Choosing a name for your child comes with a huge amount of pressure. What if they don’t like the name when they grow up? What if they get bullied for it? Should you choose a gender-neutral name to cover all of your bases? According to BabyCenter, some of the most common reasons why parents can’t make up their minds are that they simply can’t agree or that everyone in their lives is full of suggestions.
It’s common for couples to have different tastes, whether that’s about music or pizza toppings. And unfortunately, having different tastes in names can make it incredibly hard to pick one for a child. Not to mention the fact that everyone wants to weigh in on the subject. But being overwhelmed with suggestions can actually cause analysis paralysis.
It can also be challenging for parents when they choose a name for their child, share it with others, and nobody else is a fan. If family members and friends try to talk you out of the baby name you’ve already decided on, it can make you start to second-guess everything. And before you know it, you’re straight back to square one.
On the other hand, parents might struggle to commit to a name if the one they like is too popular. Will their child have three other classmates by the same name? Will it be annoying for them to always have to find a way to differentiate themself from the other Sarahs or Johns? To avoid this, parents often want to choose a unique name. But as we see here, that can backfire…
37% of parents admit that they’ve struggled to choose a name for their baby, and one quarter didn't decide on a name until the third trimester. Another quarter said they couldn’t even pick a name until after the baby was born, sometimes waiting until their child was a few weeks old to make a decision. Meanwhile, BabyCenter reports that 16% of parents cite uniqueness as the most important factor when deciding on a name. So, trying to find something uncommon can delay the process!
Unfortunately, not every parent is happy with the choice that they’ve made by the time the baby arrives. In fact, 7% of parents admit that they have doubts about their name choice, and 4% say they would pick something else entirely if they had the chance to go back in time. 3% of parents have even gone as far as to change their child’s name after they’re born.
The future is unpredictable. So you can never know if a movie is going to come out when your child is two, starring a haunted doll with the same name as your daughter. Or perhaps a celebrity by the same name will get arrested for a heinous crime. Unfortunately, you can never predict how your child’s name will be perceived in the future. But what you can do is at least try to choose a name that won’t give future bullies too much ammunition.
As Shakespeare famously wrote, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But when it comes to kids, the name they receive might actually have an impact on their lives. In recent decades, there has been an epidemic of bizarre baby names. Influencer Trisha Paytas made a splash online by naming her son Aquaman. And who can forget Elon Musk and Grimes naming a child X Æ A-12? But according to The Guardian, there are pros and cons to having such a unique name.
