"What's in a name?" Identification of newborn infants at birth using their given names.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the proportion of pregnant women who selected names for their babies to be born and were willing to disclose them for use in hospital systems, thereby potentially reducing infant identification errors.

STUDY

DESIGN

Survey of pregnant women admitted to postpartum or antepartum units at a large academic hospital. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine the proportion who had chosen names prior to delivery. Chi-square tests and calculated odds ratios assessed the association with demographic and pregnancy factors.

RESULTS

Of postpartum participants, 79.0% had names for their newborns at birth. This proportion was significantly lower in self-identified non-Hispanic, white, and married women. Of antepartum participants, 65.7% had selected a name at the time of survey.

CONCLUSION

Most participants had names chosen for use at birth. This finding was consistent across demographic and pregnancy characteristics, supporting the feasibility of using given names for newborns in hospital systems at birth.