As I've mentioned before, I have a friend who is expecting and is due on April 1st. She knows she is going to have a daughter and I recently asked her if she and her husband had decided on a name yet. She said they had not. She and her husband just couldn't agree. He likes traditional names. She wants a name that is substantial and not boring. Also, the first name can not begin with A. Why? Because then the poor child's initials would be A.S.S. Ha.
This friend and I work together and earlier this week she stopped over to my desk and said she needed my opinion. They had pretty much decided on a name and she wanted to get my thoughts on it. The new little baby will be named Meredith. I personally really like it.
While we were talking she told me about this really cool baby name website. It's one of the best I've seen. It includes surveys so that you can read what other people with the name you are considering have to say. It also ranks them in popularity and shows you a little graph going back all the way to 1880. Of course it also gives the usual origin and meaning.
I have had no issues with my name and actually kind of like it. It does get confused with the male name Aaron, though. It was quite popular the year I was born so I have met many others with the same name over the years. I think the only negative nickname that has been derived from it is "ern" (or "urn"). I took a screenshot of the popularity graph for my name from the site. #21. At least it wasn't top 10.
I think I would have a really horrible time trying to come up with a name for my child. I am really bad at making even the smallest decisions. I am lucky I can decide what to feed myself each day. This particular decision seems to have a lot of weight attached to it.
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What do you think of your name and what has your experience been with it? If you have a child, what was your criteria when choosing a name?
The only practice I've had with baby names is when I've named my various tech toys. I've also named our car. And I suppose naming my pets too but there's still something completely different with naming babies... I mean they're people!
I have a few names I think I'd like but I'm not sharing!! LOL
Kudos to the parents with the the foresight not to give their kids the Initials A.S.S!!
I just found out recently that a friend of mine has the initials P.M.S. Poor girl.
I hated my name when I was a kid. I would have done anything to change it. I'm still not crazy about it, but I'm used to it now, so changing it would just be a pain in the rear. ;-) My dad wanted to name me Megan and my mom wanted Danielle so how on earth they came up with Dawn is beyond me!
I think it's important to consider both initials and the actual flow of the name when it's spoken, both with the middle name & without. No one should have a name that is awkward to say. I read somewhere once that you should try yelling a prospective name for you child (first middle & last) to see how it fits--you know, like you probably will half a million times over the course of raising said child. That made me laugh.
My taste in names changed a lot over the course of my life, when I've thought about such things. The list has gotten shorter & stayed much the same in the last 5 years or so though. Maybe I finally have a short list narrowed down now if that day comes? I do know that I would have a much easier time choosing girl names than boy names.
I heard the same thing about yelling the child's name. It cracks me up, but also makes sense at the same time.