Parenting Information

Five Easy Steps to Picking the Perfect Baby Name


One of the few decisions you'll make during pregnancy that will, in fact, last throughout your child's lifetime is the choice of your baby's name. (Unlike, for example, your choice of stroller or whether to use Lamaze or hypnosis to ease labor pains.) To choose the best name for your baby, follow these simple tips:

1. Don't try to please other people.

Everyone from your in-laws to the supermarket checkout lady is going to have an opinion about what you name your child. But the only opinions that really matter are yours and your spouse's.

2. Keep it a secret!

If you tell everyone names you've chosen before the baby is born, they won't hesitate to criticize your choices. But if you keep it to yourself and announce the name and the birth at the same time, everyone will compliment you on a great name choice.

3. Consider how your child will feel about the name as he or she grows up.

Will it be difficult for the teachers to pronounce in school? Will she be teased because it sounds funny or rhymes with an unfortunate word? Does it sound like a very young or very old name? You want to choose something your child will be comfortable with at all phases of his life.

4. Check the initials to make sure they aren't problematic.

One of the moms I surveyed for "The Gallagher Guide to the Baby Years" told the story about her relative who named his baby, William Eugene Thompson. A nice name, but the initials (W.E.T) weren't ideal for monograms.

5. Decide in advance, or at least have a couple of names under consideration, by the beginning of the third trimester.

There's so much to do as your due date gets closer. You don't want to be under pressure to choose a name because you went into labor early and had to come up with something at the hospital. Check out BabyNames.com (www.babynames.com) for lots of neat ideas for baby names.

Stephanie Gallagher is Author of "The Gallagher Guide to the Baby Years: The Real Mom's Survey of Top-Rated Products and Advice." To subscribe to her ezine, "The Shopping Mom's Weekly Tip, send a blank email to theshoppingmom@aweber.com.

  


MORE RESOURCES:

Us Magazine

Charlize Theron on parenting son Jackson (minus her potty mouth)
Los Angeles Times (blog)
We've always loved Charlize Theron for her sleek blond beauty. And the way she talks like a sailor. Think of her beautifully executed turn as Mavis Gary, the foul-mouthed lead of last year's "Young Adult." While Charlize isn't actually evil, ...
Charlize Theron Not Too Hard On Herself As A New MomMTV.com

all 14 news articles »


'Facebook parenting' is destroying our children's privacy
CNN
Editor's note: Aisha Sultan is a parenting columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and recent Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. Follow her on Twitter: @AishaS. Jon Miller is director of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth in ...

and more »


The parallel universe of parenting
Fremont Tribune
One, is that parenting baby ducks is a difficult task. And two, some parents are better (or luckier) than others. Case in point is the current crop of ducklings that call this small, old sandpit home. The first batch that we noticed was a darker, ...



PsychCentral.com

Parenting Tips: Yelling vs. Choices
Eastern Arizona Courier
If you yell on occasion, you won't damage your kids, but still, it is not a good parenting strategy for creating good behavior. A screaming adult can activate a child's fight-or-flight response, which in turn shuts down his ability to think something ...
Respectful Child Discipline Starts with the ParentPsychCentral.com (blog)

all 2 news articles »


National Post

Apodaca: Don't listen to parenting naysayers
Daily Pilot
The photo was a provocative lead-in for an article on the latest controversy over the issue of child rearing, the practice of what's called attachment parenting. Now the subject is all over the news, providing fodder for talk shows, ...
Crying over (breast)milk: Muddling through in spite of the mothering absolutistsNational Post
Attached at the NipPatch.com

all 3 news articles »


Positive parenting – raising children into successful adults
DI-VE
by di-ve.com - editorial@di-ve.com Parenting techniques based on love, encouragement and discipline are more likely to encourage children grow up secure, disciplined, well-behaved and with high self-esteem than criticising them and using incorrect ...

and more »


Parenting group bans unvaccinated adults
msnbc.com (blog)
By Diane Mapes The recent whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic in Washington state has prompted the parent support group PEPS to issue a new policy regarding participation in their groups. "Because of the pertussis epidemic in Washington, ...

and more »


TabTimes

This week in tablets: For devices, publishing and even parenting, simplicity ...
TabTimes
by George Jones May 26 2012, 1:10 am Comment Also inside: Cisco bids sayonara to the Cius, and Yahoo does the same with LiveStand. Validation for tablet devices, users, and developers came this week across multiple categories, industries and lifestyles ...

and more »


Quigg: Much of parenting is reactive
Herald & Review
Some of parenting is proactive: planning ahead, laying out positive expectations and being ready with knowledge and resources. But much of parenting is reactive: helping our children learn to deal successfully with whatever comes their way.



Judges rarely meet young in parenting disputes, says study
Katherine Times
In New Zealand, 65 per cent of Family Court judges said they often, very often or always met a child who was the subject of a parenting dispute. Dr Fernando said Australia was lagging behind other countries in attitudes to children meeting with judges.

and more »

Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.