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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Popularity Name Game

Our newest one's arrival has been scheduled.  We have barely over nine weeks until she gets here, and still yet she has no name.  I am afraid that if we call her Rattles, as we have taken to doing, much longer she will be forever stuck with that moniker.  That would not be pleasant.

The base problem is that we have very different name styles.  I like more traditional names, that sound a little older.  He likes more modern names.

Then, the few times that we both like a name, we, or more likely I, check the most popular list to find it there, and for me, that throws it out of the running.  I have a very common name.  I do not want my children to have that problem.  Unfortunately for our first two, that isn't exactly the case.  Both of their names will end up in the top names for a decade.  I do think we missed the most popular year for each, they were the start of a naming trend, and thankfully not the high point, but they are both there.  I want to try and avoid that for the last one.  I can't tell you how many times my children stop and turn around at school, or any public place, because someone yells their name...at another child.  We have other parents point out that they have the same name, or other kids shouting about it all the time.  I feel like that would make a child feel less special.  Emily B. and Emily D. have been in the same class together for two years in a row.  I'm not sure I would ever call either child by their first name with out the last initial anymore.

Is it just me, though?  If he doesn't care, and we both like the name, should I stick to my guns about keeping them from having a popular name.  

I'm quite torn.

I really can't decide how important it is to me to have my child's name be different than any one else's name she will likely encounter.

As you get older, basically once you are done with your education, you are no longer stuck in grouping by age, and not in groups of people who have names with the same popularity in the same year.  By the time you get to the work force, it is a total mix, and you may or may not work with people of the same name.  Not only that, but hopefully you have established yourself as a person, and are comfortable with who you are.  At that point, it won't matter as much to you.

I'm really not sure what we are going to do about a name.  I expect it to take us a while longer.  Who knows what kind of name we will end up with.  My only hope is that in the end it suits her, and she loves it.  I think that is really the best we can all hope for.  

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