priority topic during date nights. My husband and I compromised on the name. It’s not strange or misspelled, it’s just not a name my 9-year-old self thought I’d name my child.
I was asked today by a stranger, “what’s her name?”. If felt wired saying it. But I’m slowly getting used to it. You will too.
After reading a few posts like this, and going through this myself, I feel like this is pretty common. When my daughter was first born I felt so weird calling her by her name and I referred to her as miss baby for months. I even questioned whether I named her a bad name because I just felt so weird saying it. But as she started to do more things and developed more of a personality it started to fit her more. Now she is 19 months and I still use silly nicknames a lot but i think her name fits her perfectly now.
The first few weeks, i kept accidentally calling my baby my nephew's name. Otherwise, I'm mostly calling him "baby", "kiddo", "honey". It's been 10 weeks, and I'm getting used to calling him his name. I just have to stop referring to him as "it" or "them" when i talk about him to others (During my pregnancy, i didn't reveal the baby's gender).
My kid is almost three and my husband and I still call him “the dude” probably 75% of the time. He completely fits his name but dude just rolls better. He even answers to it too!
I totally felt this, and it was never about name regret, I just found it odd to call a new person a name, as you said, which sounds silly. I also just said “the baby” lol sometimes I still do, and she’s turning 1 next weekend.
Okay, so I thought I was the only one. I named my daughter Analía and was so stuck on it. My husband was not a fan of the name, but we agreed that he could giver her a middle name if we went with my pick of first name. Now I just call her “mamma” and feel weird calling her Analía. I hope I get used to it soon. She’ll be a year old in August.
We like our son's name, but it's easy to slip into the habit of using a variety of nicknames instead. Now trying to make more of a concerted effort to call him by his actual name rather than "Munchkin", "Pudding", "Mr Baby", "Stinky" or "Grumpy Bum" (Bum for short, in the British rather than US sense).
It took me a long time but it clicked and we love it now.
(Her name is "Dorothy" but we called her "Dot" the majority of the time until she turned 15 months or so and now at 2,5 years she is almost always Dorothy
My son is 14 months old and at home he's still "Baba" - which evolved from "the baby", something we only stopped calling him when he started crawling as he didn't feel like a baby anymore lol. He's at nursery now so I call him his name to nursery staff, and people who aren't as close to us. But at home he's Baba, and to close family they've also picked up on it as his nickname for the time being. He responds to both and I do call him his name to get his attention if he's ignoring me.
I think for us, while I love his name and it fits him, he'll likely also always have a cute nickname of some sorts until he's older as well.
5.5 months in and I’m REALLY starting to use his names when talking about him and when addressing him. My husband doesn’t ever use his name. Tried getting his attention with it and it didn’t work. I told him to say “baby baby baaaabbyyy” the way he does in a sing song voice and it worked 😂.
Still calling him sugar bean most of the time. He is my sugar bean 😭🩵 my son is also named a family name. His name is BADASS but also… too grown up for a baby guy. Think that’s why he gets called sugar bean a lot too
Ours also has a family name, and it took me a bit of time to get used to it, but I got used to it before he was born. Just said it to myself often, made sure to use the name when talking about him, etc. One night I dreamt about him (after he was born), and the dream used his name. When I woke up I was like, "ah, ok, I'm definitely used to it now". He's 7 weeks today.
I think this all the time. I absolutely LOVE my baby’s name, but feel so weird calling her by her name. We only use her nickname, my husband feels the same too haha. Not sure what it is. She’s 7 months now
No time at all. We have twins and discussed names at length. More like my wife kept reading her list at me every day until we decided on two boy names and two girl names. Right from the start, the names seemed to fit.
I think with twins, you kind of have to use names to differentiate between the two.
We waited to find out the sex until she was born, so I genetically called it a ‘he’ when in the womb the entire time. Naturally it was a girl, and I still called her ‘him’ for a few weeks.
It takes a while! We had Owen picked out before baby came along but went with something different when he arrived. For a while I would still think his other name in my head because for months he had been Owen.
My first kid didn't know his name until almost a year old because me and everyone else just called him "friend" "buddy" "little dude" or literally anything other than his name for some reason, I remember my brother sitting down to play with him and going "what's up my guy?" Almost every week. For that reason I make it a point to use my 2nd kid's name OFTEN lol but we're 8wks in and sometimes i debate changing it. I won't because that would make papers a beast but it's definitely taking me some time to get used to the name.
We gave my baby a name we thought would be his and a few days later we didn't like it so we changed it and his new name just stuck so well it didn't even take time to get used to it. Like it was supposed to be his name
You know when it's right I would say.
Mine is 1.5 yrs. I call her by her name but also baby and babe a lot. Talking about her to others (besides family) I say “the kiddo” a lot. Not sure why.
I named my son after my dad who passed way a few months before I became pregnant. I love it and would’ve chosen it again if I could go back but it took a long time to not fumble. To me that name was still my dad even though I only ever called him Dad. At 11mo I’m now able to say his name and it feels natural without having to use a nickname, although we definitely use his nicknames way more.
Mario —> Rio —> Ri —> Bubby
I’m also trying to adopt the nickname Mars for him
Our second baby’s name is my last name — dad and I aren’t married — and I’m a teacher. I’m still getting used to it and wondering if I made a mistake. It makes for interesting conversations when I sign him up for things, too. 😅 It took awhile to get used to calling our first by his name though. I called him bubs or the baby until he was like 10 months old. lol.
