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Not sure what to call your baby?

When you register your baby, you don’t actually have to give the baby a first name if you’re not yet sure what you want to call him or her. You do have to enter a surname.

If you don’t register a first name, a line will be put in the space where your child’s first name would have gone.

You can go back any time up until the child is 12 months old to have his or her first name added, but the name will not be put in the space where the line was. It will be added further down, so your child will always have a birth certificate with a line where his or her first name would be, and the name written in further down.

One other thing for you to note, if you have your baby baptised before registering his or her birth, whether it’s within the initial registration period of 21 days in Scotland and 42 days elsewhere or within the first 12 months, you have to enter the name given at baptism as the child’s name. If the child is not baptised, this doesn’t apply.

Where to next?