How I Named My Baby by the Numbers

For more than three years, we've featured a series called How I Named My Baby.

We've interviewed dozens of parents about the baby name process — from those who chose ultra-popular names to parents who invented their own choices. There were parents who named their children after television characters, ones who let their older children name their baby, and parents for whom the perfect name felt fated.

While most of the families we spoke to live in the US, we also spoke to namers around the world, including Sweden, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and England.

How I Named My Baby is wrapping up (for now!) and to mark the end of this series, we crunched the numbers on all things HINMB.

How I Named My Baby Demographics

We spoke to the parents of 96 babies — 57 girls and 39 boys.

There were 7 sets of multiples: 3 twinsets, 3 sets of triplets, and 1 family with quadruplets (!)

44% of the babies featured were their families' firstborns, while 25% were born second. 31% were born third or later in the lineup — two babies featured were their parents' sixth child.

Deciding on a Name

The meat of How I Named My Baby is the name decision itself — we asked parents to tell us all about their process of choosing a name, and here's the breakdown:

A whopping 21% of the parents we interviewed chose their child's name before they were even expecting! For some, they used a name they loved from a previous pregnancy, while others chose a longtime favorite.

Sometimes a really longtime favorite — 11% of our babies featured were given a name their parent had loved since childhood, including Pippen Carol, Everett Holston, and Sparrow Elizabeth.

But most parents chose their baby's name sometime during their pregnancy. In fact, the average amount of time it took for parents interviewed to decide on a name was 5.08 months (that's about 20 weeks and two days).

However, 22% of the parents we spoke to went into their child's birth without a name nailed down. Whether they were waiting to see which name their baby suited — as with Aden Parker — or just couldn't pick a name, like the parents of True Luck, these parents took the full nine months (and then some!) to choose a baby name.

The baby who waited the longest to be named was Magnus Gabriel Nicholas, who was around a week old when his parents made their decision.

The wildest way to choose a baby name might be through a dream, but that's how 2% of the babies we featured got their names. Ashley Rouse, mom of Zola Antoinette shared, "I had a dream that we had a beautiful baby girl and her name was Zola. When I woke up, I told my husband and he adored it."

Kimberly Harvey, mom of Winnie Jean, told us, "Pregnancy dreams are so vivid, and one night I dreamed that her name was Winnie Jean. I woke up, and it felt so real. Jean had to be [her middle name]!"

To Share or Not to Share...

...that is the question on many parents' minds when expecting a child. There's a lot of conflicting advice out there, but many modern parents are opting not to talk baby names with friends and family, as evidenced by the families we interviewed.

Only 35% of the parents we talked to had open conversations about baby names with others. For some, it was a necessity, particularly with cross-cultural naming. Japanese American Saya Fukuda, mom of Millie Sakura, told us, "I wanted everyone to approve the name I picked. My husband and his parents had to feel comfortable with it and I wanted my parents to pronounce it easily."

Parents like Dr. Brittany Johnson, mother of Cleo Cruize, asked strangers about names to gauge their reactions. She told us, "I went on the Nameberry forums and Reddit and read peoples' opinions on Cleo for a boy. It's strongly feminine for most people — few know it has origins as a predominantly masculine name."

However, most parents were not interested in other's opinions. Andrea, mom of Casper Jerome, told us, "[My husband] and I both come from big, opinionated families and knew we would get some kind of hurtful comments even though people don’t mean it that way necessarily. [The name] was a complete secret up until birth."

But once the name was finalized, parents were more open to sharing. Of the parents who decided on their child's name before birth, 39% announced the name prior to their baby's arrival. Kris and Noah Romero, parents of Quest Aiko, even revealed their daughter's name on their pregnancy announcement.

What's in a Name?

For the parents we interviewed, a lot!

More and more, parents are prioritizing name that connects to their heritage. 20% of the babies in How I Named My Baby have names with cultural ties.