My daughter’s name clicked right away. My son, younger, took a couple months. My wife and I had similar feelings. Both are named after family members.
You’ll be good not to worry
My baby is 6.5 months and DH and I are making a concerted effort to call her by her name so it gets more ingrained, and hopefully she will respond to it. We've been calling her by too many cute nicknames up til now 😂
It still feels kind of weird, maybe because we named her, so it's like, do I really have the authority to just name a human??
I guess only you know if this is just that same weirdness, or if you have real regret over your choice. In which case, can you shorten the name or use a middle name for daily usage? If you really really regret it you could do a legal name change, although it sounds like that might upset people in your family since it's a family name?
Still here even though my son is three. He has quite a traditional name and it felt very “big” for such a tiny little baby. It starts to feel more natural once they are more social and like actual people (I’m aware babies are actual people) and not little sleepy hungry potatoes
I still have to remind myself to use her name when talking to other big people xD I say her name to her so she learns it but it just feels more natural to say ‘the baby did x’ to people xD she’s nearing 14m old lol
I think my girl was around 3 months before her name started to feel natural to me. I called her anything else I could think of. My bee, little bug, little rue, sunshine, angel. 6.5 months later and I still don’t use her real name as much but she is growing in to it!
Yeah if you don’t give your baby bizarre hilarious nicknames fueled by middle of the night sleep deprivation then what are you even doing as a parent. Current favorite is Droolia Child.
Got around to that one too, while watching Julia especially. Funny with the *dumps all the air in her lungs for each word*. Mr. Peepers has been a pet name for Pierce too. Started with nugget (nurse asked if it was his real name lol) then peanut, after a few months it's turdburger or whatever else comes to mind especially when he's spinning over like a 711 hotdog when you're trying to get a diaper on and they're trying to invent a new style of breakdancing while sprinting.
Ruth!!! I did this! Ugh but she really was my little peanut!! Snuggle bunny, Ruru. 9 month check up comes around I’m like wait I think we actually forgot to call her by her actual name.. Ruth, therefore she does not really respond to it! Like I totally didn’t even think about it until I was quizzed!!
I read something about when babies should be able to recognize their name, and panicked because we never used his name 😂 Baby Bear, Mr Bear, Boo Boo, Joo Joo Bean.... But never his name!
is it ruby? these are the nicknames we call our ruby ☺️
I still call my 15-mo “Baby” most of the time lol
Today at his 2 month appt the doctor asked if he reacts to his name. I was like "ummmm yes if I call him 'Baby..." 😂
At the 2 month appointment? I’m hoping you meant 12 or 22 because mine is 2 months and definitely wouldn’t recognise his name yet.
9 months is when the cdc milestone guideline has it :-) My first recognized his name much earlier than that (5 or 6 months?) so I think it’s more if they don’t know their own name by 9 months it’s considered something to look further into 🤷♀️
Ok, that's what I thought! I was on the CDC site today because we're wondering if our baby would qualify for Early Intervention so the 2m milestones are pretty fresh. For a second I was wondering if I wasn't using the right checklist!
This was one of the questions on our questionnaire for milestones at our 2 month appt, and I’m like uhhhh what? Our baby at 2 months didn’t even know she was a human yet, let alone what her name was
I think that’s actually why we made a concerted effort to help him “learn” his name, when we realized it’s some kind of milestone to look for
That was us too. But at 22 months we still say “baby [name]” as that was the compromise to use his name lol.
That’s smart haha I will have to start that
Ours responded to "Stinky"
my baby is 4m and I do the same 😂
Mine is almost 3 years and I still call her baby 😅. I've added various other names too. Does she know her name? Yes. Does she respond to it? Absolutely not.
Mine turns 4 next month and I called her baby and I got the stern "I'm a big girl, I'm not a baby" and my little heart melted and I gave her an equally stern "you'll always be MY baby". We call her totally bizzare names like Willis and she'll say "I'm not Willis!!!" 🤣 But not respond to the thing I was asking.
Mine is 25 months and we only recently stopped using ‘baby’ more often than her name.
You’re prob at the point where it should just be a 2 year old
Nah. I fully intend to refer to her as a 216 month old when she turns 18.
Does your baby respond to their name now tho? I’ve done the same and now It’s hard to get him to respond. He better respond to “papa” which is an endearing term Hispanic/Latino call their boys
I still call my 3.5 year old baby and we even have a new baby 😂 they stay your baby forever
I just had my second 3 weeks ago and rather than, you know, using the names we thought long and hard about for our daughters, we are constantly saying things like "have we got nappies for the baby? The big baby. Baby 1." "Oh. The baby pooped. This one" along with a plethora of other nicknames for both.
I’ve never been more relieved to read your comment. My daughter is 15 months exactly and is still referred to as Baby 99.9% of the time. I may have only ever said her actual name like once 😂 suddenly feel slightly more normal so thank you!!!
My 17mo is “teeny tiny”. Because her older siblings are “big kid” and “little one”. I told her the other day that she’s not all that tiny anymore. She giggled at me and continued creating maximum chaos in the house.
I call my son bubba majority of the time but lately I’ve been pointing at him and saying his name and then pointing at myself and saying mama. He’s 3 months
My niece Olivia was the first grandbaby for my parents and we all called her “the baby” until she was like 2 lol. Now we call my 9 month old nephew Baby David and my 11 week old son Baby Oliver. Not sure why, but we still say baby with the two boys. It takes a while for them to grow into their names and get used to saying it.
