Your baby is about to come into this beautiful world, but you still couldn’t find the perfect name yet? Don’t worry much because this dilemma is normal, and more or less every family goes through this naming crisis.
Choosing the perfect name for your child may be a personal, fun, inspiring, but challenging process. Because choosing a baby’s name is an emotional process, arguments over names can arise between spouses, families, and friends. Fortunately, those conflicts are easy to tackle.
So, let’s see the common baby-naming struggles and their solutions.
Struggle 1: You and your partner can’t agree on a baby name
Finding a name that both you and your partner love can be trickier, especially when you both have different preferences and you both keep rejecting each other’s suggestions.
Solution
When giving name suggestions, explain your reasons behind each choice. Names generally represent our intense sentiment about our families, gender identity, ethnicity, and other things.
So, when you explore those feelings together, you can understand each other better and have more agreement on names.
Struggle 2: You have shortlisted names for only one gender
If you have only thought about names for either a girl or boy but don’t know the gender of the baby yet, that could be a problem, and you could face a name crisis at the last moment.
Solution: The solution is simple. Start looking for names for the other gender. For girls, you can take ideas from Jewish girl names if you are looking for names of a particular culture, and classic names for boys.
Struggle 3: You have too many options
If you like too many names, it can lead to tension and confusion. The more names you like, the more you confuse which name to keep and which to reject.
Solution: Start by exploring the meaning of your listed names, and see which ones are more trendy and popular. It will help you to feel drawn to fewer names.
Next, ask yourself the following question to narrow down the name list to one to two:
- Do you want to name your baby a common or a unique name?
- Do you prefer traditional first names, or do you like unconventional names?
- Do you want a gender-specific name or a gender-neutral name?
- How much does the meaning of the name matter to you?
- What names are you emotionally drawn to?
Answering these questions will help you shorten your list and choose the perfect name for your baby.
Struggle 4: Your family wants their suggested names to be selected
Though discussing the potential baby names with family and taking their ideas can be an entertaining way to pass your pregnancy, it becomes a problem the moment they start to behave like they have equal voting rights and want to impose their selected names.
Solution: This is when you need to set boundaries and cut off the talks. Giving in to family pressure is the most common cause of name regret. Talk with your partner to be on the same page and decide how you want to respond to both sets of parents.
It will help you to stand together against family name pressure.
Struggle 5: Everybody hates the name you have chosen
Sometimes close family and friends can be insensitive and outright say that they don’t like your choice.
Solution: Remember that-
- It is entirely your personal decision.
- You can never please everyone at the same time.
- After a time, names start growing on people. So people will eventually love your child’s name and get used to it.
And if you want to keep yourself from unwanted comments from the beginning, it’s better to keep the baby’s name secret until you have had your baby.
Struggle 6: You are running out of time
You have prepared all the necessary things to welcome your baby, including baby blankets, pillow, toys, oil, lotion, and all other necessities. Still, you haven’t finalized a name yet to register your baby’s name. Well, parents can go through this situation.
Solution: Not to worry! You have six weeks from the time of birth to register the name of your child. So, you will have plenty of time to think it through. Also, once your child is born, you might find that making a choice is simple because you can choose the name that suits your baby the most.
Struggle 7: You choose a name only to find out its very common
Although lists of the most popular baby names at the national and state levels are widely available, many parents may believe their selected name is uncommon where they live just because they have never met anyone with that name. However, that’s probably because you haven’t spent much time around young children.
Solution: Check and trust the official popularity lists.
Struggle 8: You discover that your chosen name is difficult to pronounce, understand, and spell.
If you pick a very difficult name or vary the spelling of a name to make it unique, people may find it hard to pronounce or spell it.
Solution: To avoid this kind of problem, the best thing you can do is try the name choices out on close family, friends, and online communities, then finalize a name. It will help you to find out if people are facing trouble with the name and choose a name accordingly.
Struggle 9: You regret your name choice
Many issues can cause regrets on baby names. But sometimes, parents regret choosing a name when they see their picked name doesn’t feel right.
Solution: The sooner you take action to fix the issue, the better. You can use a nickname or middle name for your child instead of completely changing the name—which can be difficult but worthwhile if you’re truly unhappy with the choice. Make sure your new name is one you are comfortable with because you don’t want to keep changing the name.
Final Thoughts
While choosing a name for your baby, arguments are expected, and you can solve those issues. Sometimes, as a parent, you may think teaching your child at home is easier than naming them.
However, you are your baby’s parents, and you have the right to name your baby how you want, even if you need to disregard others’ opinions.
