The Perfect Name for the Perfect Baby: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby
368
The Perfect Name for the Perfect Baby: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby
368eBook
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Overview
Your mother or mother-in-law has the perfect name -- her own!
Your next door neighbors just named their baby what you were going to name your own child.
Relax! Help is on the way! You're sure to find a name that sings to you in this clever, up-to-date guide. Is your baby bound to be an angel like Arael? Or as great as Alexander? Organized by categories such as favorite names over the years, song titles, celebrities, angels, saints, flowers, and more, THE PERFECT NAME FOR THE PERFECT BABY gives advice and suggestions on:
* Names to consider if your last name is complicated or simple
* Names of European, Latin, African, or Asian origin
* Names from the Bible, mythology, and literature
* Names of your favorite soap opera characters, and what the celebrities have named their own children
* And much more
With a complete alphabetical listing of thousands of names, THE PERFECT NAME FOR THE PERFECT BABY is a fun and comprehensive catalogue of great names -- one of which is bound to fit your baby perfectly.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780307775078 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 01/26/2011 |
| Sold by: | Random House |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 368 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Considerations to Keep in Mind when Selecting the All-Important Name(s)
START BY THINKING ABOUT YOUR OWN FIRST NAME
Would you give yourself the same name you already have? Before you answer that, take the time to go down memory lane. As a child, were you ever teased because of your name? Did you always change your name when you played “pretend” games? Did you go through stages when you asked your family and friends to call you by another name? If your answer is yes to any of these, figure out why. Once you’ve analyzed your “whys,” it would be wise to take them into consideration when naming your own child.
THEN THINK ABOUT YOUR LAST NAME
If it’s short and simple—Smith, Chan, Gold—then you might want to pair the last name with a long, intriguing first name—Aurora, Granville, Evander.
On the other hand, if the last name is long—Whitticomb, Yamaguchi, Costellano—you might want to think in terms of a short and easy-to-remember first name—Dawn, Glenn, John.
If your last name is obviously ethnic, be sure to read about ETHNIC NAMES on this page.
A MIDDLE NAME
We are definitely in favor of giving today’s child a middle name. At a time when everything is computerized, a middle name can be a real plus for identification purposes. There may be several John Crains out there, but the number decreases dramatically by adding a distinctive middle name … such as John Schuyler Crain.
And keep in mind that during certain stages of your child’s growing up, he or she might not be too crazy about his or her first name. This way the child has a choice; he or she can use that middle name you so thoughtfully chose for him or her years before.
It’s important that your child not be an “NMI” (no middle initial). We’ve heard about people in the military who have filled out forms stating that they have no middle name; from that point on, the computers actually list “NMI” as their middle name on military records.
At dinner parties, bringing up the subject of middle names can be fun. You may want to start the conversation with such interesting observations as: Author Henry Miller and twentieth-century Renaissance man Steve Allen share the same middle name—Valentine. And that perhaps it was Lizzie Borden’s middle name, Andrew, that got her so angry. Or that it’s Garth Brooks’s middle name that is really Garth; his first name is Troyal.
Almost every United States president, from John Quincy Adams to William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, has had a middle name. And four-fifths of the people in Who’s Who have middle names. So by all means, give your child a middle name … or, at the least, a middle initial. Which brings us to another important consideration…
INITIALS
Ah, superstition! It is said that people whose initials spell out a word will be wealthy. If you believe the superstition, then rig it so that your child’s name will spell out a word. But be kind. Make sure the word is one with which your child will want to be associated.
It’s great when initials spell out words like TEN, FUN, or WOW. But be sure to steer clear of initials with questionable associations like BAD, PIG, or DUD. Did the parents of our lovely young editor, Elizabeth Zack, consider initials when naming their baby girl? Yes! That’s one reason Elizabeth has a middle name, so that she would not be saddled with the nickname EZ.
You might also want to consider initials that are an acronym for a nickname. For instance: Theodore Evan Dodd. The initials are TED, the nickname for Theodore.
Our eighteenth president was baptized Hiram Ulysses Grant. As the story goes, the young student anticipated with dread the teasing he would get from his West Point classmates when they realized his initials spelled out HUG. Fortunately, the congressman who nominated him to West Point thoughtfully changed Hiram Ulysses Grant to Ulysses Simpson Grant (Simpson being the maiden name of Ulysses’ mother). That took care of one problem for Ulysses, but created another: his nickname became “Useless”!
