One Business After Another: First Weddings, Then Babies
The Wall Street Journal details the new industry around baby names, and credits some of the rising demand to the internet. (Link from Arts & Letters Daily.) I don’t think it’s out of line for parents to care deeply about choosing a good name for their child(ren). Names are important, and they’re difficult and costly to change.
When we were expecting our first child, my husband G. Grod and I never bought a baby name book, but we did search the internet for ideas. I had one hard, fast rule: no names after living relatives–too confusing, and prone to hurt feelings. I had a strong preference to use names to connect to family heritage. G. Grod wanted names with hard consonants, since he has none in his surname. He also wanted to consider the name of the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, Donovan. We made a list, and told anyone who asked what was on it, even though we were pretty sure what the name was going to be. We got lots of feedback, but it didn’t change our decision one jot.
We waited until Drake was born to confirm his name. His first and second names are family names of both G. Grod and me, his third name is my last name, as I didn’t take G’s when we married, and his fourth name is G’s surname. (No hyphens.)
We did things a bit differently when we were expecting our second child. As before, we chose to find out the sex (FYI, gender is NOT the same as sex) at the 20wk ultrasound. They didn’t have to look hard; both boys were exhibitionists. I had hoped for a girl, if only because I really liked the name I’d picked: Judith (after my father’s late sister, who died young of breast cancer) and Mariah (the middle name of my maternal great-grandmother, a strong willed woman who outlived three husbands.)
Once we knew it was a boy, we picked possible names, but didn’t share them, since I didn’t want to know what others thought. We first picked names we liked, then checked to see if they were on family trees; they were. Guppy’s first name is one that a few people I knew had chosen as a middle name. It was also the name of one of my maternal grandfather’s brothers. His second name is the pseudonym of an author G. and I both admire, whose real name is shared by both my sister and a dear friend. It was also a name from G.’s stepfather’s family tree. Again, his third name is my surname, and his fourth is G’s surname.
I like the names we picked. The names work well in full, or shortened. Interestingly, Drake often tells us his name is Donovan, so perhaps we made the wrong choice after all.