I’ve been refreshing Stacey Solomon’s and Joe Swash's Instagrams for the past 12 hours. No, not because I want to copy the fluffy pink, white and beige aesthetic of Pickle Cottage. Because Stacey announced the arrival of her baby yesterday but has held back the key nugget of information we all really care about: the baby’s name. Maybe it’s because I’m also about to give birth to a baby girl so I’m particularly nervy to see whether a celebrity is going to pip me to the post with our name choice. Or maybe it’s because babies all look the same, so after the gender reveal (which we already knew in this case) the only interesting element is what the kid has been called.
But, increasingly people are holding back this detail; drip feeding their audience, eking out the likes and the Big Social Media Moment for as long as they can, knowing everyone is on high alert waiting for the announcement, before their feed goes on to be flooded with pictures of ‘first smiles’, ‘first dribble’, ‘first taste of avocado mush’, and everyone eventually switches off (this article is going to come back to haunt me once I’ve given birth and start bombarding my followers with precisely these things).
Loads of people are searching for ‘Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash daughter name’. And Stacey, and other celebrities and influencers who’ve done similar drip feed announcements, know all too well it’s the thing we’re desperate to know. In a way holding the name back is the sweetest form of power play, involving ‘Adas’ and ‘Oscars’ instead of anything malicious. While the name is still private, the ball is still in their court and the baby ‘likes’ haven’t dried up yet.
Even royals aren't above such matters - last weekend the Royal Family Twitter account announced that Princess Beatrice's baby girl was called Sienna, almost two weeks after her birth was announced.
To say some don’t purposefully milk the moment for as long as they can would be crazy.
It should be said, it’s not necessarily done to tease a social media audience on purpose. There’s all sorts of reasons why couples might hold the name back. The name is sacrosanct – maybe they want a few days to enjoy it and get used to it in the privacy of their home before they share it with the world – especially if they have a big following and know everyone will jump in and find a way of reading into it once it’s public consumption. There’s also a chance the baby is still nameless at the time of the first announcement. My friends recently took a week to agree on a name for their newborn, and my ex was called one name until he was five, then his parents changed their minds and his name to something else.
But to say some don’t purposefully milk the moment for as long as they can would be crazy. When you’re sharing the rest of your life on the grid, there has to be a tactical reason why you’d carefully time this particular disclosure. In our social media age, where baby announcements are ‘liking’ gold dust, it’s clear separating the birth and The Baby Name Reveal is another clever way of creating #content.
Have Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash announced their daughter's name yet?
No - Stacey and Joe have not revealed the name of their baby girl yet. However, this morning Stacey shared an update with her 4.7 million Instagram followers. Posting a picture with her baby girl in her arms she added the caption, 'Good morning, we haven't slept in a while but we are resting here having cuddles. I'm hoping my milk comes in today your messages are getting me through the night feeds. We still don't have a name for her yet, but she is so amazing.'
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