How easy did you find it to choose a name for your baby? Or are you in the middle of writing baby name shortlists and your due date is getting closer?
I ask as the last three baby boys who have had newborn photo shoots have still been nameless at a week or so old! With my first we had a top three, which if you need boy name inspiration was Nathaniel, Zachary and Sebastian and for the girls Arabella, Hermione and Harriet. We had a boy and Nathaniel was born! With number two we obviously revisited the old lists, but I felt weird giving number two a ‘reject name’ from my first time round. We really struggled!! We went into delivery thinking Alexander, Xander for short but I wasn’t feeling it!
Thankfully we had a girl, and after a quip from the midwife about Hermione requiring her own little wand….we settled quickly on Arabella!
The lists of top baby boy and baby girl names have reverted in recent years to the traditional names of George, Harry, Jack for baby boys and for girls Amelia, Olivia and Isabelle seem to be holding the top spot for now.
Here are my 5 tips for helping you choose a baby name:
- Check it works with your surname and the acronym doesn’t spell something funny like Fred Alfred Romeo Thatcher!
- Go to a park and holler it across the playground! You will be doing this in years to come so make sure it doesn’t look better on paper than in real life.
- Make sure you like the shortenings. Whilst I deliberately gave my children long names because I love them I am sure one day their friends will be calling for Nate and Belles!
- Check the top 100 names – you might wish to avoid the top 10 but towards the bottom end of the list, those names are actually rare.
- Look to relatives for inspiration. Both our children have middle names from their respective granny or grandpa.
It’s a minefield but certainly one of the more fun things on you to do list as long as it doesn’t cause too many arguments with your partner!
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