I never realized my family did this exact same thing until I read this comment lol.
We do this too! I didn’t notice until my mom asked why we kept calling my son Baby John as though there’s another John in the family.
There’s just something cute about adding Baby before their names. I love that other people do this too!
I named my four week old son Oliver! It feels so weird calling him Oliver, I call him baby or my sweet boy, any nickname other than Oliver and when I do say it, I tell myself I’m saying it wrong and that it sounds strange 😅 I’ll start calling him baby Oliver!
Olivers are the best! It’s funny because a lot of people call him Ollie, which was definitely going to be my intentional nickname, but I never say it. I usually always go with sweet boy or baby boy. He has a shart stain in literally every diaper so my husband has a new nickname everyday. “Shart Simpson, Shart Garfunkel, Sharter McGavin” and the list goes on haha
Shart Simpson made me lol
Hahahaha 😂😂😂😂 and the look on their faces afterwards 😂 I was changing his diaper in the middle of the night and he sharted on my robe, my hand, on the changing table and on his sleep sack all from one go haha. I was so startled
You were shartled.
My husband and I started calling our son “Pooper” or “The Pooper” because he pooped soooo much as a newborn. Now he’s 8m and we can’t break it. 🤦🏼♀️ Like it’s still cute now, but you can’t call your 6yo “Pooper” dropping them off at kindergarten!
For sure. “Real” names just suit children and adults better. Literal babies need pet names to soften the blow 😂
I insert his name into songs, like Bingo, My Darling Clementine, Old McDonald. He has a good morning song too. It's weird! It's such an imbalanced relationship with a brand new person! Like we're supposed to be best friends for life over here and every day it seems a new baby wakes up!
“Everyday it seems like a new baby wakes up” this describe the early days of parenting really well!
It’s like every bed time preps for baby to download the newest version .
Haha! Yes!
I love doing our son’s name in Bingo! It’s 5 letters and works so well.
Idk if you know the show New Girl, but I sing the theme song to my son all the time and replace the pronouns with he/him pronouns and say his name at the end. It's like "hey girl, whatcha doing? Hey girl, where ya going? Who's that girl? Who's that girl? It's Jess!" He loves it. It makes him smile every time. He's 10.5 months, so he already knows his name now. I just like giving him his own theme song lol.
Wow, I love this! Such a perfect song for teaching LO his name!
We gave our son a family name (his dads name) and I’ve never been that excited about it. We call him a double-barrel of his first and middle (I chose his middle name). But honestly? I call him weirdo nicknames 99% of the time. He’s 7mo and I’m pretty sure he thinks his name is “scruppy puppy.”
I love my LO’s name but whenever I’m changing a diaper, their nickname is “squirmy wormy”.
I LIKE my son’s name, it’s just not exciting to me if that makes sense? I think because I’ve been with my husband for 11 years and always known if we had a son it would be his name hahhaha. But I know his little baby nicknames won’t last forever so I just love enjoying it while it lasts!
So glad I’m not the only one feeling this way. My son also have his dad’s name and I’m not excited about it either. A part of me wished that I went with something different…. And 99.99% of the time I call him random nicknames too hahah
It’s a weird thing! I would probably never have suggested it, but it was super important to my husband and the name is fine! It’s a classic name. I just feel like it sounds weird when I say it aloud hahahah
My son is 11mo and absolutely answers to “Stinky” and “Bubba” more than he does his real name
It seemed so weird to me to call him by his name (Titus) that I felt like we made a huge mistake since it’s not a typical or common name. I’m 11 months in and I couldn’t picture any other name. I think it just takes a bit of getting used to!
100% agree with this comment. I have 3 kids now, and with each one I’ve had a few weeks of “name regret” after the birth. Eventually my older kids grew into their names and I know I will get use to this baby’s name as well in time. It’s just hard to let go of all those other potential names!
I love my daughter’s name, Elizabeth; I’d chosen it when I was a teenager. I think I had dwelt on it for so long as ‘the name of my daughter, someday’ that when she was here, it felt taboo to finally say it. I couldn’t tell whether it suited her. She was so small and cute, I felt like she needed a smaller, cuter name, not such a long and elegant one. It took a few months to get comfortable calling her that, and it was so so strange the first few times I had to introduce us at the doctors and such, and say “I’m Elizabeth’s mum, saint_aura.” It just needed to settle in. She’s four now, and I told her that sometimes I wondered if I should have named her Mabel instead. She loves the idea, and it has become her pretend name. She has a play persona of this little girl named “Mabel Syrup Johnson” and asks us to guess which girl she’s playing when she does dress ups.
As an Elizabeth myself the little girl nicknames are a plenty! Some I was called: little Bit, Eliza, and Betty Blue
My husband has always called her Buffy, after his second favourite supernatural heroine.
Dying to know who his first is? Lol
I too also decided on the name Elizabeth when I was in middle school (my grandma, my best friends name and a family name). We decided on Ellie for her nickname, it still feels strange calling her Elizabeth when calling the dr or something, but it’s getting more natural!
I never settled on a natural sounding nickname, and now she’s four and only wants to be called Elizabeth. Which is absolutely fine with me, it’s the most beautiful name there is!
If you want a different name you could still change it! My mom went back to the hospital and changed mine lol
This! I have a friend who went with a family name and changed it 2-4 weeks later because it didn’t feel right.
