Reasons to TELL
- It's way too hard a secret to keep and you'll make yourself miserable trying
- You want/need to start monogramming and personalizing adorable baby products
- Feedback on nicknames, pronunciation and random name-related complications are never a bad thing. And if you do discover some sort of unanticipated angle (i.e. People could call him Chuck instead of Charlie), you have plenty of time to develop a game plan
Reasons to NOT Tell
- Surprises make good things better, and surprising...
- Avoid awkward reactions from people who don't like the choice and do a bad job of faking it
- Avoid rude reactions from people who don't like the choice and don't care to fake it
Now that I've given you some food for thought, I want you to put said food aside and snack later. Let's talk name poaching. I left this major issue off both lists because I think it should be a separate consideration. When you finally settle on your name of choice, whether it's decades in the making or a fabulous find from a baby name book
that you bought an hour ago, the threat of someone stealing it becomes real, and real scary.Revealing the chosen name could be a useful tool for staking your claim - it takes a mean biatch to snatch a baby name, especially from an expecting mother. On the other hand, maybe your friends and family members are a bunch of mean biatches, so by revealing the name you're effectively waving the carrot. And let's not forget about co-workers and acquaintances who could steal the name without falling into the brazen-jackhole category because they don't know you all that well.
I think we all remember George Costanza's perfect baby name - Seven. And I think we all remember when that name was stolen from him. Makes you wonder whether he should have kept it under wraps until baby Costanza existed.
It would suck if a good friend or favorite cousin stole your name, but I think the likelihood of that happening is about .04% (read: totally and completely unlikely). Everyone else wants their baby name to be just as one-of-a-kind (within their circle) as you do - there's a mutual desire to avoid duplication. And, more importantly, you don't keep mean biatches in your circle. So, it's a wash. You can keep it a secret and risk the rarest of chances that someone will randomly choose the name OR you can tell everyone and risk the rarest of chances that a meanie will poach the name.
Go back to that food (read: the original two lists) and make your decision based on those factors, because poaching is a unpredictable, rarity that cannot be accounted for.
 |
| Victoria Beckham 9+ months pregnant with Harper SEVEN Beckham (image HERE) |
