Baby Names: A Few Ideas

Picking baby’s name is one of the most fun—and most difficult—decisions you’ll ever make. Names are important. A name belongs to an individual and is part of their identity.

You may not want your unborn child’s name to be too common, so they have to write out their last name all through elementary school just to identify themselves. But you may also fear that your child will be teased if their name is too uncommon or “strange.”

As an adult, you often learn of another person’s name before ever meeting them, and consciously or subconsciously, an impression is made. Names are very important, and for all these reasons and more, it’s often very difficult to settle on a name during pregnancy.

We decided to take the baby name question to our Facebook fans, inquiring “How did you decide on a name? What was your inspiration?” We got some great responses, and from those, we’ve come up with five ideas for naming baby for the moms-to-be struggling with this question.

1. Legacy Baby Names: Take a closer look at your family tree. Check out the first and middle names of your and your partner’s parents and grandparents. If none of these work, look back even farther into ancestry to great-grandparents and beyond, if possible. You might just stumble across a charming name that will also honor your family and roots.
2. Double names: One respondent reported that she chose to combine names they liked, for instance: Beth + Ann = BethAnn. Even if you don’t choose this exact route, do be sure that first and middle names are compatible and flow together. You don’t want your child to stumble through their formal name for the rest of their lives!
3. Nicknames: If you’re concerned about your child having a formal name in the business world one day—but don’t want your kiddo to run around with an all-too-serious name—choose a formal name that is conducive to nicknaming. For instance, a Thomas can also be a Tom or Tommy.
4. Initials: Your child’s initials can also become a great moniker if you’re committed to a name that, for whatever reason, doesn’t fit your child’s day-to-day life.
5. Resort to the census: If you’ve exhausted all other options and even the popular baby name books aren’t doing it for you, check out the Social Security Administration’s database of baby names. Providing not just the most popular baby names of this year or last, you can look up the most popular names from various decades in history. Maybe “Walter” or “Minnie,” the 13^th most popular names of the 1890’s for their respective genders, strikes a chord with you!

No matter what approach you take to naming baby, it’s an important decision—and a great distraction from the more stressful aspects of pregnancy. The Atlas 2-in-1 belly support band can also help alleviate the stress of carrying your baby in the third trimester, when the pressure to finalize baby’s name is really on.

How did you name your child?