So, you’re pregnant, you’ve told the world you’re expecting, you’ve splurged on a few items for the baby’s wardrobe, and you’re figuring out the final details of the nursery. Have you picked out baby’s name? This is the most lasting thing you will give your child, something that will be a part of your child’s everyday existence. No pressure or anything! Choose wisely!
Here are some tips and some helpful websites to assist you in this fun part of pregnancy:
How popular is the name–Will there be several children in their class with the same name, or will the name be so different it seems weird?
Consider the acronym the initials spell–make sure it spells something nice! If it doesn’t, switch the first and middle as many people go by their middle name instead of their first.
Think about the spelling–I like how my name is spelled differently than most Tamera/Tamara’s, but I have to spell it out anytime someone needs to write it, and even then most people still write it incorrectly. Also, people will need to be able to pronounce the name. I can usually tell a scrapbooker by the spelling of her children’s names! 🙂 May look fun on a scrapbook page, but is it really doing your child a favor?
Consider this if you want to name your baby after a famous person–will the person still be popular as your child grows?
Family names–can be very confusing when exactly the child’s name is the same as another living person, especially if they are living in the same household–on the phone (which Mike?), in the mail, and can even cause havoc with bank information (if both bank at the same institution) or with credit information.
How does it sound with the last name? Too many vowels? Will it make a (mean) phrase–your child will be teased (example: Crystal Ball).
Patterns: all children’s names start with same letters, end with same letters, follow the alphabet (Ariana, Branden, Christopher. . .), biblical names, city or state names
Check the meaning of the name you choose, or come up with a name after picking the meaning.
Bring several favorite names to the hospital and see which name “fits” after the baby is born.
If you just really like a name, use it, even if it doesn’t follow the above recommendations!
To find a name, there are lots of baby name books, or have fun checking out these websites:
http://www.babynamesworld.com
http://www.thinkbabynames.com/
http://www.mybaby-name.com/
http://www.parenthood.com/babynames.html
My Experience
My first baby was named as I went through the baby book reading names I liked. My husband then nodded when we came to one I read off that he also liked. That left us with with only about three names. One just seemed right at that point.
For our second, I picked a letter I wanted it to start with and read names from books and websites. I narrowed my search to two names, neither of which my husband was really excited about. We didn’t agree on a name until three hours after the baby was born and the hospital front desk called to get the baby’s name for the newspaper. That’s when my husband settled on my favorite name combination for our little boy.
We are just starting our search for the third name. I’ll be visiting the above websites too. I also have to decide what pattern to continue with. So many choices!
Savvy Chic 