What's in a Name?

Finding just the right baby name is hard. Especially if it�s a girl, since we pretty much know what the name will be if it is a boy - or at least we have already come up with the short list. We�ll keep you in suspense for a little while longer though.

Logic would dictate that we wait until we actually know whether it is a boy or a girl before we spend a whole lotta brain power on thinking up names, half of which would be completely irrelevant once the gender of our little bundle of joy is made known (7 more weeks! Assuming he/she is not as shy as Ella was ;-))

But where's the fun in waiting?

What's so hard about it? Well I think it is a fairly big responsibility to be naming another human being. This is the name that he or she will answer to (or not answer to, which is more likely the case once he/she hits the teen years). And he or she will have to hear it, say it, write it, read it, day in and day out for the rest of his or her life. At least until he or she (damn I�ll be glad when we learn the gender of this kid) is old enough to legally change it. What a huge responsibility! (I know. you�re thinking if we think just choosing a name is a huge responsibility, are we in for a rude awakening).

Anyway � it�s a very important task.

So as with everything I do, I�ve taken a very �Program Manager�-like approach to the whole naming thing. Which should come as absolutely no shock to any of you.

Tim � he�s happy with just watching me go at this point. I think he finds my whole process amusing and slightly baffling. We�ve got 6+ months to pick a name and in all likelihood we will know the gender well in advance. So he�s being smart and waiting before getting too deeply entrenched in wading through my list of girls� names. Because like I said � if it�s a boy, the whole naming game is a moot point since we�ve already made our choice. But me � I can�t wait! That�s several weeks away at the earliest! I must have a plan! Besides � it�s one of the fun little exercises we get to indulge in as parents-to-be :-)

Well, after spending a couple of hours perusing various baby name sites on the internet, as well as the Social Security Administration �top 100 baby names� list and being completely overwhelmed by the thousands of choices I decided I needed to narrow the playing field a bit. So the first thing I did was to come up with some criteria.

Heather and Tim�s Baby Naming Criteria

The name must:

1. be easy to pronounce and spell � especially by the average North American ;-)
2. have a good meaning. Nothing lame or negative.
3. have acceptable short forms/nick names. Although this one is tough to satisfy because kids can find a nickname for anything. So he/she in all likelihood is just going to have to have thick skin when it comes to his/her name at one point or another in his/her childhood or adolescent career.
4. not be in the top 10 most popular names for 2003 or 2004
5. not be so rare that he or she will get made fun of or feel awkward about it or resent it when he or she gets older.
6. not be the same as any living family member (immediate or extended) so he/she is uniquely identified at family get-togethers and when she hears her/his name she/he will know the person is speaking to / about him/her.
7. not be the same as any of our close friends or their kids for the same reason.
8. not be a stereotypical �pop tart� or �porn� name. I.e. no �Brittany�, or �Amberlynn� or �Candie� or� (although one could argue this is the most subjective criteria and there are a number of names still on our list that could probably qualify as pop tart names... or at least cheerleader names)
9. not have initials that when written together will spell an undesirable word (exercise for the reader - create a list of all 3-letter words ending in H. We can limit it to the english language for now)
10. not be the same name as our pets, or our friends or family�s pets.

That last one I added most recently after Janel suggested �Lucy�. Of course, Janel was mocking me and my criteria when she suggested it. Still � it�s a good rule to add :-)

Obviously the final set of criteria is that it has to "fit" right. But we won't be able to evaluate that until the baby is actually born.

The next step then was to find a comprehensive list of names and start applying the criteria to shorten the list. After checking out several sites, I settled on babyzone.com�s Baby Names. http://www.babycenter.com/babyname It has a very extensive list of names from a variety of origins, allows you to search on a number of criteria. and provides the meaning of the name as well.

After sampling the site a bit, I quickly found I was able to eliminate a number of entire origins right off the bat as a result of applying criteria 1 and 5. The resulting �narrowed-down� list consisted of 1455 girl�s names. A little long, but it's still less than "thousands" and I like to be thorough. Heaven forbid that I miss a potential name because I narrowed the starting list too much. So that became my starting point.

