the name game

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

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"The Perfect Baby Name: A Proven Plan for Choosing a Name You'll Love" by Jeanine Cox is just one out of a multitude of books that surround the topic of selecting a name for your baby. Joe chose this book several months ago and it's actually a really neat book. It, of course, gives a list of girl names and boy names, but also adds the name meanings and potential nicknames. It's pretty neat to see the different nicknames associated with each name!

The book also recommends really thinking a lot about the name selection process and has different exercises for both mom and dad to complete to help combine the efforts of the name game. Different things are important to different people, and they have exercises for just about everyone.

1. Exercise 1 - Visualize your baby, what you think they will look like, what you think they will be like. Then visualize them growing into a child, a teenager, and adult and think of names for this person.
   
2. Exercise 2 - Choose names that you like that provide alliteration with your last name. For example, if your last name starts with an "S", selecting first names that also start with an "S" or a similar sound (like a soft "C").
   
3. Exercise 3 - Another exercise is to think of acronyms (initials) that you like and selecting the first and middle name so that the name spells the acronym you like.
   
4. Exercise 4 - Think of adjectives that describe characteristics that are most important to you (such as love and honesty), then look up these words in a thesaurus or in the baby name book to find names with those meanings.
5. Exercise 5 - Create a list of family names based on the relative(s) you have found the most inspiring or the relatives that have passed away, but who you want to be remembered.
6. Exercise 6 - Find out if a place that is important to you would be a good name for your child by answering some questions including (but not limited to) "Where did you meet your partner?", "Where were you when you conceived your child?", and "What do you think is the most beautiful place on earth?"
7. Exercise 7 - Select a list of names for your child that connects them with his or her heritage (such as Irish names, German names, etc.).
8. Exercise 8 - Choose the name types that you think may be most significant to you and select your favorite name from the corresponding list. The lists included were Biblical names, Nature names, New Age names, Shakespearean names, Musical names, Place names, and Surnames as First Names.
9. Exercise 9 - By following all of the exercises above, both mom and dad should have a list of their favorite names from each exercise. Now, combine both mom and dad's favorites into a new list of possible names.
10. Exercise 10 - Make the final cut from mom's list and dad's list and deliberate about what you want the final name to be, based on the selections from each list.
    

This book is actually very, very cool...and really promotes collaboration on the name selection process. Which is good. After all, both mom and dad created the child, right? :-) All in all, however, we didn't end up doing any of the exercises (what bad direction followers we are!), but we did look at the extensive list of girls and boys names, which provided MUCH entertainment for us. I was planning on listing a few of our "favorites" (meaning we wouldn't be caught dead naming our child by those names), but I don't want to unintentionally offend anyone. So I will refrain. But let's just say that there are some VERY interesting names in this book. Some of them you read three times and still say "What? Someone would actually call their child by this name?" The answer is "Yes, yes they would."

Most importantly, however, we have OFFICIALLY narrowed down our top name choice(s). And what's funny about it is that we didn't even use the book to come up with our choice(s)...they are names that we both just really like. Right now, we are not planning on announcing our baby's name quite yet, though.

"Why not?", is the question probably going through your head right now.

Well, you see...

We haven't actually "met" our baby yet, and his name is very personal to us. It's kind of like asking me what size bra I wear or what color my underwear are. Yes, everyone is super excited to know the answer, but it's very personal and because of our personalities being the way they are we don't quite feel comfortable announcing the answer to the world just yet. Plus, we want to be 100% sure that the name "fits" when we finally see his face. You know?

So you'll just have to sit tight for a few more months and, until then, we shall keep calling our little one "Baby McG". Don't worry, though. The wait will not be long and he will be here soon enough. :-)