Naming a human being is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. After all, your child will carry that name with them for the rest of their lives!
That’s exactly why, while the process of naming your child can be wildly fun, it can be highly intimidating, too! What’s even more dicey, is getting others on the same page as you, vis a vis that name you have been mulling over for a while. Especially so, when it’s your spouse!
In this blog post, you will find all the ways to make that Name Game fun for everyone involved in brainstorming a name for your baby. You will learn how to decide a Name for Baby, paying heed to important considerations like ‘Geographical Name’ and ‘Family Name.’ Even though you might already have a name in mind, why not give it a shot from scratch? After all, you only name your baby Once!
How to Pick a Baby Name: The Art of Picking Baby Names with Special Meanings
When looking at How to Decide a Name for a Baby, you want to choose one that has a special meaning in your ‘Heart.’ One that will, over the course of time, become special to the bearer of that name, too! Here’s all you need to look out for, when choosing that Baby Name.
- Keeping Your Family Name in Mind
- Naming them after a Character in History
- Choosing a Popular Name
- Picking a Geographical Name
- Uncommon Names
- Baby Names with Special Meanings
- Choosing a Name that you Like
- The way it Looks
- Don’t cave in to ‘Trend’
- A Name that resonates with our Heritage
- A Name of Shared Significance
What’s your Family Name got to do with naming your child? Apparently, far more than you would believe!
Example: If your last name is ‘Mohan’, you don’t want to name your child ‘Rohan’!
Tip: Even if the proposed Name and Surname are completely different, you want to practice saying them out loud and in unison a few times, to see how that ‘full name’ sounds.
History is rife with several individuals who have contributed greatly in the fields of Invention or even, Freedom Fighting.
Example: You might want to name your son Subhash. That is, if the story of Subhash Chandra Bose, one of the greatest freedom fighters in our country’s history, has inspired you greatly over the years.
The great thing about choosing popular names is, we have all grown accustomed to hearing them time and again.
Example: ‘Rahul’ is a popular name for boys, and ‘Anisha’ is one that’s a common choice for girls.
Note: There is one reason you might not want to choose a popular name for your child. That’s because, when someone calls their name in a large crowd, they might just discover that it is not them being called!
If you and your spouse have fallen in love with a country you have vacationed in, you might want to name your child after it!
Example: Jonty Rhodes, the professional South African cricketer and his wife Melanie, named their daughter ‘India.’ That is, after the country they loved so much!
Tip: You don’t have to name your child after a ‘country’ per se. You can name it after something special on your holiday. Like, the name of a sailboat that you took a ride on while visiting that country!
All of us believe that our little ones are born to stand out, so why not begin with their names?
Examples of Uncommon Boy Names: Zayn, Shaurya, Kian, Avyaan, Eshan
Examples of Uncommon Girl Names: Eenakshi, Khanak, Anaisha, Akshara, Parinaaz
Tip: You can even create an uncommon name for your child that has not been used before. All you have to do is look at things like Literature or even Nature, to find it.
The one way to choose a name that holds a ‘special meaning’ to you, is to, well, choose a Name with a Special Meaning!
Examples of Names with Meanings: Aaradhya, a girl’s name, means ‘One who is worth worshipping.’ On the other hand, the boy’s name Vihaan means ‘dawn’ or ‘morning.’
You might be thinking, this one makes it look way too simple! The truth is, naming your baby need not be all that complicated. Oftentimes, the very first name that pops into your mind, might just be the best one. Needless to say, getting your spouse to agree with you is the part that’s not so ‘simple’.
You might like the sound of the name you have chosen for your baby, but how does it look when written on paper? You could try writing it down yourself along with the last name, to see how the characters in the name ‘flow’.
Tip: Another thing you could do here, is picture that full name on a business card. How does it appear? After all, it’s soon going to be representing a living, breathing human being!
Nowadays, a lot of parents are simply ‘following the trend’ and naming their children after a famous celebrity or sports person. If ‘relevance’ is what you are looking for, you will be disappointed to learn in a few years that the name no longer holds much relevance. Instead, opt in for Classic names. They are better, hands down!
We have already covered choosing names based on people from History, but what about the History that is our Heritage? Our ‘roots’, so to speak!
Example: You might want to name your daughter ‘Diya’, which means ‘oil lamp.’ Needless to say, these have been an intrinsic part of Indian heritage, since time immemorial.
Are you and your partner fighting over the different names you have chosen for your child? Don’t worry, the solution is simple. Find another name that holds mutual significance to the two of you. It need not be the country or place you have visited, as pointed out earlier. It could even be a ‘character’ from a ‘book’ the both of you love.
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