When choosing a name for your child please remember; it is a person you are naming, not a pet. Furthermore, you are naming a person who will, Lord willing, spend the great majority of their life as an adult person. While it is tempting to think of your new baby as, well, a baby it is helpful to remember that he won’t stay a baby for long. Sure, it will feel like forever when he’s waking you up every forty-five minutes throughout the night but those baby days won’t last. Of course the temptation may then be to think of a name suitable for a child. It seems funny now but of course it is true that grown up names like George, William and Fred were, let’s face it, babies and toddlers and children once too. So when naming the new addition to your family please keep in mind that one day he will be addressed as “Mr. Whatever my parents chose.”
Which brings us to another point, nicknames. Nicknames are well and good and some may follow a child into adulthood. But by and large cute nicknames suitable for a child should be nothing more than a nickname, i.e. leave it off the birth certificate, please. Besides, choosing a nickname before the child is born violates the first rule of nicknames; a true nickname chooses the person, not the other way around. Choosing a nickname before you meet the child robs him of the chance of getting a really good one. Of course that applies to forestalling the chance of getting a really bad one too but why tempt fate?
This conversation must invariable lead to the truly unique and clever names or completely made up names. Movie stars are notorious for this kind of nonsense. When not naming their offspring after common household items like, “Denim” or “Apple,” they completely make up names like, “Exton,” or Kel-el.” For the record, “Kel-el,” Nick Cage’s son, was named after Superman’s birth name. That’s right, a made up name for a made up person was stolen by a maniac to name his very real son. And we think movie stars are creative.
Naming your child is important. It, of course, is not the most important task given to parents. That is, unless you really mess it up.
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