300+ Nicknames for Your Babykins…Doodlebug…Snugglebunny…

[By L.R.Knost, author of  Two Thousand Kisses a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages, Whispers Through Time: Communication Through the Ages and Stages of Childhood, and The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline available on Amazon and through other major retailers.]

After nine months of googling, polling family and friends, making list after list, and agonizing over making The. Perfect. Choice. the moment arrives…you’ve finally chosen your expected blessing’s name. The perfect name. The name that will be with them forever. The name that will appear on their birth certificate, their highschool diploma, their voter ID card, their college degree, their marriage certificate. Your first parental decision…check! And then your little one arrives, and as you kiss that tiny, fuzzy little head, you find yourself whispering, “Welcome to the world, pumpkin.”

Wait a minute. Pumpkin? That’s not the name you agonized over! Why, after all the effort you put into choosing The. Perfect. Name. would you call your new arrival something entirely different?!?

Actually, it’s a good thing! Here are a few reasons why:

‘The perfect name’ is for the whole wide world to use in interacting with your little one, but a nickname is just for you, a symbol of the intimate, interdependant, loving connection between parent and child. Also, while ‘the perfect name’ may be perfect for certificates and licenses and diplomas, it doesn’t reflect the personality of this unique and adorable new person who has their own special purpose for being here. And, really, resisting giving your little cutie an equally cute nickname would be just as hard as resisting the urge to blow raspberries on their squishy tummy or kiss their soft cheeks a thousand times a day or stare into their curious little owl eyes.

So go ahead, choose ‘the perfect name’ for your tiny blessing so that they can be known to the world, and then, when you start getting to know your little hugabug or dynamo or sunshine, choose another ‘perfect’ name to reflect who they are and what they mean to you 🙂

Here’s a list of some popular, and some not so well-known, nicknames to check out. If you’ve got a nickname for your little one that’s not on the list, share it in the comments!

Related links:

Ten Steps to Surviving the First Three Months with a Newborn

The Gift of Breastfeeding

Love in the Time of Cosleeping

12 Steps to Gentle Parenting

Babywearing Basics Resource Guide

Breastfeeding, Babywearing, and Bouncing Back into Shape after Baby

25 Tips to Prepare Children for a New Sibling

Four Ways Attachment Parenting Can Reduce the Risk of SIDS

The Science of Sleep: Newborns

Award-winnning author, L.R.Knost, is the founder and director of the children's rights advocacy and family consulting group, Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources, and Editor-in-Chief of Holistic Parenting Magazine. Books by L.R.Knost include Whispers Through Time: Communication Through the Ages and Stages of Childhood ; Two Thousand Kisses a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages ; The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline ; and Jesus, the Gentle Parent: Gentle Christian Parenting the first four books in the Little Hearts Handbook gentle parenting series, and children’s picture books Petey’s Listening Ears and the soon-to-be-released Grumpykins series.