Thursday, May 19, 2011

Delayed blog 5/13 The name game

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a quotation by William Shakespeare from his play Romeo and Juliet meant to say that the names of things do not matter, only what things are.

It would be nice if a name didn't matter, and everyone were judged on their actions alone.  However we all know a name does matter.  Right or wrong, a name preceeds you and gives your future employer/potential friend/date/school teacher an image of you before you've ever met. 

As a parent-to-be, the name game is one of the biggest dilemnas you'll face during your 9 months of preparation for the little one.  We all want to give our children the best chance at success in life, though with some of the baby names I've heard recently, some parents want to give their children the best chance of success at being a stripper or pole dancer!

I have a few rules when it comes to naming my children:
#1)  I like the Dr. test and the Judge test where you place your child's name in context to judge it's appropriateness.  Can you imagine going to Dr. Fifi for your surgery or addressing The Honorable Audio Science in your civil suit? 

#2)  I also like to avoid popular names, so that he's not one of seven Jessicas in his kindergarten class.  Though, a boy named Jessica would clearly be unique. 

#3)  I also like family names,but not close family names because it can be confusing to have multiple Kathryns at Thanksgiving. 

#4) Finally, I like the names from the era of our Grandparents.  This can be hard because so many of them are returning as popular, which violates rule #2. 

I named Peterson, and (Ryan claims) I named Chester so Ryan thinks it's his turn to name Baby Threepeat.  I cringe at all of his suggestions, clearly our naming styles are completely different.  If we end up with a baby named Daggar or Stanislaus, instead of a baby Bennett or Donald you'll know why.

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