Choosing Baby Names - The Parents’ Guide
Baby Name Forum (New!!)
Baby Naming Tips
- Many parent like to, or feel obliged to, honor a family member (such as a parent or grandparent) when naming their baby. This is a traditional way of choosing a name, and can work well. However, if it is something that you would rather not do, but feel obligated to do it, why not consider honoring the family member by using their name for the baby’s middle name? That way, you can select whatever first name you wish and still keep your relations happy.
You may be planning to name your baby after a celebrity with an unusual name. Even if the celebrity in question is a household name at the moment, it is worth bearing in mind that ten or twenty years down the line they may not be – but your child will still be lumbered with their name.
- Try to choose names that can be abbreviated into initials without causing embarrassment for your child. For example, there is an instance where a couple decided to call their baby daughter Phoebe, and gave her a middle name of Olivia. Their surname was Ogilvy. Can you imagine how horrified the child will be when she’s a little older and she realizes that her initials are P.O.O.?
- Don’t feel pressured into choosing a particular name by family and friends. By all means, feel free to ask for advice. But remember, when it comes to the crunch, it is you as the child’s parents that will get the blame if the baby grows up to hate his or her name.
- If you wish to avoid arguments and pressure regarding the baby’s name, you might want to keep it a secret until the baby has been born. This way, people won’t be able to comment on the name and try and put you off or make you change your mind. Another good reason for doing this is that many parents actually change their minds about the name as soon as the baby is born. Quite often, the name that has been decided upon just doesn’t suit any longer once you are actually looking at the baby in the flesh.
- Bear in mind that, if you decide to go for a very popular name, the chances are that several of your child’s school friends in later life will have the same name.
- Avoid trying to use a clever play on words when picking your baby’s name, such as Holly Wood or Edward Woodward. This may seem cute and clever to you as parents, but you must think about how your child will feel when he or she is a little older. Names like this can result in comments from other children when your child starts school.
- It is important for both parents to compromise when selecting a name for the baby. This is made a little easier by the fact that you can choose two names, and use one of the as a middle name. You could also think about giving the baby a double-barrel name such as Anna-Maria. However, avoid putting together two names that clearly don’t go together and are a mouthful to say. Also, avoid getting carried away and giving the child several middle names. It may give you a feeling of satisfaction to be able to use all of the names that you like, but the child will not thank you in later life when it takes him or her ten minutes to write out their full name!