Australian author Georgia Clark, mom of Rozella Jayne, named her daughter after an ancestor named Ryzella, with an Australian twist. She told us, "We changed the Y to an O also because it’s sonically resonant to rosella, which is an Australian reference. Rosellas are a common, colorful parrot. It’s also the name of a fruit that my mother makes jam from every year."

For multilingual families, a name that works in more than one language is a necessity. 14% of the children we featured have names specifically chosen to work in multiple languages.

Amber Rodriguez, mom of triplets Lucia Sara, Camila Deena, and Rafael Esteban, shared with us, "My husband is Hispanic and has Mexican heritage, and I’m from the Midwest. Esteban’s parents don’t speak the best English, and my parents don’t speak any Spanish. We needed names that sounded beautiful in both languages and weren’t too difficult for native speakers to pronounce."

But the prize for most languages considered goes to Caroline and Melia, moms of Adira Jane, who needed a name that worked in four languages. Melia said, "We both speak Spanish, and Caroline also speaks Russian and French, so we wanted a name that would sound similar across multiple languages."

Family Matters

Some children were given a cultural or multilingual name by way of an honorific. 58% of the babies we featured have a family name as a first or middle. Sometimes both, as with Yani Rose, who is named after her grandmothers Yaniere and Rosalinda.

But family names are most common in the middle. 75% of the babies with honor names have them as middle names. Using multiple middle names is a way to pay homage to more relatives — as with Clementine Mary Maddalena — but only 13% of the babies we profiled were given more than one middle name. The average number of middle names for children in How I Named My Baby is 1.12.

Surprisingly, only 4% of the children we featured go by a name that's not on their birth certificate, proving that modern parents are increasingly in the name-them-what-you-call-them camp. Of these babies, most of them go by a nickname — like Rose Teresa, "Rosie".

Others, like John Aidan, go by their middle name. Aidan's mom Beau told us, "When I agreed to John, I never thought we would call him John. I like the way John Aidan flows much better than Aidan John."

We even spoke to one family who changed their child's name. Benjamin Seidler and Stuart Vevers originally called their daughter Sylvie Vivienne but later realized she is much more of a Vivienne Pearl. Benjamin said, "We had to keep Vivienne, not only because it’s beautiful and has the water connection, but because it’s a connection to our mothers, who couldn’t be with us in person because of COVID."

The Top Names of How I Named My Baby

We featured babies with a huge variety of names — from true classics to one-of-a-kind — but naturally, some repeats did occur. We doubled up on two first names: Atlas — one boy and one girl — and Millie.

The most common name overall was Rose. It was used once as a first name and three times as a middle name. The other middle names given to three babies were James (one girl, two boys) and Jean. Dove, Elizabeth, and Gabriel were each used twice, all as middles.

How I Named My Baby Lives On

In order to make room for new Nameberry projects, we're pausing new How I Named My Baby interviews. But you can access the full How I Named My Baby archive here, which houses almost 100 name stories.

If you're in an interview-reading mood, start with our most popular features:

1. A Colorado mom shares her triplets' unique name stories in How I Named My Babies: Rhodes Upton, Banks Hazard, and Ziggy Lake.

2. Influencer Hannah Lily Williams discusses her fourth child's — and first daughter's — name story in How I Named My Baby: Leni Jean.

3. A Virginia dad takes the lead on the baby name process in How I Named My Baby: Hugo Kyle.

4. Single Mom by Choice Laurie Baker talks about naming a child on her own in How I Named My Baby: Penny Mae.

5. Dads Justin and Mark share the inspiration behind their daughter's name — a WWII friendship and postwar love story — in How I Named My Baby: Larsen Jean.

We'd like to give a huge thank you to all the families who applied for and participated in How I Named My Baby.

If you want to share your baby's name story with us, we are accepting submissions for social media features.

Or head to the forums, where @readingreverie created a topic for Berries to answer the How I Named My Baby questions for their babies — real or imaginary!