How to Name a Baby

Whether you decide to go with a traditional name or with a more unusual one, make sure the name will fit your baby throughout life.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Birth Announcements
• Postage Stamps

1. Decide whether you lean toward unusual names or more traditional ones.

2. Collect names from both partners' family trees. Look for names of people who have played a meaningful role in either of your lives or who have names you both like.

3. Write down your favorite artists and writers; favorite characters from novels, movies or plays; and figures from history or mythology.

4. Think about cities and countries significant to you and your partner - geographically inspired names have become popular in recent years.

5. Think about your heritage. Do you want to recognize a particular nationality or ethnic background in your baby's name? Could you use other elements in your family's history, such as place names?

6. Buy a book of baby names and highlight the ones you both like.

7. When you've compiled a list, think about how your favorites sound with the baby's last name. You'll probably want to avoid rhymes, long first names combined with long last names, or combinations that add up to a celebrity's name or a pun, or that have any unflattering nicknames.

8. Using all of the above information, narrow your list down to two girls' names and/or two boys' names (depending on whether you know the sex of the baby).

9. After the baby is born, either bestow a name immediately or, if you prefer, observe your baby for a day or two and decide which of your choices seems most appropriate.

Tips & Warnings

• Try not to divulge your top choice. It's a fun surprise when the day finally comes. Plus, you don't want someone else who's also expecting to poach your favorite name.

Who Can Help:

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[catnight]

on 11/14/2008 Great post! :)

[KLittle]

on 8/8/2008 Hello everyone, I am unsure of what the sex of my baby is going to be, but if I am having a girl, her name will be "Liberty"...Tell me what you think...!!

on 1/6/2006 Make sure that you aren't naming your kid something goofy just to get a good laugh out of it, or because it's cute. I had a friend whose last name is Beach, and when her younger sister was born, they named her Sandra Rose aka Sandy Beach. If the baby had been a boy, his name would have been Rocky. At age 6, she is already requesting to be called Sandra Rose instead of Sandy. Don't put your kids through this!

on 11/22/2005 Jump forward twenty or thirty years when your kid is submitting a resume to potential employer, with his/her given name splashed across the top of the page. Does it present professionally?

I'm a big fan of classic names, and using the "formal" name as the given name, not the "nickname". Want to name your daughter Katie? That's fine, but give her the name Katherine or even Kathryn on the birth certificate and shorten it to Kate or Katie.

on 11/22/2005 Please do not name your children after fruit, like one starlet's daughter whose name is Apple. It sounds cute for a pet, not for a person.