Oh names, names. It's crazy,IMO, but people can be really cruel, especially family. My husband is a "II - second" and so there was a LOT of pressure from his family to name our first son after him, continuing the tradition that his dad had started. I was okay with that, but he was NOT - he hated not having his own name and always getting things like bank accounts confused with his dad. So we decided not to tell anyone. We chose family names for the first and middle names - one from each side and just announced it after he was born. Neither name went over really well - even though they were family names, but people didn't say much because there wasn't anything they could do about it at that point. Plus, there was a cute little baby to go with it.

With our second son, we again picked family names for his first and middle names, but this time we told and I'm sorry we did. I had a really close relationship with my husband's paternal Grandmother, Grace, and we named our son after her - Grayson. Middle name Fredrick, after the men in my family. We got grief for it sounding so old - TONS of questions about spelling and lectures about NOT spelling it "Gracen". We caved and stuck with "Grayson", even after his grandmother passed away two weeks before our son was born, something that I will always regret just a little. So for him, I'm only glad we told because his namessake would have passed before she found out and that was worth it to me, otherwise I would have just kept it a secret like the first time. Frist son - Alphred (Alphie) Clair; both named after grandfathers in our families.

I am pregnant with my third and we haven't and won't tell anyone the baby names we like. Once we have the baby we just announce the name and that's that. I like unique names (nothing too crazy or spelled weird, we just don't pick names from the top 100 list--my 2 boys have names that did not make the SSA top 1000 list when we picked them) and I don't want anyone to influence me or make me think twice about what I have picked. If someone hates the names I like that would obviously make me feel upset and if they like the names alot then I worry that everyone else will like them too and then they will get to be too popular in a few years so either way I just don't want to hear their opinions. It does make everyone around me--especially my mother in law--kind of crazy but it saves me from losing sleep over my choices and second guessing myself. Since we do find out the sex of the baby and announce that to everyone, I like that the name is a surprise until the end.

As far as teasing goes (jamieW), I truly think that if a child is going to be teased by someone then they are going to be teased no matter what their name is. I think teasing a child has little to do with someone's name, if a bully wants to tease a certain child they will find a way to make fun of them or their name regardless of what it is.