A recent study says this kid probably has a bad name
A recent study has shown that badly chosen baby names can lead to low self-esteem, low education and more smoking. Research shows most people would rather be single than date someone with an ‘unfortunate’ name. If you’re a Dad like me, then you’ve had the pleasure of partaking in this activity during the 9-month pregnancy process. I have two boys, and recently found out that we are expecting another boy, due this spring.
At first, choosing names was a cinch. The night my wife and I found out she was pregnant with our first baby, we had a boy name chosen. With our second, it took us a week or two to figure out the boy name. Now that we’re on our third boy, we are finding this process is becoming more complicated. After finding out we were having another boy, our girl name, which we have had for a number of years now, once again got put back on the shelf and we were back to square one. Our two sons’ names are Owen and Dylan, so you would think we would naturally continue with the two-syllable, ending with an “n” theme for our third boy. Brian, Jason, Grayson, Ryan, Brayden, Colin, Justin, Brandon…any one of those should work, right? Wrong. My wife is certain she does not want to end our third baby’s name with an “n.” If our third baby is given an “n” name and we end up having a fourth boy, she feels at that point, we would really have no choice but to continue the “ending with an n” theme. That way, the fourth doesn’t feel left out. Can you imagine how Josie would feel if Mom & Dad Duggar, from 19 Kids and Counting broke the 18-child streak of kids with “j” names by naming her Roberta? In our case, sticking with the “n” trend drastically limits our choices of names as well. We can’t let the theme of ending the name with an “n” go on for too long and must break the trend now.
So, let’s examine the science of baby-naming and try to find a well chosen baby name.
Most of the time, this can be an easy process.
Do you, your dad and your grandfather all have the same name? Or, has there been a pattern of switching names back and forth with each generation? Easy… if tradition prevails in your decision making process, you know what to do in naming your boy.
For all of you out there who were born in Elizabethan England, between 1558-1603, chances are you were named after your godparent. Simple.
If you or your spouse have loved a name since you were a kid, and made the decision a few decades ago to use a certain name, then the work is done for you.
Do none of these apply? Still stuck? You can always do what we did and buy a book of baby names. Then, close your eyes and find a page. Run your fingers up and down the page and stop. Do it twice and you have your baby’s first and middle names. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s with great happiness that I announce the name of our newest addition…(drumroll please)…Armando Varen. What better way to honor our family’s Polish-Irish-English heritage than by choosing a Spanish/Indian name, right? Yeah, I don’t think so.
As far as books go, The 417-page Baby Names 2012 book, by Eleanor Turner, could be a suitable option. She’s made it easy this year with a selection of just 7,000 names to choose from. If 7,000 names isn’t quite enough, you can always get 100,000 + Baby Names: The Most Complete Baby Name Book, by our friend Bruce Lansky. That’s right, there are apparently 93,000 more names out there than in Ms. Turner’s book. Feel like naming your baby after some meaning? Amanda Bearden’s Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse Dictionary of Baby Names is a good choice. In it, you can search for names based on definition. Does your daughter look like a honeybee? Then you have your name: Melissa. I also found this really interesting history of Arabic last names at Kidadl, which is very much worth a read. In the end, I’m sure you’ll find a book suitable to your needs. After all, a basic search on Amazon.com for the term “baby names” produces 24,556 results. Surely, you will find your baby’s name somewhere in there.
God forbid you can’t pick one name out of 100,000+, but if you can’t, another approach becoming quite popular is to have a name so unique, it’s being termed “Google-friendly.” Part of the reason there are north of 100,000 names out there is because parents are now naming their child with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)-friendly names. That is, a name unique enough that search results will be all about your child, perhaps because the parents know their babies’ lives will be lived partially online. So there you go, just do whatever you want with the name. Pick letters out of a hat. You might get a name like Shekinah Rain Shanice, one of the first babies born in Texas in 2012. That’s probably not going to be the option we choose, though.
So many options, so many names. What to do? Here are some ideas to keep in mind while choosing a baby name:
- Make sure the initials don’t spell a word or acronym you don’t want.
- Kids can be cruel. They’re going to find ways to make your child’s name rhyme with something else. Don’t make it easy for them.
- Jennifer Moss, author of The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book (yes, yet another baby name book) and founder of BabyNames.com says, “When deciding on a name, you want to see it from the child’s point of view and how she or he will have to live with it throughout their lives. Try the name out at your local coffee shop. How do you feel giving that as your name? What kind of reaction do you get and how does it make you feel?”
This gets to be a daunting task. By the way, is it me or is the middle name easier to pick out than the first name? We’ve chosen that already: Daniel (after me). Unfortunately, a first name we like, Jack, probably wouldn’t be the best fit for Boy #3 with that middle name.
At the end of the day, no matter what name you choose, I’m sure it will be the perfect one. It better be. After all, you don’t want to end up having a single 5th-grade drop-out loner with a smoking habit on your hands. Choose wisely. As for us? We’ve finally found the perfect name for our baby. Which leads us to our next dilemma: do we share the name we’ve chosen or keep it a secret until he’s born?