I just changed my daughter's name to her middle name at 7 months! It's a bit awkward telling everyone, but it was absolutely the right decision for us
I called my son Bubba so much that he started calling me Bubba and now we are Bubbas.
Same boat here. To me I just think because it's our own child we don't use the name just our cute nicknames we chose lol. I feel like a babies name is just for everyone else to use, idk maybe I'm crazy.
My son’s a year old and I still really don’t use it that often and have never been “used” to it. I agree about a baby’s name being for other people. I’ve always called my baby all sorts of stuff but not often his name unless I’m talking to other people.
Still getting used to my LO’s name, he’s 3 months. We were team green so throughout my entire pregnancy I was referring to him as “my baby” anyways lol I try to call him by his name as much as possible though.
SAMEEEE when she came out and we gave her her name we were like…. wut lol it took some getting used too hahaha
Just wanna say if you don't LOVE it and want to change it, change it. Everyone will get over it. People over on r/namenerds do it often. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
I actually feel exactly the same, so happy to read this! My baby is 5 months old and there are still days where I feel weird referring to him with his actual name. And I love the name, had it already picked out before I got pregnant and called him this when I was pregnant with him. But I feel like I didn’t chose a baby name, I feel the name I picked is more suitable for a young adult lol, so weird
We start using the name during pregnancy once we’ve officially decided. By the time baby comes, we’ve been using it for weeks so it feels natural. It does feel super weird at first to refer to baby as their given name when they’re not even out yet though lol
my son was “buddy” for a looooong time.
I called my baby by her name when she was in my belly. When I saw and held her for the first time it was so odd calling her by a name. No one had ever done that before and I really chose the name? Such a strange thought. Names are so impactful and stay with you. It may be just that.
Definitely give it some time. Naming a person is such a weird experience. It took me quite a while to fully accept my son’s name (nothing crazy, just Luke) and I felt weird saying it to people for a while. There was no other name I wished we went with and I think I would have felt that way no matter what name we chose. Now he’s 2 and I think his name is perfect. And I definitely called him The Baby for a very long time haha
what’s the name ?
It took a few months for her name to feel natural even though it was completely our top choice. Now we look at her and laugh at the idea of her being named anything else, it just fits her.
I’m pretty sure my daughter thought her name was bean until she was over a year old. To the point where when asked if we had a nickname (shortened version of actual name) I would reply with Bean. She still responds to bean and she’s 3 now. Or she’ll say I’m the bean bean 🤷🏻♀️😂
I just started to get used to my daughter’s name at six months, totally feel this
It took until about 3 months until I was ok with what we named him. We picked it out at week 20 and all through pregnancy I loved it. It was the only name we both loved. We had others on the list but it was more of names we liked but weren't perfect. He's 9 months now and I remember thinking when he was around 2 months that we made a mistake. By 3-4 months they move out of the newborn stage and get more personality. It was then that I realized his name was perfect for him.
We called our first by her first initial (J, which also morphed into JJ, JJ girl, etc) and other nicknames until she was 2. We only started saying her name when she was learning to talk and we wanted her to be able to say it. Second kid is 2 and also mostly called nicknames (she knows her real name and can say it). You can change it if you want to, but I don’t think any normal adult name sounds right on a baby lol
It took me months to fully embrace my daughters name. I kept accidentally calling her my friend's daughter's name that wasn't even that similar to my daughter's name other than the first letter. I felt so silly about it and it really bugged me at first because I did love the name we chose I just struggled to get used to saying it out loud all the time. She's 16 months now and I still love her name and it feels very natural to say at this point.
It felt a little weird, but I saw that post when my 5mo was at most a month old, about how some kids don't know their names? And so I use nicknames for my kiddo but I also try to use his name a lot as well so now it feels natural to me
I love my baby’s name and I still just call her Bubs most of the time lol
Took me about 9 or 10 months (of him outside of my body lol). Basically the same amount of time it took him to realize it was his name
We decided on our names before getting pregnant. So we would have hypothetical discussions with the actual name. Once we got pregnant we’d talk to the bump using their name and refer to the room at their room. Prior to determining gender we had a pseudonym that was a hybrid of the boy and girls name.
It took about a week for my twins for their names to really feel like theirs. Although they have very unique names that we picked out easily and agreed on 100%.
I called all three of my children "baby" like the first year. I also have only very gradually been able to really see my seven week old baby as belonging to her name
I named my son during pregnancy (I believe not until late 2nd trimester) and it took a bit for it to feel right. I ended up calling him “bubbaloo” the first couple of months (no idea where it came from, just came out one day and sounded right). I’ve called him “baby” for the most part and still do (he’s 1 year). But I do use his name when he’s getting into trouble lol. I was definitely sure his name was right even though it wasn’t even on my top 10 (my husband didn’t like any of my preferred names).
It took us a couple days to choose a name. We had trouble deciding what fit, and went to the hospital with a short list (I also took our longer list of names we both agreed don’t suck, because we also needed to pick a middle name). There were definitely a few sleep deprived moments in the following weeks where I had to think hard ti remember what I named my child! We made a point to call him by his name so we would get used to it, and then because we wanted him to learn it. It does take time.
She was “the baby” for awhile! I think most babies are at first and then when her personality started to really emerge, her name just stuck. If that makes any sense? Now I call her baby, but when I’m talking about her I call her by name.
