What To Name Your Baby

Are you having a baby?

If so, you're probably trying to pick a good name for your new little one. I think that bearing a child is one of the most beautiful things a mother and father can do together. Clearly, this can be a time when you can set love, light, laughter, music, and joy as a priority, and give that proactive feeling to your little luv as a head-start before your little one ever enters the world and wears Huggies. There's a brave, exciting, and wild adventure in store for your little bambino. And, you probably know as much as everyone else: what you name your baby matters. So, what will you name your child?

The important thing is to find a name that seems to resonate with your baby.

Maybe this sounds crazy, but usually a Mother just knows what feels right for the name of her child. Call it intuition. Occasionally, men have this gift, too. It is wise to discuss this together before getting into the baby delivery room, though, so to help couples facing this decision I wrote this article. Plus, it's a fun subject.


A babies name can influence what your little one will attract in life, so pick a name that is blessed by good fortune, if you can do so. It is important to know the entire combination of names, in order to do that, according to the Kabalarians: (http://www.kabalarians.com/index.cfm).

So many people pick names based upon their parents names, or names Hollywood stars or Soap opera stars are picking for their children.

I've noticed people who were fans of the Soap Opera, Santa Barbara later had children and named them Mason, Ethan, Julia, and Eden. Are we going to name children simply the name that is most popular? Or will we follow the current pop-culture rage? Or do we believe our child needs a unique name?

During the "hippie" generation, many parents named their kids nature-type names like, Star, Flower, Joy, Faith, Forrest, River, Brook, and so forth. You'll see names of stars indicate this from Frank Zappa's Moon Unit to Faith Hill. I have met people named Autumn and Summer, or River and figured, well, their parents were from the 60's Generation.
New baby names include names of places, like Shiloh, or celebrity-type of status, such as Chanel or Angelina or Ben. Children from the early 1990's starting getting called Trinity, after the female character from the movie The Matrix. I haven't seen any NEO's, though.

Some people name their children after seasons or months, such as Spring, Summer, August, June, and so on. There are many names which have ethnic roots, such as with my own daughter, who is named Galen. Galen is, of course a Gaelic ascendancy. Other examples of ethnic roots might be Maria, a common Hispanic name, Olga, most likely Russian, Che, Argentinean, Helga, German, Olaf, Norwegian, Sven, Swedish, and so forth.

I've always found people's names fascinating. Names matter. If you follow names like I do, you know that there is a numerology value in a name, as well as the horoscope birth from the date, time, and place where your child will be born. One, you likely cannot control. The other, you can. So, with the name, take extra care.

In America, the top baby names, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration's most recent report, are:

Boy's Names:

1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Joshua
4. Ethan
5. Matthew
6. Daniel
7. Christopher
8. Andrew
9. Anthony
10. William
    

Top Girl's Names:

1. Emily
2. Emma
3. Madison
4. Isabella
5. Ava
6. Abigail
7. Olivia
8. Hannah
9. Sophia
10. Samantha

For the boy's names on this list, you can see the Biblical theme is still quite popular (Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony are all the names of famous Biblical figures and/or saints). With girl's names, it seems that the popularity is based more around a theme of BEAUTY than religion. Emily is a name meaning rival. So, I suppose it's a version of EVE to ADAM. Abigail and Hannah are both Biblical names. According to BehindTheName.com, Emma was a matchmaker (although Emma also ties-back to a German saint), Madison is a contemporary name, but almost all the other names on this list are names with ties to BEAUTY. Ava means "voice" or "sound" while Sophia is Greek for "wisdom". Samantha is unknown although one site said it is Aramaic for "listener", so that is unique to this list.

I've always felt that Isabella and Olivia are two of the most beautiful names ever, and those names do, indeed originate from names of former Queens. Would it surprise you if a girl with that name liked the finer things in life? Some of the Hindu names that are most popular include Shiva, Ravi, Zane, and Ganesh -- all names derived from Hindu God's. So, clearly, American's are not alone in their penchant for names based upon a religion or religious principle.

Something interesting I noted was that many popular French names came from artists, poets, and political leaders. I wonder why other ethnicities don't honor more poets and artists than saints. Obviously, Homer and Chaucer didn't exactly rate high on the list of names for men. As a side note, my father, named Homer, never liked his name, until my brother (the English teacher) pointed out that Homer was a great poet. So, kudos to Grandma!

Baby Name Resources:

Do you want more resources to help you name your baby? Some of the best resources I have found for naming a child can be found through the following sites: http://www.thinkbabynames.com/ - an excellent resource of Christian names and other name resources, plus with statistics of popularity of the names you love most.

What blew me away was the database of names ranging from all of these Ethnic backgrounds, ranging from African, American, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Assyrian, Australian, Babylonian, Basque, Celtic, Cherokee, Chinese, Contemporary, Czechoslovakian, Danish, Egyptian, English, Farsi, Finnish, Flemish, French, Gaelic, German, Ghanaian, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi/Hindu, Hopi, Hungarian, Irish, Israeli, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mexican, Native American Indian, Nigerian, Norse, Norwegian, Old English, Old French, Old German, Old Norse, Old Welsh, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Scandinavian, Scottish, Slavic, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Teutonic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish! Whew!

