How to Pick a Unique Baby Name

Martin and Larry

You don't want your child to go to school and find that there are 5 other children in his/her class with the same first name, do you? Learn how to find names that belong to few people living in the United States. Of course, once you find these names, you still have to decide if you like them. But you have to start somewhere!

Things You'll Need

• Access to the internet

Instructions

1. 

   You are going to have a baby! How should you pick a name? Do you know the sex of the baby? If not, either wait until you do, select one name for a boy and one for a girl, or select from names used for either sex.
   How do you begin?

2. 

   There are many ways to decide. You can name the child after yourself or your spouse. You can name him/her after a living family member, or a deceased family member. You can choose the name of a famous person that you admire. You can name the child after the author of your favorite book. You can refer to baby books that tell you the meaning of names, and choose one that might describe or inspire the baby. You can choose a name because it is easy to spell. You can chose a name that will sound good with your last name, or go well with the names of your other children (such as James, Jane, Jeffrey, etc.). The list of methods is endless.

3. 

   My name (Barbara) was rather common when I was born in 1950. It is not a particularly common name to give to new babies now days. My son's name (Noah) was uncommon when I gave it to him in 1973; today it is a rather popular name. I know this because I looked on the Social Security web site (see references) that provides lists of the most popular names given to babies in the United States during certain years. They will tell you the most common male or female names for any given year, and will list names by popularity up to the 1000th most popular name (which is therefore a unique name, not a popular one)! The website is provided in the reference section below.

4. 

   Another useful source of name popularity information is the U.S. Census(see references below). At this time you can get names from the 1990 US Census. Click on the list of female first names and you will see 4275 names listed from most common to least common. Click on the list of male first names and you will see 1219 male names. These lists vary somewhat from the Social Security lists because the Census data is based on people living in the United States (not those born in the United States) at a certain time.

5. Have fun looking for a unique name for your baby!

Tips & Warnings

• Start this process early so you have time to carefully consider the options

• Remember, that child will probably take care of you when you are old, so pick a nice dignified name, not an embarrassing one!