🌍 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 Singapore
Register a Singapore birth through LifeSG within 42 days and download the digital birth certificate. ICA does not register overseas births: use the authorities where the birth occurred and separately check Singapore citizenship, immigration and parentage requirements.
4. In Singapore
Mummy, daddy, nappies/nappies, cot, pram/stroller and polyclinic are familiar terms, but household languages and names differ. Confinement practices are family choices, not medical requirements; do not delay feeding, washing or urgent care to follow a custom.

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