7 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Naming Your Baby
You can of course choose any name you wish, however because your baby will have this name for life, careful thought should be put into the name you choose for them! They have to grow up with that name and go through school where other children may be very unkind to a potentially problematic name, and that may affect their personality, their behavior, and their self worth!
Be careful with nicknames – peanut, jellybean, sweet pea etc as they stick!
- Make sure the initials don’t spell something awful. This can be when first initials are combined with the second name, or when the initials of all names are used. Michael Bezzler becomes M. Bezzler, Stephen Presso becomes S. Presso, Stewart David Baker is shortened to Stu D. Baker, Christopher David Player becomes C. D. Player, and Graham Raffe becomes G. Raffe [giraffe]. Using all the initials can lead to Frank Alan Teak becoming F.A.T, and Alan Steven Smith becomes A.S.S. and Russel Ingram Pearce becoming R.I.P.
- Make sure the first and last name doesn’t sound like another word. When the names are read out aloud, it is easier to know what this means ie Anne Teak [antique], Sid Down [sit down], Tim Burr [timber], Stanley Back [shortened to Stan Back – stand back], Stewart Pidd [shortened to Stu Pidd], Candy Barr, Paul Behrer, Jerry Atric, and Robin Banks.
- Avoid names where the first name rhymes with the last name, or first name ends in a vowel and the second name starts with a vowel as they tend to run together. Examples of names rhyming would be Larry Barry, Shanna Branner, Chase Mace, and Ferris Terris. Vowel examples tend to run the names together and include Eva Olivier and Adriana Adair.
- Avoid childish names. Although these names may sound cute or sweet when the child is young, children grow up and when they get older it may not sound so cute ie Bunny, Candy or Missy.
- Don’t choose a name you are not happy with. Well meaning family or friends may have names they think are perfect, but you don’t like the sound of. Don’t be bullied into choosing a name to please family or friends if you don’t like it. It may remind you of someone you dislike, bring up bad memories, or you don’t like the shortened version of the name such as Joey for Joseph. Whatever the reason, don’t feel forced to accept it.
- Avoid celebrity names that may suddenly become unpopular. Celebrities can be very popular today and then become unpopular the next day because of sex scandals or drugs etc. It may be embarrassing at school when other children then pick on your child because of their name linkage with the celebrity.
- Don’t pick a name that’s hard to pronounce and spell. You don’t want your child growing up not being able to spell or pronounce their name for many years, and the difficulties that may bring ie Xaquelina.
There are some other considerations such as:
- Not naming your baby after a pet as your child may not be happy when they find they were named after your horse!
- If you let other children pick a name they can come up with some names like Harry Potter, Big Bird or Tintin, and be upset if you don’t choose that name
- It may pay to check the meaning of the name in case it has an unpleasant meaning in another common language
- Having a ‘junior’ in the house is now falling out of favor due to the problems of having two people in the same house with the same name, especially with mail etc. It is better to use these family tradition names as the middle name.