Don't be cruel to you child and name them a name that is hard to spell or pronounce.
Don't name your child after a famous living person. You never know when/if that person will do something to embarrass or shame anyone sharing that name. If you must, give your child that name for a middle name. (A nearby school had to be renamed after the living person they named it for did something bad).
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Don't give your child names that sound like another word or could rhyme with some unpleasant word or is embarrassing.
Don't let your child's initials spell something embarrassing.
I wouldn't give my child a first name that's a name currently in the top ten, or maybe even twenty, names. I would give my child a first name that's in the top 100 though. I would want to pick a name that is liked by others, but not so well liked that there are several children of the same first name in class.
Do's:
Do pick a name that will serve your child well for their entire life.
If the two of you can't agree on a name: If it's a girl, the mom picks the first name and the dad picks the middle name to go with it. Or mom chooses three first names and dad chooses three middle names and try all combinations with your last name to see which sounds best. Vice versa for a boy. Say the name verbally in a pleasant voice and also a yelling voice. Write the name down and also the initials and see how it looks.
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Do think about any possible ways a name could be turned into a nickname and decide if that is a good or not so good nickname.
Do look in a baby book or online to find out the meaning of a name.
Do pick names that "flow" well together. It often works best to not have the first and middle names have the same number of syllables, and you certainly wouldn't want all three names to have the same number of syllables.
If you have a common last name, you might want to pick a more unique first name. Likewise, if you have an unusual last name, you might want to pick a more common first name.
Long first names go well with short last names, short first names go well with long last names.
Pay attention to the vowels in your last name and try and have at least one or more of the same vowels in your first or middle name to tie them together.
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Do think extra hard if your child is a girl about what her first and middle names would sound like paired with a different last name or if her first and middle initials would spell something embarrassing with any other letter of the alphabet in the last space if she were to marry and change her last name.
Stephanie Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 162 Posts
February 23, 2012
My husband is a teacher so he was VERY particular about just what baby names would do - traditional, easy to spell, difficult to mock, wasn't the name of a difficult student he'd had, etc.
Suntydt Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 109 Feedbacks
February 23, 2012
I can only share our experience with choosing a baby name. On my side of the family, my grandfather was a Wallace, my father had the middle name Wallace.
I suspect they're going to just have to work it out and find a way to overcome this impasse. I had a "boy" name I loved, but couldn't come up with any girl names. I bought books and looked up meanings, and thought of things that I enjoy or mean a lot to me.
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I enjoy mythology, but didn't find any names I'd want for my child. I considered giving our daughter a Japanese name, but my husband didn't love any I came up with. He offered up some names. I hated some of them, but one stuck. We just had to work together.
Of course being from the south we use family names. My sons daddy is James and mine is Tammie. Even before we knew if hed be a boy or girl we decided the baby would be called TJ, so when we found out he was a boy James was a given and we picked a list of boy names starting with a T and decided on Trevor. If he had been a girl it would have been Tessa Jo, Jo after my mom. And my mom gave all us kids the same initals as our dad, and my grandmaw did the same with my dad and his brothers and sisters.
Sounds familiar. When I was expecting my husband and I set up some ground rules that we both did agree on. Our rules were: no names of anyone we knew, no names from the bible (had a lot of those already in the family), only traditional spellings but non-traditional names OK. We each picked out 10 names for each gender and then traded lists. From those we had veto power on 5 from the other person's list.
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This left us with 10 boys and 10 girls names. We sat on those a while and then could narrow it down to 2 or 3 of each sex. In the end we agreed on a first and middle from our short list. Biggest rule: take suggestions from no one and tell no one of our choices. May not work for everyone but it did for us. Didn't help when we had to pick a color to paint the house though! :-}
Before we had our daughter, my husband and I decided that if it was a boy, he would pick the name and if it was a girl, I would. I stuck with that, I wanted her to be named Perri Charlene. My husband hated that name. So, when I was about 6 to 7 months pregnant, he said that we could name another Perri in one way or another, then we went through the baby books, searched online, asked friends and family their opinions.
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At last, we decided on Rowyn. Being from an Irish background, it is a beautiful name, has a great meaning, and I picked how it was spelled. (My own name being spelled differently and all). I know its hard, but as a parent, especially when someones mind is made up. Good luck, grandma! And congratulations!
This is enjoyable part to be a new parent. I think it nice if both parent decided what they want name for the baby. For me its best to get from a bible or think names that related to the parents.
These tips are my opinions.
