Guide to choosing baby names

Given that the name defines a child’s identity life-long, every parent wants to choose that perfect, beautiful name, writes Mini P One among the many difficult decisions expectant parents have to make is to choose a name for their child. Given that the name defines a child’s identity life-long, every parent wants to choose that perfect, beautiful name. But it’s not an easy task. Parents have to consider several factors while naming their child including tradition (taking on grandmother’s or family name, place name, etc.), religion, culture and trending baby names. Moreover, the surfeit of ‘baby name’ websites has made it both easy, and difficult for new parents to choose that perfect name. Sabrina Rogers-Anderson, a US-based author who has been “writing about baby names for more than five years”, says that parents should avoid baby naming traps. “Many parents have told me in hushed tones about their baby name regret and the shame it causes them. Some fall prey to trendy options and realize shortly after inking it on their child’s birth certificate that it was a mistake. Others feel pressured to uphold a family naming tradition and end up with a name they hate. And then there are the parents who just can’t agree, so one parent ends up begrudgingly giving in to the other,” writes Rogers-Anderson in www.thetot.com. PW spoke with parenting experts to offer guidelines to enable expectant parents to choose the right name for their little one. Some guidelines: • Avoid grossly misspelled names. Many parents for numerology reasons play around with the spelling of names. Avoid gross distortions which will make it difficult for your child to spell and explain her name. • Study your family tree. Are there names that are special to your family and you would like to honour? • Discuss the surname. It’s possible and acceptable to include both the father’s and mother’s surname. Just hyphenate. You could also use the mother’s first name followed by the father’s name as surname. • Before making the final decision, utter all the shortlisted names aloud. Listen to how they sound. If you enjoy hearing it, so will others. • Brainstorm possible nicknames. You don’t want your child to be bullied and taunted with unpleasant nicknames. • After you’ve made a shortlist, google them for history, etymology and most important, meaning and connotation. • If you have a word in mind, such as ‘beloved,’ you could search for names with that meaning in different languages. • Always make a shortlist, sleep on it, and devote a few days discussing pros and cons with your partner. Ask these questions: Does the chosen name sound good? Is it too common? Is it too uncommon? Will people have difficulty pronouncing it? • Avoid passing trends and fads. Your child’s name should stand the test of time. Ask yourself: Will this name sound ridiculous in ten years? • Don’t rule out common names for the sake of being different. There is a body of research which says…