Welcome Junior continued...
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When choosing your baby's name, remember it will be with them for life. Says Katie Dydd from Greenwood who opted for sensible names for all of her four children, "Will the baby's name sound just as good when they start school as when they are grown up, or will it sound cute until they hit the age of twenty and suddenly feel foolish introducing themself?" Meanwhile, Mary Annette explains that, "A child's name should be as unique as the child themself. Who wants to be one of twenty other kids in a classroom with different versions of the same name?"
Obviously both unique and sensible names have their merits, but what about the downsides? Naming your child something unique might mean they will probably spend the rest of their lives spelling and pronouncing their name for others. Additionally, it is more difficult and expensive to get unique names on personalized items. Likewise, children with more common names might find themselves tagged with the dreaded "first letter of their last name" if their name is too common. Katie admits, "It was years before my son realized he
didn't have to introduce himself as Josh R."
Some contemporary military wives feel it is a nice idea to name all the children with names that start with the same letters, following in the footsteps of the famous Duggar family. Of course, the letter "J" was the Duggar family's choice, but military wives have done this same thing with other letters. Says Mary, "Another military wife I know has children named Kaydence, Kieran and Korey.I think it's cute, and you can make any of the C names into unique K names just by switching the letters. Really, you can change any common name into something cute and unique just by changing around the letters. Traditional names like Daniel and Catherine could easily be Dan-yl and Kaffryn."
As for name pairing, since every military wife has a herd of children by the time she's thirty, it's a good idea to plan ahead for names that sound good together. "I've always loved the name Ella," says Katy, "So when our second child came along, it was an easy choice for me. It's sensible and pretty. But her older brother's name is Sam, so when I call them for dinner, it sounds like I've prepared something with a food-borne illness. Sam and Ella, time for dinner!"
Also crucial when choosing a name for baby is to pay attention to the initials, and nicknames... even if you plan not to use them. What possible nicknames could your child acquire, and how do they sound with your last name? Benjamin Dover and Michael Hunt wish their parents had taken that into consideration when naming them.
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