Friday, September 22, 2017

A baby by any other name...

A friend of mine was telling his parents that he and his wife were expecting a baby boy. And when my friend told his parents their first choice as a baby name, he said his father looked him straight in the eye and said "Nope. What's your second choice?"

My friend and his wife named their son by that name anyway, and everyone got over the incident, but this story has stuck with me.

To my parents' credit, if any of them ever had a wayward thought about the name my husband and I chose for our son, they never vocalized it. I don't even recall them trying to provide suggestions for baby names. And for all of that, I am very grateful, as some grandparents believe they should be consulted on their grandchild's name.

I am not sure of the full context of those feelings - if they have to do with family traditions or something else - but I know that most parents struggle with finding the "right" name for their child. That is one of those first big decisions that remind you that you are making choices for someone else's life.

So, it is probably for the best that the choice remains between the parents.

I do understand another portion of that study, though, that discusses how some grandparents have to get used to unusual baby names. I have often looked at the roster of my son's classroom and thought how nice it is to see so many creative names and then wonder if anyone names their children "Mary" and "Joseph" anymore. (Maybe they still do that in the Catholic schools like the one I attended; there were a lot of Marys and Joes in my class.)

I have asked my son if he liked his name and he responded that he did. I then made the mistake of asking him what he would change his name to, if he could have the choice of any name in the world.

He responded, "Kitten Man," and ran off.

So, there you go.

Do you wish you had more or less input from relatives when deciding on your baby's name? Tell me the tale in the comments. 

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