Choosing names and learning to write names

When you choose a name for your baby there’s lots of questions you ask yourself, unless you just go with the name you’ve always loved and always intended. 

What do you like and hate in names (e.g. alliteration with surname and other family members, double barrelled first names in trying to make them more unusual, fiddling with English name spelling– all bugbears of mine). And what names do people you like/dislike have, do you want a bog standard, slightly more unusual or totally way out name.

We didn’t discuss names at all as my OH refused.  I, being a major planner, had lists galore …lots of girls names I liked, but only 3 boys names (that would go with our surname).  So I was frantically trying to up the number of boys names by watching tv credits and checking out all the online naming resources just in case we had a boy.

I did get a few random horrendous names thrown at me when I kept asking for opinions or suggestions. The OH didn’t like one on my list, so that took me down to two.  I was a tad worried at this low number in case the OH didn’t like either (one was a really popular name but very nice, the other I didn’t think he’d go for).  Thankfully when N turned up, the OH said yes to N and that was that (apart from him worrying how he would spell it!)

Middle names provided more of an issue.  One name was suggested by the OH as a first name (ok name, but not for a first name and becoming more popular nowadays) so I’d said we could use that as a second name.  I threw in another name, but when it came to registering him, there wasn’t a lot of interest from the OH so while I was sitting there I had to make the decision.

What I didn’t think about was how hard it is for children to learn their own names and spell them.  Let’s face it, Bob is a lot easier to learn than Archibald, so I really pity N with his multiple syllables in both first and surname! Plus having a nickname will probably also prove a nightmare and confusion.  Oops!

He’s just started trying to say his own name, although I’m not sure he understands that it’s actually his name.  He still refers to himself in the mirror or pictures as ‘baby’, but he has started calling other people names. 

So far we have ‘moma’ (Grandma), mommy (tommy), Yex (Rex), Jane, Joo (Ju), and errr, Daddy gets used for his dad, uncle, Gramp, and general men in the street….It’s great to see how quickly his words are coming on.  From 14 months where he had one word “tractor” being perfected for about two months, now he’s gaining new clearer words by the day.