These tips are my opinions.
Don'ts:
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
By Sandy Gerber from Stoughton, WI
