How To Help Your Child Say Their Name
You spent 9 months agonizing over the perfect name. The name you love SO much. But no one told you you’d have to wait another few YEARS to hear them say it! 😂 If you’ve been patiently sitting, waiting, and wishing your child would start to say their name—and wondering what you can do to help them along—you’re in the right place!
These tips and activities will teach you how to help your child say their name from home, without stress or pressure. And, because they’re quick, low-prep things you can start using right away and come back to daily, we know you (and your little one) will get so much out of them.
When Should A Child Be Able To Say Their Name?
Whenever you want to encourage language development in your child, you need to start by learning the language milestones for yourself. Speech and language are complicated skills that are developmental in nature, meaning they start with small, seemingly simple little skills that build upon each other. So what starts out as babbling and pointing eventually becomes talking in full sentences!
When it comes to milestones related to your child saying their name, here’s what you need to know:
Babies often understand and even respond to their names between 4 and 6 months old, but they typically won’t say their name until they’re between 18 and 24 months old. We would expect a typically-developing toddler to be able to clearly and consistently say their full name between 2 and 3 years old.
(And you thought “mama” took a long time!)
We have a complete toddler language milestones checklist you can download for free. We recommend getting your copy and looking it over right now—then coming back to finish this post!
3 Easy Ways to Help Your Child Say Their Name
Okay, by now, you’ve downloaded the toddler talking milestones and you know that saying their name is an age- and developmentally-appropriate goal for your child. Here are 3 ways to encourage this new skill:
#1 MAKE A PHOTO BOOK
Making a photo book is a really sweet way to help your child to say their name, and the names of others, a little faster. We find these little books to be such a hit with the kids we work with!
HOW TO DO IT:
To make a photo book, you just, well... make a photo book! A simple little book full of pictures of family members or people your child sees often is perfect. Just be sure to include several pictures of each person, so you can repeat everyone’s names (including your child’s name) multiple times.
We typically buy little plastic photo books at the dollar store or Amazon, but you can also order these really nice children’s photo albums from pinhole press. Once you’ve got your book made, you can go through it together as often as you want, pointing to people and saying their names as you go.
Remember, this isn’t a keepsake album, so it doesn’t need to be fancy at all. Think of it more as a toy that they can look at daily! And even take out and about with them in the stroller or car seat.
Look through the book together daily and say everyone’s name a little bit more slowly and more exaggerated than you typically would if you were speaking normally. It helps the words stand out!
Tip: Add printed names of family members to your book! As your child gets older, you can reference the text, which will help them learn the letters in their name.
Related: DIY Photo Books for Language Development
#2 Play The “What’s Your Name?” Game
Ask your child, “What's your name?” Then answer by playfully, slowly, and immediately saying their name back. Like this:
“What’s your name? Laaaaaaaureeeeen!”
“What’s your name? Heeeeenrryyyyy!”
Repeat this little game throughout the day, so they get lots of practice with it.
Slowing down their name a bit will help make it easier for your child to say. And, by repeating this game and saying “What’s your name?”, your child will eventually be able to anticipate what comes next: their name! Make sure you give some extra wait time here. Overtime, they’ll be able to participate, by saying their name on their own.
#3 Use A Nickname
Some names are just harder to say than others! And if your child has a name that’s harder to pronounce, it may be part of the reason why they haven’t said it yet.
Different speech sounds develop at different stages of speech development. Babies typically say easier sounds, like “b” and “m”, much earlier—even while they’re babbling! While harder-to-say sounds, like “w” “j,” “z,” “sh,” and “th” might not come until your child is 3 or 4. So by nature, some names (like Zoey, Shepherd, Thatcher, Wyatt, Asher, etc.) will naturally be more difficult for little ones to say than others.
If your child’s name includes sounds that are harder to say, thinking of a nickname that’s easier for them can take some pressure off! Once you have it, model their new nickname using the same modeling guidelines you’d use for their full name.
For example, my (Carly’s) youngest daughter’s name is Lauren. But because we know that the “r” and “l” sounds are some of the latest developing sounds, we taught her to say “Lolo” instead. It still includes the “l”, so it sounded more like “wowo” when she said it for a long time, but that’s okay! It was adorable and very age-appropriate for her to say it that way.
Why Won’t My Child Say Their Name?
There are a few reasons why children between 18 and 24 months old don’t say their names. It can be a sign of a speech or language delay—but it’s not always. In fact, often, it’s because a child doesn’t fully understand their own name. So before you get into encouraging them to say their name more often, make sure they have that understanding! There are 2 really fun ways to do this:
#1 Peek-a-Boo
Use your games of Peek-a-Boo to help your baby learn their name by working their name in. Like this:
“Peek-a-Boo! Where’s Benny?! There he is!”
You can do this in a mirror, by playing in the house and hiding around a corner, or with a little blanket! This should help your child learn their name because it uses a lot of repetition of their name. And, it’s done in a really playful way, which we know helps kids learn.
#2 The Hooray Song
Use a fun song like the “Hooray for NAME” song.
🎶 Here are the lyrics:
Hooray for NAME
Hooray for NAME
Someone in the crowd is shouting
Hooray for NAME
1-2-3-4
Who you gonna cheer for?
NAME, that's who!
As you sing the song, point or tap on their chest when it’s their turn and point or tap on your chest when you say your name. (This is also a great way to work on family member names, like mama, Grandpa, and sibling names.)
When To Get A Speech & Language Evaluation
If your child is behind on any language milestones, including saying their name, it’s a good idea to speak with your pediatrician or see a speech-language pathologist as soon as you can. You know your child best, and your instincts are there for a reason. (And in our 25+ years of experience as speech therapists, we’ve never had a family tell us they wish they had waited to get help. Only that they wish they had acted sooner!)
A great first step is also joining our TalkToddler course, so you can be sure you’re doing everything you can to help support your toddler with talking.
Learn The Toddler Language Milestones
Want to encourage your toddler’s language development at home? Start by downloading our toddler talking milestones checklist!
When you know which skills your child has mastered, which ones they’re working on, and which ones should come next, you can support them by meeting them where they’re at.
Carly and Katie are pediatric speech-language pathologists with over 25+ years of combined experience, but first and foremost, they’re parents–just like you. Between them, they have six kids and they all have unique and different needs. They know that the most impactful strategies are things that any caregiver can do at home. The TalkToddler course was made just for you, from start to finish! They took much of what they do as therapists and broke it down into the most actionable steps.