Choosing the Perfect Baby Name

Choosing a baby name can be a difficult thing to do. There are so many factors to take into consideration. You can spend days thinking and finally come up with a name that you like, only to have your partner turn their nose up at it.

When my husband and I were expecting our son, like most soon-to-be-parents, we spent a lot of time trying to choose just the right name for our baby. We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl so we had to think of a name for each sex. I came up with a lot of suggestions and my husband hated them all.

Finally, I grew so frustrated that I spent an entire weekend combing through a baby name book from cover to cover. I made a list of every single name in the book that I would be open to: one column for boy names and one column for girl names.

I presented the list to my husband and asked him to look at it at his leisure and cross off any names that he absolutely did not like. We were able to narrow our search down to about five possibilities for each sex.

We made another list containing only those names and left it out on the dining room table so that we could look at it every time we walked by. Over the course of the next several weeks we managed to narrow it down to one name per sex that we both agreed on.

After all of that, three weeks before giving birth I decided that I hated the name we had chosen for a girl. It's a good thing we had a boy!

A Wonderful Resource

From the Publisher

Quoted everywhere from Parenting to The Wall Street Journal, with more than a million copies of their books in print, bestselling authors Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran are the baby-name experts. In this fresh and expanded new edition of "the best baby-naming book ever written" (The News Journal), they offer irresistible lists of names you won't find anywhere else, along with their trademark wit and insight on the most important questions--and answers--for expectant parents:

Style: What's hot and what's cool--including Honest Names, Spiritual Names, Kreeatif Names, The Two-Syllable Solution, Word Names, The Exotics, and a Girl Named Boy

Popularity: The most popular names in America and around the world, and what celebrities are naming their babies

Image: What's really in a name, and why Briyana spells trouble

Sex: What's it like for a girl to grow up with a traditionally feminine name like Abigail or Blossom; a no-frills name like Alice or Jane; or a unisex name like Dylan or Dakota? And are there any decidedly masculine names left for boys?

Tradition: A concise history of American baby naming, plus inspired ways to reflect your own cultural heritage

Family: Whose name is it, anyway? And other vital considerations

Things to Consider

Deciding on a baby name does not have to be exhausting. Here are some tips to help simplify things for you.

• Make sure any names you are considering flow nicely with your last name.

• Try to think how a child thinks when choosing your baby name. You don't want your child to get teased at school if their name can, in any way, be turned into something funny or gross. If you are unsure, ask another child in your life what they think of the name you are considering.

• Don't forget about initials when it comes to teasing. Before I was married, my initials were TAG and I spent my junior high school years being referred to as price tag by one boy who thought himself rather clever. What will your child's initials be?

• Think about the possible shortened versions of the name you are considering. If you like the name Benjamin, but do not care for the shortened version, Ben you may run into a problem. People tend to shorten names whenever possible.

• Once you decide upon a name, think long and hard before you decide to get creative with the spelling of the name. Do you really want your child to have to go through life telling people that their name is Allison but it is spelled Alycen. It may look pretty on paper but, trust me, coming from somebody whose name was misspelled her entire childhood, it gets tiring.

I have noticed recently that many people have started keeping their chosen baby name a secret. When I ask people that I know why they have chosen to do this the answer is always the same: because they do not want to hear the sometimes hurtful remarks people make when they do not care for the name they have chosen. While this certainly is a valid reason, keep these two things in mind.

1. You should be proud of the name you have chosen. If you are worried about the remarks people will make if they don't care for your chosen name maybe it is not the name you should be choosing. If you truly love the name and some inconsiderate person asks you why, simply put a big smile on your face and say "because I love it."

2. When I was expecting my son, my husband and I had friends that were expecting at the same time. Our friends decided upon their baby name first but decided to keep it a secret. My husband and I decided on our baby name and decided to tell the world. It turns out that we both chose the same name. Our friends felt compelled to change their name and we never knew until after their baby was born and named that they originally wanted the name we had chosen for our son.

The important thing to remember when choosing a baby name is to just go with your heart. You will hear so many suggestions and opinions along the way. You can spend hours reading about the origins and meanings of certain names. Don't let these things cloud your thoughts. Simplify matters and chances are, you will know your baby's name the first time you hear it.