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Lorraine
Erica
When my daughter was born I bought endless baby name books and spent countless hours pontificating on which name I was going to choose. I didn’t know the gender of my baby-to-be so I not only had to spend time and worry choosing a girl’s name….but, then it was back to the drawing board to choose a boy’s name too just to be safe.
I had finally narrowed it down to 3 names for each gender. But those two lists did not come easily. I ran each name past close friends and family. We scrutinized how each name would sound in certain situations…..for instance….. I practiced calling the boys names out on the soccer field to make sure it sounded just right…..I mean it’s kind of hard to yell out “Go Barthalamule Go” when you are watching your child score a goal. For a career it might not go over well if you name your child Loo-Loo and when she grows up and becomes a school teacher her students have to say “excuse me Teacher Loo-Loo, can I please go to the….well….Loo? (bad joke, I know….but, relevant)
Then I thought, enough of this craziness. What are the things that I should I REALLY consider when choosing a baby name and it came down to the following things:
- The Meaning: Your child’s name probably won’t greatly affect how he plays soccer or how she runs her business but it may help you to make a decision between your favorites.
- Unique pronunciation or spelling: Keep in mind that for your child’s entire life time they will be called exactly how their name reads so make sure you choose something easy.
- Nicknames: Many names are shortened to nicknames during childhood so be sure to avoid baby names that might produce insulting or undesirable nicknames when people shorten them.
- Unisex names: Everyone remembers “Pat” from Saturday Night Live…..enough said!
- How it sounds: Say your name choice out loud a number of times and make sure it sounds sweet to the ears with no harshness. Saying it out loud will also give you a better idea if you really like the name.
So, for all you new moms-to-be out there….don’t overanalyze the names you choose….just make sure they sound right and fit with who you are and who you forsee your little one to be in the future!
Have Fun!!!!
PS. I chose Mackenzie for my daughter’s name and Parker for my son’s name and haven’t had a second thought since 
Filed under: Baby Tagged: | Baby, Baby Names, Family, Motherhood, Parenting
Naming a kid can be so difficult, especially when they’re not yet born and you’ve got no idea what they’ll be like. We had challenges naming our latest, not least because his older brother was adamant that he should be named Luke Skywalker!
We knew our first was going to be a girl and good thing because we had absolutely no clue what to name a boy. The girl’s name was easy. Long before I was even pregnant we watched a film called Cinema Paradiso and the lead character was called Elena. Both my husband and I independently thought what a nice name it was and had it ready for when our daughter came along.
2nd time around we had to tackle that boy’s name though. We knew plenty of names we didn’t want to call our son, but the short list was very short. All the names I liked were too popular – I didn’t want him to be one of 5 Jacks in his school class, even though I love that name. In the end we settled on Lewis, which did turn out to be #1 on the list of Scottish names last year, but I doubt we will ever live in Scotland, so there shouldn’t be a problem there.
My husband and I had no trouble choosing a girl name as we decided to go with Megan to honour the many Margarets in our family. However, we decided to find out the sex of our baby after the amnio (long potentially bad news story that turned out just fine) and found we were having a boy. It took us weeks to settle on a name. Many of the Rookie Mom rules applied for us as well plus a unique Crocker-family tendancy towards four-letter, single syllable names. Ultimately, we named our son Sean … it fit all the rules and appealed to my husband’s love of all things James Bond. Ok, ok and my affection for the ultimate Bond – Sean Connery.
Another thing to consider carefully is the name paired with your surname. What if people shorten the name? Will it still work with your surname? Just heard on the radio names where parents obviously didn’t think it through…
Terry Ball
Paige Turner
Hazel Nutt
And I once worked with a guy called Richard Holder. Sounds fine unless you shorten his name to Dick. And yes, he was a gay guy.