Maybe you should avoid those unique baby names

I have a few friends who are expecting babies right now. And one of the things that I love is hearing their criteria for choosing a baby name.

Every parent has their set of criteria for narrowing down the thousands of baby names out there to find the one perfect name: Some parents like to pass on a family name, others want to make sure they aren't repeating a family name, others are looking for a name that is completely different from any other name that they've heard before, and some fall in love with the name of a city or a street sign and go with that.

I don't see many people passing on family names anymore (at least not as first names) and this may be why my son's Kindergarten class doesn't have a single William, Anna or Henry in it.

But maybe parents should rethink those names, as a study by MooseRoots.com has found that most geniuses have a common name: John, Mary, Robert and Elizabeth all took the top spots on the survey.

Does a name denote genius? No. Of course not.

But it is something else to think about when narrowing down that baby list.

What was your criteria for naming your child? Share your guidelines in the comments.