Day 340: the naming

The most frequent question we get as imminent parents, behind “When’s the baby due?” and “Do you know if it’ll be a boy or a girl?” is: “Have you picked a name yet?”

Naming is serious business.  It’s a brand that our little human is going to wear for the rest of his life.  It’s a word that he’ll hear probably at least once a day.  And it also is a social message about who he is.

So, have we picked a name yet?  No, we haven’t.  We have a few front-runners right now (Simon, Oliver, Isaac), but we haven’t quite settled on any of them yet for certain.  And while I wouldn’t say that we’re agonizing over the decision, it is something that intrigues me because there are so many factors to take into account.

The name should be common enough that he doesn’t feel like an outsider for having a weird name, but unique enough that he doesn’t feel like he’s getting confused in a classroom with four other students.  The name has to sound good with Dai, and the initials can’t be something demeaning, like STD or LSD.

For our personal sakes, the name can’t be “tainted” – that is, we can’t have known someone with that name that we disliked or had a bad experience with.  It can’t be a unique name of one of our friends or our friend’s babies or other family members (unless we intentionally decide to name it after a family member).

And it can’t remind us too distinctly of one particular celebrity with that name, even if that celebrity is likeable.

There are a lot of guidelines, but in the end, the baby’s name will kind of be like our wedding.  No matter how much planning we do, we won’t account for something – maybe even a future connotation with the name that we could have never anticipated – but the name will turn out to be just fine regardless.

Still, I’m curious: if you had a child recently, how did you go about coming up with a name?  If you know, how was your particular name picked?  Do you anticipate giving your future child a particular name that you’ve always loved?  I’m curious as to how much thought other people give (or have given) to the naming of children.