Quote:
Originally posted by evenodds
There is an interesting article in the Times Magazine about the fashion of baby names "Where Have All the Lisas Gone?".
The prediction of the top 10 most popular names in 2010 has made me reconsider a couple of the names on our list.
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Interesting article.
In addition to aesthetic concerns, I think parents have to be mindful of the utilitarian aspects of naming their children. A few suggestions that come immediately to mind are:
(1) Make it data-entry friendly (i.e., your child's first name should be one word -- no spacings or odd hyphenations/punctuation. The same rule should be applied to middle names as well as last names).
(2) Avoid foreign names that are spelled in a counterintuitive fashion (what child wants the hassle of having em's name mispronounced and misspelled all the time?).
(3) If you want to use a gender-neutral, unconventional name, make sure that your last name, in conjunction with the child's first name, doesn't result in a semantically embarrassing combination that describes a household item, a commodity, or some natural phenomenon (I once had a classmate whose full name described something that was commonly harvested on a plantation (googling his full name gives you 25,900 results.).
:soapbox:
p(Suggestions (1) and (2) are based on the fact that my name has been butchered and mispronounced in every way imaginable. It is also gender-neutral (but doesn't describe anything, thank goodness). There are at least 3 "Official" ways of spelling my name as reflected in various public and academic records.)c
