This trope occurs when one character — the parent (or expecting parent) of a newborn baby — asks another character to name said baby. It is implied that whatever name is chosen, it will be final.
For this trope to be in effect, the parent must relinquish their right to choose a name for their own child — which is something parents would not normally do in most Real Life cultures. A key ingredient is the implied (or outright stated) pact with another character, handing over the choice of name to that character for whatever reason. The parent may or may not eventually back out of that pact after learning which name has been chosen - but the trope still applies as long as that parent did in fact relinquish the right to choose, at any point.
The trope does not apply if the parent is asking a friend to come up with suggestions for names. It also does not apply if one parent is asking the other parent (or their own significant other) to name the child.
A variant of this trope occurs when the child-naming "pact" is made with fate, rather than with another character. This includes leaving it to random chance (such as casting lots), or more commonly when the parent promises to name a child after someone else whose name they don't yet know.
When this trope is played straight, it is usually done to show how awesome a character is, because the parent respects them so much (or owes them so much gratitude) that they will trust them to select a good name. In this case, the name will usually be selected on the spot and will be a proper and inspiring name. The child may also be named after another, beloved character who had recently died.
When the trope is subverted, of course, the selected name could be completely idiotic. At this point, the parent may or may not renege on the unwritten agreement and decide to withdraw the request retroactively.
The resulting name might fit any number of tropes on the Naming Conventions page. It will commonly result in Dead Guy Junior. Other options include Ancestral Name, Embarrassing First Name, Named After Someone Famous, or a Line-of-Sight Name.
Compare Last-Minute Baby Naming, where the parents do decide on their own, but almost without any forethought, potentially leading to similar results and "Near and Dear" Baby Naming, when the parents decide to name them after said loved one without a request being made.
Examples:
- In Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Lord Yupa is asked by a village woman to choose a name for her baby. He promises to select a good name for her, but in the film, we never find out any more.
- In Nana, Nana K asks Ren to name her child.
- Played for laughs in Ranma ½ when resident Dirty Old Man Happosai was asked to name a newborn boy whom, in an uncharacteristic moment of kindness, he helped deliver (it's tradition in the boy's village that the midwife — which Happosai was acting as — has to name the child, and only the midwife can change it). He picked what he claimed was a perfectly fine and wonderful name: Pantyhose Taro. And thus was created yet another vengeful rival for Ranma to deal with.
- Jiraishin: Tsuyoshi's wife, Yukari, agrees to name her only son after his father when she asked Kyoya for a good name. He tells Yukari to name the baby after his partner to pay tribute to his memory after being killed in the line of duty.
- The final episode of I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying ends in this manner. After getting into a fight over the name of their daughter, Kaoru and Hajime just decide to invite all their friends and family members over, have them all write down names, and pick one at random out of a box. They ultimately go with Tanaka's suggestion of Sayoko.
- In Full Moon, Mitsuki's father asks Takuto to name his unborn child.
- In Fantastic Four, Sue had a difficult birth with Franklin and miscarried her second child. As the due date of Sue's third pregnancy neared, she sought an attendant versed in both medicine and metaphysics. Enter Doctor Doom, who agreed to deliver Sue's child, provided that he has the honor of naming the baby. Though the male Fours objected vehemently, Sue played the uterus card and sealed the deal. The healthy newborn daughter was named Valeria, after Doom's former love.
- In Marvel Comics #1000 one page revealed that several pregnant women have asked Spidey what his real name was, since they wanted to name their infant sons after the man who'd just saved them. Peter lied and told them his name was Ben, to honor his dead uncle.
- Adopted Displaced: In The Technological Technicolor Technomare (a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic / Iron Man crossover), after Tony Stark and Pepper Potts have married and are expecting their first biological child, Pepper agreed to let her and Tony's adoptive daughter Rainbow Dash choose her baby brother's middle name. Hence why his name is "Howard Awesome Stark". It's noted that Pepper will never live this down.
- In the Team Fortress 2 fanfic Something New, Liam asks his mother to name his daughter for him after he and Sophia struggle all through the pregnancy to figure out what would be a good name for her. She comes up with the name Alice.
- For whatever reason, a new father has to let his brother name his newborn twins (boy and girl). The brother has a reputation as a joker, so the father's a little worried. At the first opportunity, the father calls city hall and asks "What did he name the girl?". The clerk replies "Denise". Relieved that it's a nice name, the father asks "And the boy?". The clerk replies: Denephew.
- Anastasia Krupnik's parents say that they'll let her name her baby brother and promise to stick with whatever name she chooses. She writes down the chosen name in her diary, "the worst name she could think of". She doesn't actually use "the worst name," whatever it was; she names him Sam after their deceased grandfather.
- In Anne of Green Gables, Diana Barry is said to have been named by a visiting preacher.
- In Clan of the Cave Bear Mog-urs (medicine men) are responsible for naming all babies, during the ritual where they are formally accepted into the Clan.
