Five Easy Steps to Picking the Perfect Baby Name
One of the few decisions you'll make during pregnancy that will,in fact, last throughout your child's lifetime is the choice ofyour baby's name. (Unlike, for example, your choice of strolleror whether to use Lamaze or hypnosis to ease labor...
... pains.) Tochoose the best name for your baby, follow these simple tips:1. Don't try to please other people.Everyone from your in-laws to the supermarket checkout lady isgoing to have an opinion about what you name your child. But theonly opinions that really matter are yours and your spouse's. 2. Keep it a secret!If you tell everyone names you've chosen before the baby isborn, they won't hesitate to criticize your choices. But if youkeep it to yourself and announce the name and the birth at thesame time, everyone will compliment you on a great name choice.3. Consider how your child will feel about the name as he or shegrows up. Will it be difficult for the teachers to pronounce in school?Will she be teased because it sounds funny or rhymes with anunfortunate word? Does it sound like a very young or very oldname? You want to choose something your child will becomfortable with at all phases of his life.4. Check the initials to make sure they aren't problematic.One of the moms I surveyed for "The Gallagher Guide to the BabyYears" told the story about her relative who named his baby,William Eugene Thompson. A nice name, but the initials (W.E.T)weren't ideal for monograms.5. Decide in advance, or at least have a couple of names underconsideration, by the beginning of the third trimester.There's so much to do as your due date gets closer. You don'twant to be under pressure to choose a name because you went intolabor early and had to come up with something at the hospital.Check out BabyNames.com (www.babynames.com) for lots of neatideas for baby names.
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