0111BabyNamesAUD
BabyNames.com founder Jennifer Moss talks about celebrity names and her favorite baby name of 2008.Become a fan of The (Gainesville, Ga.) Times Life department on Facebook and join the discussion topic, "What's your favorite baby name?"
Babynames.com: See predicted top baby names for 2008.
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The Baby Name Wizard: Explore name trends and see a popularity graph through the years.
So you find out you are going to have a little bundle of joy and it’s time to make one of the most important decisions of your life — and your baby’s: choosing the name.
And for some parents, this is the most daunting part of the whole process.
For Aisha Hall, naming her baby boy proved so difficult she had to solicit help from her sister, Michelle Hall.
Aisha said she wanted to keep the same initials for her new baby as her older son, Timorian Blackwell, and the father, Timothy Blackwell.
So, sister Michelle came up with Timijá Jamauri Blackwell for her new nephew, born on Dec. 21.
"The father’s name is Tim and her name is ’Isha so it’s Tim-A, and we just added some letters," she said.
One thing Aisha did consider while contemplating names was the length.
"My son Timorian has nine letters and ... it’s gonna take my baby forever to learn it but (Timijá) has just six letters," she said.
Aisha’s baby-naming dilemma is why Jennifer Moss created her Web site, Babynames.com, in 1996.
As a parent you can go to the Web site to search name meanings, popular names of the year, name ideas or even get baby-naming consultations.
"I’ve had a longtime fascination with names and meanings, and then as the site grew in popularity people just kept asking us to help name their babies and so we just turned that into an official service," said Moss, the founder and CEO of Babynames.com. "We help (parents) more with the process of eliminating what they don’t want and help them find names that both partners like ... and also kind of to eliminate information that they are getting from in-laws and family."
Moss said she suggests to her clients to let the family ideas go and narrow down your list to what name you really love, "because a lot of the times the conflict comes from that they’ve chosen names that they like but everybody else hates them, or everybody else has their own agenda."
After putting together a list of names for parents, Moss also hands out advice."I kind of give my two cents about the name and how it sounds with the last name, how the kid could live with it and that type of thing," she said.
Since beginning her baby-naming consultation service, Moss has worked with more than 3,000 families.
Moss added that when deciding on your baby’s name, think about pronunciation, spelling and if other children would tease your child.
Second-grade teacher Cristina Leek agreed that parents should really think about their child’s name when considering school life. She added that it is more difficult for children with longer names.
"By second grade they are usually pretty good about it ... whereas in kindergarten, where they are learning how to write their name, they might struggle more," said Leek, a teacher at Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy.
Leek has two daughters and considered different issues when naming each girl.
"Ella Grace is a double name and ... I did take that into consideration. That’s why I picked two shorter names," she said. "And with Sadie, I wanted two names that went together. ... I chose very Southern names. I wanted them to be my little Southern belles.
"... In South Carolina (where both daughters were born), that was the trend."
But trendy names are something Leek and Moss advised to stay away from.
"I do like using surnames as first names," Moss said. "I think it’s a neat tradition and it’s a great way for having the mother’s family being represented, too, by using the mother’s maiden name sometimes."
A trend Aisha Hall mentioned was naming your baby something out of the ordinary.
"I guess that’s like the hip thing to do now ... when I got pregnant my friends all had these cute names — they were the name of money," she said. "I’m not naming my child that — Key-Money."
Miranda Thompson and husband Kevin Thompson, the proud parents of Abby Grace Thompson who was born Dec. 2, said parents should think about whether they would like that name for themselves.
"I chose Abby because that’s what my dad has called me my whole life. Why he didn’t name me that, I don’t know," Miranda said. "My husband chose Grace because he said it was because the grace of God that we had her."
Abby Grace was born three and a half weeks early, weighing in at just 4 pounds, 15 ounces.
"See, I have a 12-year-old ... with her it’s like starting over," Miranda said. "With my boy Kade ... my grandmother, named him when I was 5. She said if you ever have a little boy you’re going to name him Kade and you are going to spell it K-A-D-E ... so when I got pregnant I said if it’s a girl I’m going to name her Abby and Kade for a boy."
Locally, the name Abigail Grace has been popular, which Miranda didn’t realize before naming her little girl.
"When her birth announcement was in the paper there was like four or five Graces ... and it really wasn’t that popular, but all of a sudden it became the most popular name" she said.
Christie Cartwright, a new mother in Flowery Branch, delivered her first child on her 30th birthday on Dec. 26 and named him Caden George Crouse.
Caden is another popular name from the past few years and is very traditional.
"Caden is a name that I have liked for the past couple years, I don’t know where I heard it, but I really liked it," she said. "Then George is after my dad. We have a tradition, my boyfriend’s four children, all of their middle names are from family members and I’m a big daddy’s girl so I always said if I had a son his middle name would be after my dad, cause my dad didn’t get any sons — he got two girls."
Cartwright said naming your child is a very important decision.
"Your child is going to have to live with that for the rest of their life," she said. "I thought about that when we were thinking about names and I was like, ‘I wouldn’t torture him.’"
Kimberly Jones and Keno Crawford decided to keep the first initial K for their baby boy Kamdyn Isaiah Crawford, born Dec. 21, and to make the name unique.
"There’s a Camden County in Georgia but I changed the spelling ... it’s different," Jones said. "Isaiah is from the Bible; my brother picked it out. I didn’t want him to be named Josh; I wanted something different."
Moss said adding the y instead of another vowel can make for an interesting name.
"Then I think the celebrities are the ones that really hit it out of the park with unusual names."