The excitement permeates your whole life. You are now the proud parents of a new baby boy that cries out for your caring and love. And, as you cuddle your newborn, the normal question pops into your mind. You know one of the first things you’ll do to endear this child to you forever is to start calling your baby boy by a name you have chosen. If you’ve already decided on a name, then you’ll be able to call your new baby by your chosen name from the first moments of birth. But, if you haven’t chosen a name, or if you’ve decided that you want to change from what you originally chose, the question is how do we choose this perfect name?
Some parents have started the process of choosing just the right name by purchasing names for baby boy books that provide thousands of names, or names with the origins explained. You have a vast array of names to choose from and you can even find common names according to census data kept by various governments.
In the US database, for example, you’ll find listings of the most common names by year. For example, in 2006, the top 100 baby boy names shows the 10 most common names were Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William. In 1996 the top ten names were Michael, Matthew, Jacob, Christopher, Joshua, Nicholas, Tyler, Brandon, Austin, and Andrew. And in 1986, you’ll find the following ten most common baby boy names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, David, Daniel, James, Andrew, Robert, and John. You can see common names throughout these 10 year periods, Michael, Christopher, and Joshua have been consistently in the top ten.
On the other hand, if you really want unique name for your newborn, you can use a combination of your own first name with that of your spouse, or grandparent, sister, brother, relatives or even good family friends. The nice thing about developing your own special name is that you’ll be able to explain the uniqueness of your child’s name to them. And, you can be sure that your baby will someday want to know how you chose their name. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to tell him that his name was created specially for him?
I’ve spent many a day asking parents how they chose names for their children and the one common thread is that everyone has a reason for their choice. Since we are all unique individuals, your baby deserves to know how you chose their name. Write down the process of how you picked your baby boy’s name in their baby book so that this decision can become part of your child’s memories of you.