NICKNAMES
A Hungarian proverb says, “A child that is loved has many names.” And most nicknames are a sign of affection. Studies have shown that people with nicknames tend to be better adjusted. Plus, nicknames seem to promote a certain intimacy and indicate a readiness for friendship on the part of the owner.
It might be wise, then, to select a name for your child that lends itself to one or more nicknames—Elizabeth (Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Bess, Bets, Bette); or William (Willie, Will, Billy, Bill).
Then there are those non-name-related nicknames—The Boss, The Queen of Mean, and so on. These names are earned, and they either say something about your child’s personality or physical appearance or an event associated with him/her. They arise from the creativity—and, unfortunately, occasional cruelty—of his or her peers. It’s a shame, but these names are beyond a parent’s control.
INFORMAL VS. FORMAL NAMES
Throughout the last quarter of this century in America, there continues to be a trend toward informality in name-calling. Just as very few employees now address their boss as “Mr. or Ms. So-and-so,” so does this informal trend extend itself to baby-naming. Names once considered nicknames are showing up on birth certificates throughout the country.
While there’s nothing wrong with naming your baby Vicki instead of Victoria, or Danny instead of Daniel, we think that a formal name serves the baby better when she or he is an adult and can choose to be known by either the formal or the informal version of the name.
ALL KIDDING ASIDE
A funny name can be hysterical, and it’s guaranteed to make people laugh. But will its owner—your child—be happy to be the brunt of a joke?
We’ve spoken to—or heard about—Ilene Forward, Rusty Hammer, Herbert Sherbert, Flip Side, Otto Graph, Rita Sedita, Rose Bush, Candy Barr and Clark Barr, Marsha Mellow, Solomon Gemorrah, and the Boston stockbroker’s daughters Cash, Gamble, and Chance. We’ve been told there’s the Dwopp family with a son named Wayne (a song cue if ever there was one): “Wayne Dwopp keeps falling on his head.…
Are these names funny? Yes. Is it fair to give one to a child? We’ve met people with names that provoke laughter who love their names for that very reason. But we’ve also met people who regard their names as bad jokes, and they’ve never forgiven their parents for it.
So let your conscience (and not your sense of humor) be your guide.
ETHNIC NAMES
It’s wonderful to remember your roots when it comes to naming a child, but there are a couple of other things to remember: Mixing two different nationalities—Vito McDonald, Zeus Feinberg, Mustafa Swenson—can sound comical; also, if you have an extremely ethnic last name and want to keep with tradition by giving your child a matching ethnic first name, take into account how hard the name may be to spell.
On his first day of kindergarten in America, a little boy from Israel told the teacher his name: “Yitzhak Menachem Eisenstadt.” The teacher asked, “How do you spell that?” Yitzhak replied, “My mother helps me.”
Funny, sure, but more than to amuse you, we tell the story to spark an awareness of possible problems that can accompany complex names that have not been Americanized.
There’s a bit more we have to say about spelling, so read on.
SPELLING
Our first inclination was to say, keep the spelling conventional so that your child doesn’t have to go through life correcting everybody. But our attitude changed once television personality Sharron Lovejoy shared her story with us.
It all happened during World War II. Captain Lovejoy, a pilot in the Air Force, told his pregnant wife, “If we have a girl, name her Sharron and spell it with two r’s. That way, if I don’t make it home from the war, my little girl will think of her daddy every time she has to tell someone how to spell her name correctly.” Unfortunately, Sharron’s dad did not return. And yes, she thinks of him each time she has to correct the spelling of her name.
A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW
It might be traditional to give a boy his father’s name, tacking on a “Junior” or “II” or “III,” but we think you can do better than that. Give your son his own name!
It’s downright confusing having two guys with the same name around. To avoid such confusion, the inevitable happens. The father becomes “Big Whomever” and the son becomes “Little Whomever,” or, worse yet, the boy is called Junior or some cutesy nickname.
Also, one child’s having the father’s name may make other siblings a wee bit jealous. After all, it stands to reason that Dad might feel closer to his namesake. And maybe he even expects more from that namesake.
So we are not in favor of Juniors, IIs, IIIs, etc. (Come to think of it, you’re probably not either. If you were, you wouldn’t be reading a baby-name book!)