Baby, what’s your name?
My pregnant girlfriend is having her first child, a boy, and she’s already got his name picked out.
But she’s not telling anyone yet.
I thought that was strange since she’s not the superstitious type. But she decided to keep the name a secret for a very different reason: she didn’t want people to criticize it.
“I didn’t want to see people’s reactions when I told them his name,” she explained to me. “I’d just rather not say anything.”
Naming your baby — and this applies to dogs, too — can be one of the most difficult decisions you make prior to arrival.
Another girlfriend had picked out a name for a future daughter years before getting pregnant — only to have her sister-in-law use that same name, foiling her plans. (She wished she had never said anything.)
And another couple I know had to make a list of all the names they didn’t want — bad bosses, exes, weird classmates — before deciding on the ones they did.
Still another wrote a list — then came up with all the nicknames, insults and bad jokes that could be associated with each one. (Names like Beta and Magnum wouldn’t have made their final cut.)
It’s interesting the process soon-to-be parents go through when naming their child. I believe, like many of my friends, that names matter. They mean something. And you want a name your child can grow into. Try living up to a name like Adonis or Princess.
The Social Security Administration publishes the Top 10 list of popular names for boys and girls, and last year’s top names — Jacob, Isabella, Sophia, Emma, Alexander, Abigail — were throwbacks to common names generations ago.
Back when I was born — 1975 — the most popular names were Michael, Jennifer, Jason, Amy, Christopher and Heather.
I was named Catherine because my parents wanted a strong name. I got my middle name — Elizabeth — from a family friend who died of lupus. Put the two together and I sound like English royalty — or a very devout Catholic.
So what’s your process in naming your children — or pets? And how did you get your name?