There are so many types of names based upon ethnicity, it would take a Bible of Names to print them all. I found the process of searching through names rather impressive.

I often look up people's names for a general sense of who they are at Kabalarians:
http://www.kabalarians.com/index.cfm which has many useful free features. I love their first name look-up, and looked up Scott and Scotty to get some insights into what they thought about me:

"The name of Scott creates a quick, analytical, and clever mind; you are creative, versatile, original, and independent. You have large ambitions, and it is difficult for you to be tolerant and understanding of those who desire less in life or who are more slow and methodical by nature. [sigh] Patience is not your forte. You do, however, have leadership ability and would never be happy in a subservient position. You are ambitious and aggressive by nature. You would be happiest in positions where you are free to express individually and creatively and where opportunities are not restricted; you desire freedom, and do not tolerate being possessed by others. You appreciate change and travel, and the opportunity to meet and mix with others, and to influence them with your creative ideas."

Yep. that's me: Ambitious, sporty, clever, independent, leader, free, love travel, creative ideas, influencing others, mixing. They nailed it.

Of course, I also go by "Scotty" - especially with friends and when playing my sax. So, here is the difference one letter can make to a name: "In your work, you would seek a position offering self-expression through contact with people, such as sales or teaching, or a position giving scope to your creative, artistic talents. You are good-natured and likeable, and people tend to confide in you and seek your advice in personal problems. Others sense your sincere interest and desire to help, and you can always be counted on to see the bright side of any problem." Hmm. Scotty, the Sax Player. Creative and fun, yep, that's me, too.

Interesting, huh? Well, okay, I'm biased. But, look up your own name, and see how you enjoy it and how accurate they might be for your own name. I have one particular ex-girlfriend who seems to always have had her relationships end in disaster. You know, if she read the lookup on her name, she just might change it, as it pretty much predicts that type of result: struggle, strife, difficulties manifesting, creative with handicrafts, and clever-minded. That was her.

I read my own name description and another friend's name description together and she laughed at how ironic it is in they were so accurate for her. We then went through all of her names for her kids, and it was amazing how accurate the Kabalarians had the first names of her children, too.

One of their main points is that you must know the whole name, though, so you probably should order a full name analysis to see how "balanced" you are. Anyway, it may be a good idea to run your entire baby name through their system to see how your baby's lot in life might turn out. After all, if half of life is predetermined and the other half free will, we might as well make the predetermined part as healthy as possible, right?

http://www.babynamesgarden.com/unusual-baby-names.aspx has a list of unusual names, of which I thought some were funny: Aslin - is this like Aslan but they never READ the book Chronicles of Narnia (just saw the movie)? Or, Kerren, is this someone who just wanted to name Karen but had to be different? Jewellah struck me as cool, but probably just because I like Jewel, the singer.

BabyNamesWorld.com had a wise piece of advice: "If you decide to choose a popular name, don’t pick one of the top ten names of recent years. Choose one that’s slightly less popular. Find a happy medium and pick a name that’s not too unusual, but not too popular. There are various web sites that list the names chosen most often for each year. Avoid the top ten of the last five years and see if there are any names you like within the top 100 or 1000." They have many other useful suggestions for how to name your baby at this site.

Whatever name you pick, remember that your baby is special. Give each baby the tender love and care they need and deserve and watch a special miracle grow inside of you, too. Also, if you are a wise parent, you will observe the behavior of your child and change their name if they seem to act other than their name.

For example, I was called David up until the age of two. If you look up more by David, you will see that I am, indeed, not much of a David, and much more of a Scott or Scotty. My Mother was wise in saying, "you know, he's not a David, he's a Scotty!" even before I quit wearing pampers. Of course Scott and Scotty could either mean a Scotsman or "painted warrior" depending upon where you look. I made the change from Scotty to Scott myself at the age of 7 or 8 just a few years' later. It can be useful to change our name if we don't like it, although a hassle. So, try to get your babies' name right, then do your best to reinforce who the huggies-wearing toddler is, based upon that name, as they grow up. I remember one of my Mom's favorite songs when I was growing up as a kid was Watching Scotty Grow by Mac Davis. Mac was another guy who came from rags to riches, but in the song he sings of these joyful moments just hangin' out with his kid, who is full of fun and life. My Mom would hear this song, and she said, "you're my last one, it makes me happy, and sad, to see you grow up." I always liked the last line to that song, "'cause Me and God are watching Scotty grow.... Me and God watching our Scotty grow."

You might differ on a name, but keep at it until you find one you both like. I think finding an agreement before you put the baby name on the birth certificate just might be a good idea. Best of luck, and may the name you choose be what you most feel for your child.... and, like Scotty, may it be blessed!

Love Is The Answer

A final word about babies and baby names... my sister once told me that "A child can never have too much love." I agree. I opened the website for http://www.luvs.com, and they had a remade version of the Beatles' classic, All You Need Is Love. Forty years later, that title is still right on the mark. Love is the answer, love is all you need to choose a baby name. Through love, you will find the name that most fits your little baby.

Please note: This article is intended for entertainment purpose only. The author of this article may not be certified as a licensed psychotherapist -- please consult professional assistance as your situation dictates.

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Share your ideas!

Do you have any other names you think ought to have been mentioned in my list? Any new names that are gaining in popularity? I'd love to hear your comments on the subject!