I have 4 weeks left before the estimated due date and am starting to panic a bit. We have still not picked out the babies(boy) name!!! Is it true it needs to be decided at the hospital before you go for delivery? In the UK you have some weeks after the baby is born to decide on a name. Also if any one has any suggestions....we are muslim/sikh..and have been trying to find an in between name that will fit into both cultures....not an easy task.

Günthar-Grumk... Swiss and Sikh.

Yes, when you check in to the hospital they will give you a form to fill out and on there you will have to fill in the baby's name both for girl and boy (unless you are 100% sure of what you are getting).

Elias (Ilias or Ilyas) is the muslim variant of Elijah the prophet. I heard swiss german giving also this name to their boys.

That wasn't true in our case. We didn't have to decide until a day or two after our daughter was born.

We were given three days from when our daughter was born to give the hospital her name. However, this was three 'working' days so as she was born on the Friday we had until Tuesday to register the name

ok, so hopefully we will have a few days to decide, I will check with the hospital what their policy is. Thanks for that.

Some people say when you'll look at him the first time, you'll instantly know his name. Don't pick a name to "fit" in a culture, give him a name that you like and you will love calling him.
Best of luck !

...and that he or she will like, and will not have the p taken out of at school!

Dara is a name I love and has many origins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dara and has the advantage of being pronounceable in all languages.

Use a method.

Typically :

• Collect the most possible names, with as much information as you consider enough.
• Collect the names in some electronic file (a text file, a Word file or, better, EXCEL), for handling large volumes of them (hundreds, thousands...) with more comfort than books and post-it, or than paper lists.
• Don't trash the names you don't want. Mark them as "no". You may change your mind, or be happy to remember you have already rejected this one (adding explanation about the "no" is a good thing to do, if possible)
• Don't trash the names that don't inspire you anything. Mind that your spouse may like some of them, or that you may change your opinion.
• Mark down details and your opinions about names that you like, or that your spouse likes.
• Establish a way to measure likeness, and to produce an average measure between your likeness and the likeness of your spouse.
• For the names in the shortlist, collect more info : frequency, meanings, names sounding quite similar, history, litterature, religion, etc. Even obvious info can be good, because they may not be so obvious for your spouce (and vice-versa).

That's the method I followed, and it was stress-free and problem free. I have used excel, pasted thousands of names in it (found in the internet). I have used the following measures of likeness :

• [no mark] - not seen, or ignored, or no thoughts about it
• 0 - To be forgotten. It has some terrible bad point.
• 1 - To keep somewhere in mind, but no more...
• 2 - Maybe... ... To be considered...
• 3 - A good candidate, but I am not yet convinced I would be fully satisfied of it.
• 4 - This firstname is totally ok for me, I really like it, no doubt about that.
• 5 - Darling, I love this firstname, it sounds just perfect for me, it has to be on the very top of our veryshortlist...

Adding the marks of both parents, you get a mark between 0 and 10, and so you can order. Also, both parents can forecast the firstnames leading to potential conflict, and those leading to peacefull agreement. A firsname having 7 (4+3) can be somehow a better choice than one with 7 (5+2). Also, keep in mind that the liking of a firstname is changing; a firstname that sounded not so good at first, it can slowly appear to be a good choice, if it has started to grow in your heart.

An exemple of EXCEL file with many (French/Frinnish) firstnames, columns for adding remarks and mesures of likeness :
http://www.impluvium.eu/nameselector/prenoms.xls

/Paul

I have faced the same problem since I'm Spanish and my boyfriend is Swedish. What we did first is write a list of the names we like, each one its list. Then we gave our lists to each other and we crossed out all the names that he partner had chosen that we didn't like at all. Then we tried to decide among the remaining names. I have to admit that it was not very efficient since as time passed we added names to the list instead of choosing one of the list..... Eventually though, we managed to sit down and choose two names. Then we let ourselves think about the names for a some weeks and we made the final decision about a month before our son was born.......

I had a different strategy with my wife because she was discarding all the names I was suggesting after 1-2 days of reflection. So I kept my favourite name secret till last day and then I said: what about this name....! Surprise effect plus no time for further reflection helping she immediately said: Yes, i like!

For my babies (which i dont have yet!) I made up my own names which are a mixture of names already in the family (dad/grandad for the boy, mom/grandma/grandma for the girl).

Selbstverständlich
I assumed the OP loves/will love her child and wouldn't call him...say Knoktrix, Dick, Ferrari or David Beckham

Kevin's a very popular name in Switzerland

No it's not. Just tell them you need a few days to decide. We did.

I agree with both these posts.

Cookie Monster, I have all faith you will choose the right name. However My Sister and her husband did something interesting when deciding the name...... they held a dinner party !!

At the party it was a game for the guests where something like 10-15 names of each sex were suggested one by one.

The guests all took turns to be as mean as they could and try to tease the hell out of the name to get an idea how hard it might be for the kid.

Ultimately they made the decision themselves, but if you can look at the activity objectively it's worthwhile for the longterm.... and it's fun.

No justification in the world for your name suggestion supports names like:
Ophelia Dick
Wayne Ker
Wasi Akrim? (if questioning someones criminal background)

Good luck with it.

Sorry I can't be of more help with the name.

No insight into how long you have to name your baby, but regarding the names, what if you used the naming convention of one culture and the name from the other?

CHRISMUSIK for Christian and Muslim and Sikh