At time of writing my wife is eight and a half months pregnant with our second child. We still don’t have a baby name. Correction: we have two baby names. It’s taken us almost the entirety of my wife’s pregnancy to round our choices down to two names. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
Keep A Shortlist
I found this super helpful. Every time I thought of a name, or something close to a name I liked, I added it to my little shortlist. Make it a Google doc or equivalent – just so you can easily add to it wherever you are.
Tidy Up The Shortlist Frequently
I found it valuable to delete from the list. Show it to your significant other – if there are names he or she hates, just get rid of them, because they’ll cloud your judgement and you want a name that works for both of you.
Don’t Discuss Your Shortlist With Others
Especially your family. Seriously.
The amount of times I’ve mentioned a name to friends or parents only for them to say URGH I HATE IT.
Who cares. It doesn’t matter what they think. That will never matter. They’ll find out the name when the baby is born and they can just pretend to like it.
Check Popular Name Lists
You want to do this for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, to get ideas. Maybe there’s a popular name out there that you like?
But for me, checking popular name lists are a good way to find out where your tastes are at and where you lie on that spectrum.
Because here’s the deal: we’re all part of the zeitgeist. A name that sounds super unique to you might actually be insanely popular and you don’t even know it. I liked the name Noah. I’ve never met anyone called Noah. But that’s because I don’t hang out with newborn babies. Noah is actually one of the most popular baby names out there. Same goes for names like Levi!
That’s right. Levi is a super popular name right now. You just never know.
You Might Never Find The Perfect Name
One of the reasons my wife and I have taken so long to choose is this: I think we’re both waiting for that perfect name to drop in our laps.
The name where we both go YES! THAT’S THE ONE.
If you’re lucky, that might happen. But it probably won’t. Your name will probably be chosen after months of…
“Do you like this?”
“No I hate it. What about this”
“Oh my god that’s horrible.”
Eventually if you’re lucky, you might find a name you both kinda like.
And on that note…
Be Willing To Compromise
If your significant other hates your weird-arse dream name, you might just have to save it for your next lifetime.
Anyone else have any tips? How did you choose your children’s names? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
18 responses to “How To Choose The Perfect Baby Name”
No mention of taking a normal name and replacing all the vowels with ys?
Mykylah and Jaydyn clearly have a vowel left.
Just.
Pyrfyct.
Guarantee you that is the name of some poor kid born in the last few years. Possibly several.
my wife and i went with a name for our daughter that was a)biblical – to line up with our beliefs. b)had a good meaning or symbolism c) was uncommon/unique
we also were speaking about names for boys and girls for the last 6 or 7 months of her pregnancy and by the time we were ready to welcome our little girl we had a short list of 2 or 3 names for each gender and when our daughter was born and we looked at her – we decided then.
We had decided on a firstname but had a couple of alternatives for middle name and decided that after she was born.
She actually still gets a nickname that comes from one of the middle names we didn’t choose which is kinda odd but it works
And how is little Gethsemane?
i find that insulting! you leave my little Nebuchadnezzar alone!
Tip number 1: Have a girl, all boys names a stupid
Tip number 2: You are not going to get your favourite name, it will be one you both like
Tip number 3: Consider nicknames and short versions to determine if you can live with that or really dislike it
Tip number 4: Make sure the firstname and surname work together without the middle name.
Certainly compromise, by that I mean let her decide, after the “joy” of labour I feel from personal experience the mum won’t get it wrong, but no uni sex names. Three daughters and always knew they were girls, my husband never got the name he wanted, Charlie.
We have Logan (Wolverine) and Oliver (Green Arrow). But we can’t seem to find a female superhero name we both like. Could be a problem when we eventually have a girl.
I’m sure little Wonder (woman) will be very happy with her father’s immature predilection with superheroes. Tell you what, go with Jessica from Jessica Jones, that should pass the silly name test. 😉
Did you really have to be such a dick? They are nice names and tie in with something the OP loves. Better call the name police because Jason didn’t use a name based off religion or popular opinion.
Over react much dude! The original post was two days ago, but now all of a sudden a comment critic wants to pass judgment. My guess is, I’m not the only one that thinks naming your kid after a comic superhero is a bit too childish from someone who is supposed to be a parent. Nuff said.
No, I passed it at the time actually, it just took time to moderate. How is it overreacting to point out you are being a jerk to someone who has picked entirely reasonable names based off something they enjoy? You are making unfounded judgements that a comic book fan couldn’t be a good parent and it’s stupid and petty.
Most importantly, spell it correctly.
I have the opposite problem here – I have the perfect baby name but not baby.
My first child I had a list of two for each gender, only to have fate step in and make the decision in the end (the other choice was Charlotte, which I am glad she did not get because there are sooooo many of them now).
Good luck with the baby.
See if it rhymes with something nasty.
Mulva.
I am so glad we found a perfect name for our first little one. My wife and I are both from different cultures and religions so compromising was quite hard. What we did agree upon though was to leave out a middle name. I mean honestly what is that going to do in the long run really. It will hardly ever be used, we had less to worry about during choosing the name and it will just confuse people at airport check-ins. I was just so worried that whatever I or my partner picked would sound weird or make our kid the prime target of bullying from his first year all the way to high school. We settled on a name that would sound awesome in both cultures and at the same time be a unique name which would not be hard to pronounce anywhere and would hope our little one would love to be called. Total months spent trying to figure out a great name: Probably 5 ish.