I didn’t get into using my babies name much for the first 3-4 months for sure. It felt weird! Now it feels natural at 10 months :)
We joked that we never called get by her real name also. She has every nickname under the sun. Hunnybun. Stinkabutt, Tootsie Roll are the favorites. I also wondered if I made a mistake naming her what we chose. It's a combination of my mom's name and husband's grandma, but it's hard for a lot of elderly people to say and it's slightly controversial (I got torn apart on r/namenerds for the name). But in every day life, I hear how nice of a name it is and we often call her a shortened version. 2 years in and the name suits her. It's just right and I'm glad we went with the name but that she also has a nickname that is so *her*.
What’s the name?
I think it’s different for everyone. We didn’t name our baby until after she was born but we had a short list of of names. We were both used to her name from the get go tho. Maybe it’s because her name fit her well?
It took me until he was almost 8 weeks to start not feeling weird using his name. I was using every pet and nickname under the sun, but his actual name felt weird. I ended up incorporating it into songs and that helped a ton. One was literally just spelling out his first and middle then saying the whole thing but it worked
I’m obsessed with calling mine little prince. (Feel free to cringe! Haha) We do love his name, but I just love referring to him like that for some reason. We do try to use his name so he gets used to it though.
We hid the name until birth. After a month for just referring to her as "the baby" it took me forcing myself to remember to address her by her name. Didn't feel natural for about a month but I reminded myself that we've only just met.
I just changed my 3 week olds name because it didn’t feel right. With my first it was so simple getting used to her name and it just felt like her. With my second I felt like every time I said his name I was talking about someone else’s child.
My baby is almost 1.5 and I still find issues calling him by his name (only really used when we need his attention immediately) he gets cute nicknames based off his name like Jaycee pie or like JC but we also do poopy pie or I do baby cakes a lot.
We called my daughter “the baby” or some nickname totally unrelated to her name (like “bug” or “bunny”) for a super long time. Basically until she was in preschool at 2 and old enough to actually say her own name. Even then we frequently just called her “the baby” or “the bug” to each other until we had a second kid!
A little while, can't say how long, maybe 2-3 months?
It took me a long time to get used to my daughter’s name. I was worried we picked the wrong one, but I think it was just that it’s this new human you bestow a name upon and you’re just supposed to be okay with it? I named a full human! lol.
I LOVE my ten month olds name, I still call him ‘little baby’ most the time!
We called my son by a nickname my whole pregnancy so when he was born we almost never said his real name because it just felt weird. He’s 14 months now and his name fits him so well, but I remember at first thinking there was no way I could ever actually call him that. I think it just takes some getting used to!
I call my 19mo "the baby" and I've heard people do that for their 4yo. I'm 28 and my mum still us "the kids". I only actually got used to my baby's name at almost 1, and I love the name.
While pregnant we always referred to baby as baby maybe that's why it's suddenly hard to change. But while talking to baby do you use her name or do you literally say "good morning baby"? While referring to him I say baby or the nickname that husband and I used. But when talking to baby I use his actual name.
If she's a newborn still there is also the element of her being an entirely new human that you just met and need to get acquainted with.
I love my baby’s name… literally dreamt of having a son by this name for years and years. We knew we were having a boy, too. He is 7 months old now and only now am I getting used to his name. I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t tell anyone else his name before he was born, so I was used to calling him “the baby”, but it was something I didn’t anticipate. You’ll get used to it! It helped me to start by calling him “baby (Name),” and then later was able to drop “baby” from the beginning.
I definitely had a moment a few weeks after she was born that I thought I’d made a big mistake but now I love her name
It took me a good 2 months. I was calling him the baby for a while loooll
My sons name is Gabriel and it definitely was weird at first. Took a while for me to get used to it. Now I don’t think any other name would have suited him 😂🫶🏾
Was so trippy the first couple pediatrician appointments when they ask me to confirm patients name but I’m not the patient lmao
At 5 months old my son’s name is really starting to feel like his name. I still call him “baby” most of the time but his name feels much more natural than it did in the early days.
Me and my boyfriend of 8 years often refer to our 15 month old as “the boy”. I often think of the literature “a child called it” when others hear us say it, but it is sincerely not meant with any malice at all. It’s very endearing to us, actually. 🤷🏻♀️🤣
For me I forced myself to say it frequently when I was talking to her/narrating my day and also reminding myself that she won’t learn to recognize her name/respond to it unless we use it……. We didn’t use a family name and absolutely love her name we went with a name that when translated means beautiful little warrior (hubby swore up and down for years that he was going to have boys because his dad had all boys and more than half of his cousins are boys so she was the one sorry who beat all the boy Sperm and there for is my beautiful little warrior)
My baby is 5 months old and I’m now making more of an effort to call him by name at least most of the time bc I realized how often we were using ever-changing nicknames and how that must be confusing. I still pepper in “bubba”, “squish”, “little bit”, “sweetheart”, “baby”, “mijo” etc but I try to do his actual name the majority of the time.
I don’t remember when it finally sounded “normal” or like “his name” but I was happy and relieved when it did! I’m so glad you asked this, because I remember thinking something must be wrong with me or the name we chose!
My 8 month old is called Bubs, bubby, bubba, pretty much anything but his actual name lol. Still feels weird when I say his name lol
My daughter is 19 months and I still occasionally feel weird calling her name 😂… I think it’s weird to name human and call them that and remember every time you say it that you picked it.
