Naming Baby Can Be Fun, Easy

Choosing a name for your baby is one of the most important decisions parents will make and it's one of the most difficult things to agree on. Linda Murray, executive editor of babycenter.com visits The Early Show with pointers for making the baby-naming process fun and easy.

Murray says parents should follow a basic set of guidelines. They begin with considering sound and compatibility with the last name, uniqueness, ancestry and heritage, and initials and nicknames.

Sound and compatibility

How your baby's name sounds when it's said aloud is one of the most essential things to think about. Is it melodious? Harsh? Does it go well with your last name? Often, longer first names work better with shorter last names, and vice versa.

Combining a first name that ends in a vowel with a last name that starts with a vowel generally isn't the best choice - the names tend to run together ("Eva Anderson").

Avoid first names that rhyme with your last name. And please resist puns: A name like "Holly Wood" or "Bud Weiser" will be cute for about five minutes. Then your poor child will be stuck with it for the rest of his or her life.

When choosing a girl's name consider how it will sound when she's an adult. Parents are much more likely to pick a girls' name that sounds cute
on a little girl without considering what it will be like when she grows up to be Trixie the CEO. This is much less a problem for boys. Both moms and dads are more likely to pick a boy's name that has staying power.

Uniqueness

An unusual name has the advantage of making the bearer stand out from the crowd. Fran Barclay of Ann Arbor, Mich., sometimes wishes she hadn't named her second son Matthew. When he started school, he had three other Matts in his class. "It was years before he really understood that his name wasn't Matt B.," she says. On the other hand, a name no one has heard of and few can pronounce can bring the kind of attention a child would rather avoid.

One way of striking a balance is to choose a familiar first name if the child's last name is unusual, and vice versa. If your son's last name will be Smith, you might want to consider something with more pizazz than Joe for his first name. But if his last name is Aytrivbsoan, then Joe might be preferable to, say, Archimedes as a given name.

Expectant parents are much more creative with girl's names. Many have started dipping into the boys' name pool to find something unique. This can be risky. The general population still finds entrenched boy names – like James and Michael --odd for girls.

Unique names are definitely in, but within reason. Based on U.S. Social Security data, parents today use twice as many names as they did a century ago:

• Boys - 5300 names now vs. 2500 names a century ago.
  
• Girls - 7600 names now vs. 2300 names a century ago.

Celebrities tend to choose unique names more frequently than the general population. Murray argues that, because they're creative people, they want something different for their kids. Frank Zappa started this in the early '70s with Moon Unit and Dweezil. Lots of people cringed when Demi Moore named her daughters Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah. That was over a decade ago, and now those names don't seem so odd any more.

A recent trend is for celebrities to use geographic names. Michael Jackson has a child named Paris, Posh Spice has a child named Brooklyn, Melanie Griffith has a Dakota and Sela Ward has a son named Austin. Literary names are also gaining popularity among celebrities. Catherine Zeta Jones (Dylan after Dylan Thomas), Cate Blanchett (Dashiell after Dashiell Hammett), Anne Heche named her son Homer. Cindy Crawford used a surname for her son Presley.

Ancestry and heritage

Your child's heritage is an essential part of who she is, and you may want her name to reflect that. Your religious preference may steer you toward a certain category of names. Or perhaps your family has a tradition of naming first-born sons after their fathers. If you love a name but it doesn't meet your family's traditional requirements, consider using it as a middle name. Or give her the name you prefer and use the traditional name for her middle name.

The top baby name list of the year has become, in many ways, the names-to-avoid list. The top names of 2001 were Emily and Jacob. No one wants his daughter to be the 10th Emily in her kindergarten class. But in the last five years, there's been a definite swing back toward old-fashioned names, says Murray. In a sense what's old is new again. Old-fashioned names work on many levels. They seem unique (we don't see many Sadies anymore) but they have that ring of familiarity that makes them easy to pronounce and gives people the warm-fuzzies. They also often come from the family tree, so you can give your child a sense of heritage.

Initials and nicknames

People, especially kids, can be cruel when it comes to nicknames, so try to anticipate any potentially embarrassing ones. Of course, just because you don't think of something doesn't mean some clever second-grader down the line won't - and he'll probably find it utterly hilarious. But at least you can rule out the obvious problems. Also, be aware of what your child's initials spell. Zachary Ian Thomas will more than likely get a lot of teasing; Zachary Edward Thomas probably won't.

Watch out for really odd spellings and difficult pronunciations. In babycenter's annual survey, the vast majority (over 95 percent) of parents are happy with their name choices, but those who aren't say difficult spellings and tough pronunciations are the problem. Spelling variations are also more common than ever. There are 12 ways to spell "Kaitlyn", five ways to spell "Emily", and 10 ways to spell "Hailey."

Other hot baby name trends:

• Choosing names from the dictionary (celebrities seem to love this one. Toni Braxton named her son Denim).
• Biblical names are coming back strong for boys, especially the long "I" names: Isaiah, Isaac and Elijah.
• Old-fashioned virtue names are hot for girls - Faith, Hope, Grace, Charity, Honesty or Honor.
• Stone and gem names are also on the rise such as Amber, Jade, Jasper, even Diamond.
• One of the biggest trends gaining momentum is using a last name as a first name. Lots of families do this so mom's family is represented in the baby's name. It's a very popular choice for middle names.

Rules to make the naming process easy:

1. Allow both parents the power to veto – each person could outright reject a name.
2. No names of former girlfriends or boyfriends.
3. Once a name is chosen, Murphy suggests that parents keep their baby names to themselves. Many parents do not want anybody to steal the names they have spent such a long time creating.