From the Wall Street Journal: What's in a name?
Stress.
Sociologists and name researchers say they are seeing unprecedented levels of angst among parents trying to choose names for their children. One Las Vegas couple felt "enormous pressure," pressure to come up with a "strong-sounding boy name" that "would look good on a marquee or a political banner"--and starts with "J".
It was not a pressure I was familiar with.
Any other enormous pressures out there that might drive a dad-to-be to hire a baby naming consultant?
Oh, also, the name had to be original, more original than "Jude, Julian, Jake, Jason, or John Jr."
The Baby-Name Business [wsj via gawker]
If you're going to name your kid a 'J' name you've already lost the originality battle. And to spend $50 and end up with Jackson (#36 for 2006), no less. I guess you're paying for validation.
Eh, westerners are catching up with the name craze that the Chinese have had for years. Naming is extremely important in Chinese culture, so the lengths that parents go to now in the US don't surprise me.
Greg - I'll pay you to come up with a name for our boy...
[yeah, I, too, would love to make literally dozens of dollars in just two years by becoming a baby name consultant. Unless the Chinese angle pans out, in which case, I'll be rocking a Maybach station wagon in about six months. -ed.]
My husband was determined to name our son Josh. I thought he was nuts... isn't it the 4th most popular name in the US? Is he dooming our little guy to a school career of being known as "Josh K"? I couldn't change his mind and even considered fudging the birth certificate with the registration-lady when he went downstairs to eat (I didn't). When I asked him why he HAD to have "Josh", he said (quite simply), "I never met a Josh I didn't like." Hmmm, after thinking about it... I had to agree (one of the sweetest kids I grew up with was named Josh). So there you go... no baby name book for my guy. Although I did get to pick the middle name... I choose the not so familiar... "Keene"
Wow. $50 for Jackson? EVERYONE around here seems to be choosing that one for free.
Jonas, Jonah, Jedi, Jasper, Jesse, Jerome, Julius... and that's off the top of my head.
Heck, our future sons will be named Jack Daniel and Samuel Adam (we may even throw in Captain Morgan if we have a third for laughs) and we didn't have to pay ANYONE a penny for coming up with that!
Motherfrickingf*&%$$U. Our baby-due-soon's name is in that article. Blasted WSJ. We already felt nervous about it making the SS listing this year. Gr...
My two cents on the issue: I hate that there are 17 gazillion Sophias and Isabels in my classes. I also hate that enough people are trying to be unusual in their choices so that it has become really difficult to find a name no one knows or uses when you want one. My husband and I both have extremely unusual names - neither of us has ever met anyone else with our names. We can't just name our kid Bob. Gr...
[on the bright side, I'm guessing you're not out $50 for the name. -ed.]
I ran across this discussion and wanted to frop my two cents in. We are expecting our 4th kid in December and we have agreed on the name Jedi. I don't even like Star Wars, it just feels right, and (of course) my husband thinks it's the coolest.
[good luck/congrats. you could always call him jed, too, which is a good nerd safety net. -ed.]