Naming a baby is one of the few decisions that is both completely personal and permanently public. People find names in the strangest places: the credits of a movie, a town on a road trip, a great-grandparent nobody has mentioned in decades. A little structure helps, especially when two parents are negotiating.
Start wide
Many couples keep a running list for months, adding anything that sounds good on a car ride or turns up in a book. Atlases are an underrated source. Plenty of popular names, from Austin to Savannah to Adelaide, are also places. So are surnames from the family tree, which can make good first or middle names and give grandparents an instant connection to the baby.
Then cut hard
Each partner will have names they cannot use because of someone they knew, the kid who bullied them in fourth grade, an ex, a difficult coworker. Those vetoes are normal. One method that keeps things civil: each person makes a list of ten, and only names on both lists go forward.
Say it out loud
Try the full name, first, middle and last, said by a teacher calling roll, a coach yelling across a field and a manager on a phone call. Check the initials. Think about nicknames, since other people will choose them whether you like it or not.
Check the popularity list
The U.S. Social Security Administration publishes the most popular baby names each year, based on Social Security card applications, going back to the 1880s. You can look up any name and see how its popularity has risen and fallen. In recent years Liam and Olivia have sat at the top of the lists. If you want a name your child will not share with three classmates, look below the top hundred. If you like a classic, the data can show you it is not as common as it was when you were a kid.
Meanings are optional
Baby-name books and websites list meanings and origins, and some parents care a great deal about them. Others find out after the fact that their child’s name means “crooked nose.” Treat meaning as a tiebreaker, not the main event.
Give it time
If you are stuck between two names, some parents wait to meet the baby before deciding. Most U.S. hospitals let you complete the birth certificate paperwork before discharge, and states have rules for filing later or amending a name. A name you are still happy saying after a few weeks of trying it out is usually the right one.
Sources: Popular Baby Names, U.S. Social Security Administration; Given name, Wikipedia.
