Personally I think that is a game ripe for opportunities for people to get offended. What if someone throws in a name they really really love and the mom-to-be thinks its a joke or something? Unless you are very close to every single person at your shower, thats a game I'd steer clear of.

I say no games at showers in general! No one enjoys them. It always feels very 6-year-old birthday party. Just let guests be adults and socialize as they normally would.

I think it's a great idea as long as everyone knows to have fun with it! Mom-to-be might find a name she hadn't even thought about considering. Just remember, it's all in fun, don't expect the mom to pick the one she likes best or anything like that. Just have her read the names and hear people's reactions. Sounds like fun to me!

If you're concerned about offending people maybe you could have everyone write one serious name at the top and one funny at the bottom, just to make it more interesting and that way the mom-to-be knows not to joke about the serious names.

by the time a shower is being done, most of the time, the name has already been selected.

since my shower was not a surprise, I did a similar game. I asked people to guess the name of the baby and the gender. The person who came closest, won a prize.

I wouldn't do it the opposite way around. It puts the parents in an awkward situation, where they have to reject the idea of naming the baby after grand-aunt soandso....

I entirely agree with LuaBear. No games at all.

Terrible idea. There are names I love that I know some people would hate. For example, my parents, who consider only the Irish names popular in Boston from 1950-1975 to be acceptable names for their grandchildren (Brian, Michael, Patrick), would loathe names I like (think slightly British names like Simon or Julian, or older names like Charles or Nathaniel). I wouldn't particularly enjoy hearing a name I've been considering mocked. Other people might be offended by negative comments about their grandparents' names, siblings names, middle names and so on. And then the poor pregnant woman is stuck knowing that the name she really loves makes her aunt think of that bratty kid who used to tease her in the 3rd grade and so on. This is why I've been avoiding discussing names at all with anyone except my husband. He had been following the same rule, but broke it yesterday and told a co-worker our current top choice. Apparently, the co-worker hates that name and felt the need to say it. Great, just when we had reached a consensus.

Skip the games. Adults entertain themselves through conversation, food, and champagne, if possible.

I had a surprise shower given by a close group of friends for my third baby (first girl!). My husband and I had still not completely settled on a name, and the hostesses had this as one of the activities. She had everyone write a name that they loved on a strip of vellum and put them in a jar. I got to read them all and we all talked about it. Since I knew everyone loved the names, I only said nice things even if it wasn't my favorite.

It was neat to see what all of my friends that would be a good name for me to pick and hear why they thought so. No one picked the name we used, but it was definitely fun! I put all of the little strips in my daughter's baby book.

well one would hope that in a group of adults, or well-mannered children for that matter, when asked to write down suggestions, no one would mock choices!

If that isn't the case, then names could just be written down to be reviewed by the parents later and all discussion avoided

that being said, i was at a shower just last week and the family had not chosen names yet and she flat out asked me for suggestions. I just told her it was a personal choice but to make sure she considered how it (and any shortened forms) sounded said out loud with the last name.

It's not a bad game, it gets people talking anyway, which is great if not everyone at the shower knows each other. An option: Place a chalkboard or easel (with a roll of paper attached) on display with chalk/pens handy plus an alphabet die (like used for the game Scattergories). Instructions: guests roll the die and have to come up with a name using the letter rolled. Write it on the board. Alternately, use slips of paper in a bowl/basket/bucket and the mommy-to-be can read them aloud while people visit.

Definitely no measure-the-belly games or anything involving pudding and diapers. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky.

Finally, people expect that not everyone will love their favorite names. My neighbor thought my son's name should be a girl's name. I think her baby's name is ridiculously trendy. We are both ok with it.

I was at a shower once where there was a game to see who could come up with the most names using the letters from a phrase which included their names. (Not sure if that makes sense.) But, it was actually fun, involved names but no hurt feelings.

>>well one would hope that in a group of adults, no one would mock choices!

One would hope. But, sadly, one is likely to have one's hopes disappointed....

I was at a co-ed shower recently where we did this and it was really fun. The best part was seeing how different the likes of the mom and dad to be were, and watching them try to guess who had put the name in the bowl.

As long as the mom isn't obligated to choose one of the names, it sounds like fun. Someone with a laptop nearby could even look up name meanings as she reads them.

It sounds disastrous as a sincere suggestion, but extremely fun as a guess the submitter game.

Oh, how I loathe party games for adults...

I loathe party games too. Can't we have a nice, quiet party, where fun conversation and good champagne (non-alcoholic for me, yurk) play the main role ?

I would steer clear of the "funny name" idea. In France, most poeple try to be original, and that means lots of names that can be in the parent's list will fall under that category. You don't want your best friend explaining that the name you choose is the most ridiculous name she knows.

A friend of mine did something funny. He and his wife couldn't decide between two names, so they send mails announcing the birth, and asking for poeple to vote on one of the two names. I don't think they felt bound by the answers, so it was really funny.

I wouldn't even consider discussing our name choices. No one wants to hear that the name your have cherished since age 8 reminds someone else of that girl who use to pick her nose in class or that boy who gave you wedgies.

I didn't want any games at my (elegant; adult) shower, but we ended up doing a few of them and I'm very glad we did. We did the "name vote" game; everyone tossed in their favorite names and voted the list down to three favorites, then my husband and I chose the winner: Lucius. Not a name we'd be likely to use (we went with Quinn), but it was fun :)

We also did the belly measuring game, a peanut counting game, and had our guests create a baby animal playdoh garden. It was a co-ed shower, none of our friends are especially "shower game" type of people, but we all had a ball.

I threw two showers for a dear friend, and did the Baby Name thing at both (the only game we did).

Simply handed out sheets with Mom and Dad's name written on each, and people came up with a name choice for each letter in each name.

Mom specifically requested at second shower after enjoying it so much at the first one.

People really need to stop being so hyper-sensitive about this stuff. If you like a baby name and other people think it's stupid, silly, whatever... either reconsider the name based on the reaction or shrug it off and move forward with what you like. Choosing a child's name is a big deal, but what other people think about it doesn't have to be if you are set on it.

I never understand people who get so upset at what other people think about what THEY like. I have a name choice for baby boy that people sometimes think is weird. I don't care. We love it.