Naming Your Baby

I found this article on NBC about choosing a name for your baby. They basically advise that both parents should make a list of 10 names to be considered, then swap lists to review and rank the others thoughts; put the name on a business card to see if the name will hold up as not just a “baby” name but as an adult name as well; and finally they suggest not to share the list with others because they may pull the name apart and sway your decision.

Ok, I’m all for suggestion one and two. DH actually was very concerned about their monogram and would envision their initials engraved on their future briefcase (Don’t forget to look at the initials in order and also with the last name in the middle like a traditional monogram). The idea though of not figuring out how your poor child will be tortured for the next 20 years of life is ridiculous. I think that parents should be keenly aware of how their name choice may affect their child. The suggestion implies that people will not say mean things to YOUR face, but hopefully you are adult enough not to care. What do you think will happen when your poor child goes to elementary school? You can have all the anti-bullying policies you want and you can be indignant about the situation, but your poor child is still taking the wrath for your “cute” choice. I would recommend that you think of every possible way that the name you choose might me made fun of and then decide if it is still a good name. In our case, I had the best possible test of names. When we drove back from upstate New York, I reviewed possible names from a baby name book and my DH and brother-in-Law made all sorts of bizarre comments (apparently they knew about childhood teasing). You would be amazed at how helpful this was.

Also, I would recommend that you go through your own genealogy. I did not do this when I was having children. My interest in genealogy did not develop until later in life, but this resource is a virtual treasure trove of potential names. And how cool is it to be able to say that you are named after your great, great aunt or uncle.

Top Baby Names according to the web site
2007 Emily Jacob
2000 Emily Jacob
1990 Jessica Michael
1980 Jennifer Michael
1970 Jennifer Michael
1960 Mary David
1950 Linda James
1940 Mary James
1930 Mary Robert
1920 Mary John
1910 Mary John
1900 Mary John

Note: I have one child with a name that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere in the universe (it is starting to been seen phonetically, but not in spelling) and one child with a most popular name.

If you are a billionaire, you can name the child whatever you would like and people will just think it is cool.