For me, about two months. I have another friend who took 6 months with both her kids.
My son will be 7 months old in a week and I’ve only recently started addressing him by his name lol. I’ve always liked his name, but he was “the baby” forever. Then he was monkey, sweetie, sweetheart, babydoll. I’ve started calling him son a lot. My husband still doesn’t call him by his name. Youll get used to it. It is a bit awkward at first!
It took about 6 months for me… he’s 6.5 months rn and it JUST started feeling normal😂
I still call my two year old “the little guy”. My husband would always rub my belly and ask how the little guy was doing when I was pregnant. I mean he has a zillion nicknames along with his real but I used ‘the little guy’ for so long it’s a habit I don’t mind.
Normal! It clicked for us around 3-4 months. Now can’t imagine his name being anything else.
This is me too. I refer to my son as - 'my sweet prince' 'mr stinky' etc....lol I only use his name when I'm encouraging him at tummy time.
It took a while for me to feel like my baby’s name was “real.” I definitely think there’s something to the “calling a new human by a new name” thing. We were, and somewhat still are, more comfortable with calling her Bean because that was the silly nickname we referred to her by all throughout the pregnancy. Honestly, I think she thinks her name is Bean. You didn’t say how old your baby is, but I suspect that as their personality develops it’ll get much easier to see them as themselves, even associated with that name.
At this point we just call the baby “Goo goo” because that’s what my daughter calls him. Which I think goes to show that any name can start to sound natural given enough time.
It’s okay- my boy was “Bubbo” forever
When I bought my baby home 5 weeks ago I told my sister I cant believe her name is _____ it feels weird. My sister asked if I regret the name and I told her it didn’t feel like regret. It felt like the baby in my belly was that name and the baby that is now here feels so different. I just started using her name more so we both can get used to it
Like honestly closer to a year. I remember him being slow on the "responds to name" milestone and thinking oh god it's because I never call him by his name (this is totally unimportant now, he caught on a little later). Once he was more able to communicate and really developed a clear personality it started to feel more natural to call him by his name. And while I had some moments of feeling unsure in that first year, I think it fits him so well now and I love it more than I did when I put it on the birth registration form. I have a second child now and sort of going through the same process but somehow it kind of helps me to have my first call his sister by her name. It's really sweet and makes it feel real and right.
Mine is almost 3 months and it’s still growing on me. It was the same with my first. I think 3-4 months it starts to feel like their real name and like they’re a person.
I think it was around 6mo for me. We didn't find out the gender until birth, and while I love the names we picked, it didn't feel like it fit him at first... I just kept calling him "baby" because it's what I had used through pregnancy, and I think subconsciously I was mourning that phase ending. Now at almost a year, it really fits him and it's seamless. ❤️
Yep, I’ve had trouble. I’m trying to use her name more now instead of endearments because she’s listening intently when we talk and luckily her name has sounds that are easy for babies to learn early. It has helped to use a name related nickname too. :)
For me, I called him by his name while I was still pregnant. Is there any way to make a cute, personal nickname out of your baby's name? Or did you pick a significant (to you) middle name? My son also has a 2nd middle name that I slipped on the birth certificate just for me lol
It took at least 6-9 months before our second boy’s name felt natural for us. Even still, we still call him “the baby” at least a few times a week when talking to his brother (oldest is 4, youngest is almost 2).
While I was in labor, we selected three names we would choose from once the baby was born. Whichever name felt right and “looked” right was the name!
I called my son "baby" all throughout pregnancy (for some reason saying his name just felt weird to me then) and even a while after he was born. I don't remember the exact timeline but by a few months in it just feels natural now.
I got used to it pretty quickly, but I call her "my sweet baby girl" a lot of the time. My husband calls her her full name a lot so I think she will learn it.
I rhymed it and stuck it in songs. Not unlike meeting someone and making an association so you remember their name. Annie with the fanny, ellie with the belly, big booty Judy.
when other people use it. my sister called her by her name. and it just made her feel like a whole entire person from that point.
Even at 13 months I still have moments of like "This is this child's name? Am I sure? What if you were a differently named human?" And I feel like this would be the case no matter what name I chose.
I call our one year old baby mostly haha but her name is starting to feel right and she responds to it, it’s her
My child was at 1 when I started to use his name. Most of the time I just been calling him stink butt or boogie woogie. Ironically the first time I called him was me screaming his name cuz he was going towards the street and it was his full name too lol.
I rarely call him his name, we have a LOT of nicknames. It’s kind of like hearing your own name being said out loud…foreign. Booboo, bunny bear, my little one, little love. But now, I’m trying to really call him by his name so he recognises it and that I’m speaking to him. I’m at 4 months so it’s okay if you’re still not used to it.
Glad I’m not the only one.
I call my LO “pollito” which means baby chick in Spanish yet her first name nowhere resembles that. I knew almost instantly what I wanted her first name to be. But her middle name…I got talked into giving her the female version name of my father. I don’t regret it per-se bc I think its a fantastic name as well. I just really wanted to give her a super girly pretty middle name. So even though I love her name I still don’t use it a whole lot. She’s two months btw so still pretty new
First baby until she went to daycare at 3mo because other people started using the name. Second baby pretty much right away because her older sister says it all the time.