- On the Discworld, there is a naming ceremony done in the Ramtops which normally averts this, as it's simply a priest proclaiming the child by the name their parents choose. This trope kicks in, however, in that whatever name the priest says is final, even if he screws it up somehow. This has resulted in names such as James What The Hell Is That Cow Doing In Here? Poorchick ("Moocow" Poorchick for short), King My God He's Heavy the First, and Princess Esmeralda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre.
- In Song Of The Magdalene, Abraham reveals to Miriam that he knows Miriam is pregnant by asking if he could choose the name. She agrees and he tells her to name their son 'Isaac'. She refers to the baby as 'Isaac' from that point on. She is raped when she is six months pregnant, which makes her lose the baby, though she still thinks of the baby as 'Isaac' after losing it.
- In Spinning Silver, Staryks follow the I Know Your True Name trope, so Miryem doesn't actually know the name of her servants; she gives them nicknames instead. One of them, "Flek," asks her to give her daughter a true name, since her deadbeat father never did. Miryem, following Jewish conventions, names her "Rebekah bat Flek."
- In Warrior Cats, a young Bluestar and Snowfur get to name the kits of Poppydawn, a cat who had kittens not long after Bluestar and Snowfur's own mother.
- Barney Miller: Wojo helps a Hispanic woman deliver her baby. Through a translator she asks him his name, promising to name the baby after him. His answer "Wojciehowicz" shocks her into a Madness Mantra. After she is taken away by paramedics he tells the translator "tell her 'Stanley' is fine."
- Inverted on Bones, when Hodgins must ask Angela's father for permission to name their own child themselves, rather than accept the grandfather's choice as per family tradition.
- Dinosaurs had the Sinclair family request the elder to name the baby. The first elder had a heart attack, resulting in an official name that was recorded as "Aaah Augh I'm Dying You Idiot Sinclair". Fran is said to have a cousin named "Achoo" and a classmate named "Burp-Excuse-Me Siegelman".
- On Farscape, when Living Ship Moya gives birth to her son, she requests that Aeryn give him a proper name. She ends up naming him Talyn, after her (Aeryn's) late father.
- Friends: When Phoebe is carrying triplets on behalf of her half-brother and his wife they let her name one of them. It comes down to her naming it after Chandler or Joey and they compete over which one she'll name the baby. Phoebe chooses Chandler, but it turns out Chandler is a girl. They name her Chandler anyway.
- On Mad About You, Paul's uncle Phil guilt-trips him into naming Paul and Jamie's new baby after him (while Phil is lying on his death bed in a hospital). After they agree, it turns out that Phil's real first name is Deuteronomy.
- Taxi: Alex is forced to become a Delivery Guy, helping a woman deliver a baby in the back of the cab when her husband panics and can't do it. Afterwards, she asks him his name, in order to name the baby after him - but when she learns it's "Alex" she has second thoughts.
- Inverted in Sherlock: Sherlock lobbies to have John and Mary name their child after him but is roundly refused, as they are expecting a girl.
- How I Met Your Mother: Barney earns the right to choose Baby Marvin's middle name by ensuring that Marshall makes it to the hospital in time to witness his son's birth. Thus was the baby named Marvin Waitforit Erikson. Marshall and Lily think it's the coolest middle name ever.
- In Castles, one of the dialogue trees involves a peasant coming to your court to ask you to name their child.
- In The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games, there is a sidequest where a couple ask you to name their newborn, and for some financial aid. How much you give affects how he turns out, from a courageous hero-in-training to a lazy drifter.
- Parodied in the Star Trek Online Foundry mission "Bait and Switch". During the mission, you rescue a pregnant Romulan and her husband from slavers. In one dialog option, you can tell her to please not name their daughter after you, and she tells you, of course not: her husband's grandmother already called dibs.
- In Overwatch, Torbjörn Lindholm and Reinhardt Wilhelm were close friends during their time in Overwatch, with Reinhardt becoming the godfather to Torbjörn's soon-to-be-born child. Reinhardt was also given the privilege to name her, and so she grew up to be Brigitte Lindholm.
- After Lainie’s death in Daughter for Dessert, the protagonist named their daughter Amanda, after a relative of hers. However, the player actually has the choice to pick another name for Amanda.
- A new father asked a random user on 4chan to name his newly born son. Being the internet, the child was named after the Courage Wolf internet meme, being called Courage Wolf Harper.
- During Acclaim's slide into oblivion the company offered $10,000 to anyone who would name their kid "Turok" as a marketing gimmick. Nobody took them up on it. Many years later, Bethesda pulled a similar stunt with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's "Dovahkiin", offering free Bethesda games for life, and succeeded.
- In some African cultures it was traditionally grandparents rather than parents who chose a child's name.
- In some regions of Southern Italy parents are often expected to name their firstborn child like their paternal grandparent. This tradition can sometimes result in really old-fashioned names; sometimes parents get around this by simply giving the child a middle name of their liking and calling them by it.
