Baby Names: Tips For Choosing The Right Ones!

If you are pregnant or are trying to get pregnant then naming your baby is probably one of the things that you are looking forward to above everything else. However, it isn’t always as fun as most people think it will be! Agreeing on a name is one of the mot frustrating experiences of the nine months preceding parenthood because it’s very rare that two prospective parents will agree on the same name the very first time it’s mentioned. In fact, the final name is more likely to be borne out of compromise and maybe a little bribery!

There are various ways that you can come up with names for children though, and most of them won’t lead to war at home!

Here are a few tips that might help you and your partner decide on that all important name:

• Go through the family. Naming a child after an aunt or uncle, grandmother or grandfather, or even mum or dad is cool these days so see if there are any on your family tree that you like.

• Take a look through a baby names book. There are all sorts in there and some are bound to stand out. You won’t agree on them all of the time but the book will give you a few ideas.

• If you really can’t reach an agreement, come up with a few names that you like and a few your partner likes and see how they sound together. Choose a first name and a middle name and then put it together with your surname. Keep swapping the combinations around and I guarantee that something will eventually stand out that you both like.

• ALWAYS try the names you like with the surname the baby would have. Some really don’t go together at all so do your child a favour and nix those that don’t sound good.

• Find out the gender of the baby if you want to make your naming job easier. Coming up with either a female or male set of names is better than both!

Above all though, no matter how many of these tips you choose to take on board, please remember that your baby will be stuck with his or her name for life! Celebrities might have gotten away with wacky names in the past and undoubtedly will into the future but some names can cause resentment from your child as he or she will get older. Make sure that it is a name that you would be comfortable having and it should be fine.

A name is the first thing you can give to your child so make it a good one.

A Few Ideas For Boys, Girls And Unisex Names

So now we’ve gone through the difficulties associated with choosing a name for your new baby, it’s time to get down to thinking about exactly what you could call your baby when he or she is born. There are literally millions of names out there you could choose from, which makes your job no easier but it might give you a few ideas!

Fashion Trends

Like fashion clothing, home furnishings and just about everything else in the world, baby names do go through various fashion trends. Not so long ago, all of the old names that our grandparents were given came back into fashion. Newer names like Lexie, Bradley and Luca were out and Jack, Rose and Emily were in. This seems to have stuck for the past few years, which would explain why Jack has been the top boy’s name since the turn of the Millennium.

However, there are other trends as well. A lot of these depend on what celebrities name their children because you can guarantee that thousands of other new mums will follow suit. Unisex names have also become popular. Although the majority of expectant parents find out what gender their baby is, some still don’t want to know. Those parents tend to come up with unisex names so that they won’t have to go through the hassle of finding a good name for a child when it’s born.

Popular unisex names include Alex, Jamie, Sam, Jo, Ellis, Charlie, George and Morgan. Other unisex names that are popular tend to be place names. For example, parents call both boys and girls Paris, Sydney and Dallas. Also, and this may be something you’ve already thought about, it has become fashionable to come up with variations of one name for a boy and a girl. Popular examples of this are Jade and Jaden, Samantha and Samuel, Gabriel and Gabrielle, and finally Kiera and Kieran.

Boys Names

Just to give you a good starting point and a little food for thought, here are the top ten names for little boys and little girls born in 2007:

1. Jack / Grace
2. Thomas / Ruby
3. Oliver / Olivia
4. Joshua / Emily
5. Harry / Jessica
6. Charlie / Sophie
7. Daniel / Chloe
8. William / Lily
9. James / Ella
10. Alfie / Amelia

Choosing a name from either list is a pretty safe bet because all twenty names can be found in the top hundred for the past five years and so no doubt will be popular for at least the next five years!