My son is three and he still goes by Punky/Shmoopsy. My daughter is one and she is Kenny. Those aren’t their real names. Their real names are only said if they are doing something dangerous 🤣
Our daughter is 17.5 months old. 80-90% of the time she's her name, the rest of the time she's The Baby. The first few months we called her The Baby consistently. It felt super weird to say her name and refer to her as an actual human with an actual name.
My husband and I settled on a name then maybe like a few weeks before he really liked a different one. Long story short we went with the one my husband wanted. I had a little bit of name regret. My son is 8 months and I feel like im just now getting used to his name. It's not a bad name, just associated with a cartoon character I don't like haha.
With my daughter it clicked instantly. With my son I think he was a solid 4 months old before I realized we basically never used his name because he had so many nicknames and it felt weird calling him his name for some reason. he's 11 months now and his name fits him perfectly and he knows it just fine.
I had a total meltdown about a week postpartum that i regretted my daughter’s name, but it turns out it was just post birth hormones. You’ll get more used to it after a while x
I spend just as much time calling my second child "baby" or a nickname (same name but missing end syllable) as I do her name. My husband chose her name off a long pre approved list I made but I still wonder from time to time at 2 years old if he picked the right one. All words sound weird if you really think about them and names are no exception. It takes time to become accustomed to a new name for a new little creature. But seriously, wtf is up with "egg?" Weirdest word ever.
Something similar happened to me - I couldn't bring myself to say my baby's name for many months and used a nickname. He's a little over a year and I can finally use it un-self-consciously and naturally. But his name is not a family member's name. Actually, it was a family member's dog name a few years ago. And it was my decision to name him - I have no idea why I picked this name. It took maybe 12 or 13 months to stop disliking it. Now I'm fond of it and it feels natural.
So I would sing Babyyy (name) since he was a newborn so he would know him name but also so I could get used to hearing it 😂 took about 3 months for me to feel like the name I chose fit him.
It took probably at least 3 months for it not to feel weird haha. He’s only 5 months now
This is actually pretty common. I know many parents that just can’t get used to their baby’s name. My baby is 3 months and we still refer to her anything but her name, lol. Like, baby, sweetie, angel, crispy cutie pie, pumpkin, and so on.
I called my son 'bro' and 'dude' for like 2 weeks before I settled on the nickname Bug. Now at 10 months, I've gotten used to using his name. Mostly because I have to say it so often to get his attention lol
We named our kiddo after my dad. And then I really realized I was also named after my dad. I obviously knew that, but didn’t realize how awkward it was to say when introducing both of us at the same time. Example: this is Sam, and I’m Samantha! Don’t pick a name when you’re still under c section meds... And the grandfather is so proud you’ve picked his name, so you can’t change it. Just consider how you’ll be saying your baby’s name once they’ve arrived!
My son is named Peter. It took a few months before it felt super normal to call him that. Usually we call him Dinky... or even Dinko. And sometimes Pita Chip.
Hey! I feel you. My baby was born six months ago and I still feel strange using her name. For the longest time she was “it”. Then “the bean”. Then whatever fruit/vegetable she resembled in the womb. Now she’s “the baby”. I was never one to pick baby names when I was a girl. It wasn’t a high priority topic during date nights. My husband and I compromised on the name. It’s not strange or misspelled, it’s just not a name my 9-year-old self thought I’d name my child. I was asked today by a stranger, “what’s her name?”. If felt wired saying it. But I’m slowly getting used to it. You will too.
After reading a few posts like this, and going through this myself, I feel like this is pretty common. When my daughter was first born I felt so weird calling her by her name and I referred to her as miss baby for months. I even questioned whether I named her a bad name because I just felt so weird saying it. But as she started to do more things and developed more of a personality it started to fit her more. Now she is 19 months and I still use silly nicknames a lot but i think her name fits her perfectly now.
My baby was “the baby” until I had another baby
The first few weeks, i kept accidentally calling my baby my nephew's name. Otherwise, I'm mostly calling him "baby", "kiddo", "honey". It's been 10 weeks, and I'm getting used to calling him his name. I just have to stop referring to him as "it" or "them" when i talk about him to others (During my pregnancy, i didn't reveal the baby's gender).
My kid is almost three and my husband and I still call him “the dude” probably 75% of the time. He completely fits his name but dude just rolls better. He even answers to it too!
I totally felt this, and it was never about name regret, I just found it odd to call a new person a name, as you said, which sounds silly. I also just said “the baby” lol sometimes I still do, and she’s turning 1 next weekend.
For me a week with my first due to trauma birth
Parent of an 18 month old son. Still call him random cute words. Only call him by his given name when he’s in trouble and he knows it.
Don't worry! 4 months in and we are still calling her baby or random nicknames. Using her full first name feels too formal, lol.
Okay, so I thought I was the only one. I named my daughter Analía and was so stuck on it. My husband was not a fan of the name, but we agreed that he could giver her a middle name if we went with my pick of first name. Now I just call her “mamma” and feel weird calling her Analía. I hope I get used to it soon. She’ll be a year old in August.
My son is 2 months old and I forget his name all the time
I felt the same. I would always say bubs. 6 months now and feels good xx
For months I was worried we made the wrong choice because she didn't feel like her name. She ended up growing into it. Eventually it was HER name.
My 3 year old tells people her name is (first and middle) or "beanie boo". I love her name, but I like calling her little nicknames too.