Naturally, I then (ahem� slightly embarrassed sheepish grin; but this is who I am people, so I�m not gonna feel to bad ;-)) imported the 1455 names and their origins and meanings into excel for further sorting and analysis, and set about eliminating names.

As a result, I�ve come up with a �short� list of a 42 names.

And I KNOW you�re all DYING to know what the names are, and to weigh in with your opinion. So - I'll publish them here.

BUT FIRST � a bit of an explanation of this list.

The names are listed in alphabetical order. I have not given any indication as to which of these 43 are Tim and my own personal favourites :-) We will reveal our choices later. In fact, there are some that I don't like but I kept them on the list for now for completeness ;-) The column titled �2004 ranking� indicates where in the top 100 the name falls in the 2004 most popular name list (according to babyzone.com. Naturally I cross-referenced the babyzone top 100 with the SSA web site top 100 and found them to be pretty much the same (although slightly different order)).

So there you go. And if there's a name that is not on the list that you think should be, by all means let us know ;-).

	Name	2004 Ranking	Origin	Meaning
1	Alexa	85	Greek	Form of ALEXANDER - helper and defender of mankind
2	Alexandra	58	Greek	Form of ALEXANDER - helper and defender of mankind
3	Alissa		Teutonic	Form of ALICE - noble
4	Alyssa	13	Greek	Logical
5	Amanda	79	Latin	Worthy of love
6	Anna	30	Hebrew	Gracious
7	Annalise		German	Gracious, Consecrated to God
8	Annelise		German	Gracious, Consecrated to God
9	Annika		Scandinavian	Grace
10	Breanna		Irish	Strong
11	Briana		Celtic	Strong
12	Brianna	15	Celtic	Form of BRIAN - strong
13	Cassandra		Greek	Prophetess
14	Catherine		Greek	Pure
15	Claire	74	Latin	Bright, clear
16	Elaine		French	Light
17	Elissa		Greek	Queen of Carthage
18	Elizabeth	26	Hebrew	Consecrated to God
19	Eve		Hebrew	Life
20	Gabrielle	70	Hebrew	God is my strength
21	Jessica	47	Hebrew	God sees
22	Julianna		Latin	See JULIA & ANNE
23	Julianne		Latin	See JULIA & ANNE
24	Justine		Latin	Just
25	Katherine	39	Greek	Pure, virginal
26	Kathryn		Greek	Beloved
27	Kira		Latin	Light
28	Kyra		Greek	Ruler
29	Lauren	21	Latin	Form of LAURA - laurel
30	Madeleine		French	Form of MADELINE - woman from Magdala
31	Madeline	14	English	Form of MAGDALENA - woman from Magdala
32	Madelyn		Greek	High tower
33	Natasha		Greek	Rebirth - from ANASTACIA
34	Patricia		Latin	Of nobility
35	Rachel	45	Hebrew	An ewe
36	Robyn		German	Bright fame
37	Samantha	19	unknown	Listener
38	Sophia	11	Greek	Form of SOPHIE - wisdom
39	Sophie	67	Greek	Wisdom
40	Tricia		Latin	Form of PATRICIA - of nobility
41	Victoria	50	Latin	Victory
42	Zoe	33	Greek	Life

Now � because I know you�re utterly fascinated by this, I thought I�d also share with you some of the names we liked that we eliminated because they were in the top 10 for 2004. Note � with the exception of the last, these were actually on our original shortlist before I started doing all the research that told me how popular they actually are:

Name	2004 Ranking	Origin	Meaning
Abigail	10	Hebrew	My father's joy
Emily	3	Teutonic	Industrious
Emma	1	German	Universal
Caitlyn		Greek	Form of CATHERINE - pure
Kaitlyn	4	Greek	Pure
Olivia	6	Greek	Olive Tree

I'll spare you the remaining list. But rest assured, if you are so interested, I do have them all in spreadsheet format just in case ;-)

UPDATE
New rule - #11: Baby shall not have a name that is the same as any past boyfriends or girlfriends. Hehe. :-)

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