More than twenty years ago, when my husband and I started having children, we began what could be called “The Baby Name Game.” We took our last name and tried to match it up with something that we liked.
Now I don’t know about you, but when it came to naming our child, I took that responsibility VERY seriously. A first name is one you’ll have forever and if you hate it, that can make things pretty rough.
On the other hand, sometimes it seemed that my husband took the idea of it being a game more seriously. Some of his suggestions back then were Otto and Bob (because they were palindromes) or Boutros Boutros (because it sounded funny.)
I spend copious hours matching first and last names and making sure that the names that we chose fit the following criteria:
- It shouldn’t have a “huh?” factor to it. For instance, if, like Frank Zappa, we named our first son “Dweezil,” it was likely to evoke the word “huh?” from the child’s first teacher.
- It shouldn’t have a weird rhyming issue with our last name. This eliminated the names Walter, Kirk or Dirk.
- It should be a name that people could at least attempt to spell upon first hearing it. A good friend of mine named her first child “Xiamara” (pronounced Kee-A-Mar-A). It’s a beautiful name, which I believe is Japanese. I, however, am not fond of spelling and re-spelling of names. It’s just a thing I have.
- It shouldn’t have bully rhyme potential. Have you ever seen the Drew Barrymore movie Never Been Kissed in which her high school persona is mocked with the name “Josie-Grossie”? Need I say more?
- Being a former business professional, it had to be a name that could be used in a conference room and not provoke snide remarks, as in: “Trixiebelle, can you take us through the meeting agenda?”
- It had to be a name that wasn’t overly popular. When I was in grade school, there were at least 5 girls with the name Kathy in my class. It wasn't the worst name in the world, but I think the Kathys wished they had something a little more unique. I didn’t want my kids to go through that.
- It had to be a name that could stand the test of time. When my children were senior citizens, would their names sound respectable and wise or weary and old?
So, how did we do? Well, pretty good. I like our kids’ names (Andrew, Dan and Maria), and I think they do too. Although despite our best efforts, they have many kids in their peer groups with the same first names. Oh well, what can you do?
What about you? Did you (or do you) have fun naming your kids? Are your children named after family members or anyone special? (Our daughter is named after the character in West Side Story, one of our favorite musicals. That also happens to be my middle name.) If you could do it over, would you change anything about naming your children?