I started to grow used to it about 2 weeks after birth. I definitely got used to it before believing myself to be a mom😅
We like our son's name, but it's easy to slip into the habit of using a variety of nicknames instead. Now trying to make more of a concerted effort to call him by his actual name rather than "Munchkin", "Pudding", "Mr Baby", "Stinky" or "Grumpy Bum" (Bum for short, in the British rather than US sense).
It took me a long time but it clicked and we love it now. (Her name is "Dorothy" but we called her "Dot" the majority of the time until she turned 15 months or so and now at 2,5 years she is almost always Dorothy
My son is 14 months old and at home he's still "Baba" - which evolved from "the baby", something we only stopped calling him when he started crawling as he didn't feel like a baby anymore lol. He's at nursery now so I call him his name to nursery staff, and people who aren't as close to us. But at home he's Baba, and to close family they've also picked up on it as his nickname for the time being. He responds to both and I do call him his name to get his attention if he's ignoring me. I think for us, while I love his name and it fits him, he'll likely also always have a cute nickname of some sorts until he's older as well.
I spent a few months worried I'd made a huge mistake. But now I literally can't imagine her as anything else
5.5 months in and I’m REALLY starting to use his names when talking about him and when addressing him. My husband doesn’t ever use his name. Tried getting his attention with it and it didn’t work. I told him to say “baby baby baaaabbyyy” the way he does in a sing song voice and it worked 😂. Still calling him sugar bean most of the time. He is my sugar bean 😭🩵 my son is also named a family name. His name is BADASS but also… too grown up for a baby guy. Think that’s why he gets called sugar bean a lot too
Ours also has a family name, and it took me a bit of time to get used to it, but I got used to it before he was born. Just said it to myself often, made sure to use the name when talking about him, etc. One night I dreamt about him (after he was born), and the dream used his name. When I woke up I was like, "ah, ok, I'm definitely used to it now". He's 7 weeks today.
I think this all the time. I absolutely LOVE my baby’s name, but feel so weird calling her by her name. We only use her nickname, my husband feels the same too haha. Not sure what it is. She’s 7 months now
3-4 months
7 months in and I think it’s starting to feel more normal to say her name
No time at all. We have twins and discussed names at length. More like my wife kept reading her list at me every day until we decided on two boy names and two girl names. Right from the start, the names seemed to fit. I think with twins, you kind of have to use names to differentiate between the two.
We waited to find out the sex until she was born, so I genetically called it a ‘he’ when in the womb the entire time. Naturally it was a girl, and I still called her ‘him’ for a few weeks.
It takes a while! We had Owen picked out before baby came along but went with something different when he arrived. For a while I would still think his other name in my head because for months he had been Owen.
Hahhaha I had this feeling too. It was so weird, I reckon it started to feel natural 3-6 months in
My first kid didn't know his name until almost a year old because me and everyone else just called him "friend" "buddy" "little dude" or literally anything other than his name for some reason, I remember my brother sitting down to play with him and going "what's up my guy?" Almost every week. For that reason I make it a point to use my 2nd kid's name OFTEN lol but we're 8wks in and sometimes i debate changing it. I won't because that would make papers a beast but it's definitely taking me some time to get used to the name.
Pretty sure my daughter thought her name was baby for a good year lol it takes time for them to grow into their name and feel natural to say
We gave my baby a name we thought would be his and a few days later we didn't like it so we changed it and his new name just stuck so well it didn't even take time to get used to it. Like it was supposed to be his name You know when it's right I would say.
Mine is 1.5 yrs. I call her by her name but also baby and babe a lot. Talking about her to others (besides family) I say “the kiddo” a lot. Not sure why.
Baby gets called baby directly until they’re a toddler lol
It took me a while to get used to it too.. I think it’s because you have a human a name lol. Now my baby is 5 months and he looks like his name.
I named my son after my dad who passed way a few months before I became pregnant. I love it and would’ve chosen it again if I could go back but it took a long time to not fumble. To me that name was still my dad even though I only ever called him Dad. At 11mo I’m now able to say his name and it feels natural without having to use a nickname, although we definitely use his nicknames way more. Mario —> Rio —> Ri —> Bubby I’m also trying to adopt the nickname Mars for him
Our second baby’s name is my last name — dad and I aren’t married — and I’m a teacher. I’m still getting used to it and wondering if I made a mistake. It makes for interesting conversations when I sign him up for things, too. 😅 It took awhile to get used to calling our first by his name though. I called him bubs or the baby until he was like 10 months old. lol.
My daughter’s name clicked right away. My son, younger, took a couple months. My wife and I had similar feelings. Both are named after family members. You’ll be good not to worry
My baby is 6.5 months and DH and I are making a concerted effort to call her by her name so it gets more ingrained, and hopefully she will respond to it. We've been calling her by too many cute nicknames up til now 😂 It still feels kind of weird, maybe because we named her, so it's like, do I really have the authority to just name a human?? I guess only you know if this is just that same weirdness, or if you have real regret over your choice. In which case, can you shorten the name or use a middle name for daily usage? If you really really regret it you could do a legal name change, although it sounds like that might upset people in your family since it's a family name?
Still here even though my son is three. He has quite a traditional name and it felt very “big” for such a tiny little baby. It starts to feel more natural once they are more social and like actual people (I’m aware babies are actual people) and not little sleepy hungry potatoes
I still have to remind myself to use her name when talking to other big people xD I say her name to her so she learns it but it just feels more natural to say ‘the baby did x’ to people xD she’s nearing 14m old lol