🌍 Culture & inspiration · During pregnancy

🏷️ Choosing your baby’s name: gut feeling, data and golden rules

Choose a name you value and check the registration rules where the birth occurs.

What to know

1. What to prepare
Agree spelling, order, diacritics and surname with the other legal parent where appropriate; consider how the name will appear on documents.
2. What to check
Use the local registrar’s process and obtain advice if parentage or surname consent is disputed. Do not assume a French naming rule applies locally.
3. In Ireland
Use the Civil Registration Service to register the birth. For unmarried parents, current rules require the mother to provide the father’s contact details unless an applicable exception applies; check the registrar’s process. Birth registration does not itself settle guardianship. Donor-conceived registration has a separate process.
4. In Ireland
Use nappies, cot, mum or mam according to family preference; public health nurse and GP are useful local service terms. Irish and English family names and pronunciations vary; ask rather than assume.

A local detail, or your own experience with this guide? Write to the team