Chicago Baby - Fall 2008 - (Page 16) PREGNANCY “BOY DID I HAVE A HARD TIME trying to convince my husband not to name our son after him—Roosevelt Jason. I borrowed one of my friend’s baby names book and I found Jadon. I told him that the name would be just like his middle name except we were changing the “s” to a “d.” He finally gave in. I wouldn’t have been able to stomach Roosevelt as my child’s first name, no matter how distinguished it sounds.” The name game What to consider when picking that perfect name hen it comes time to choose a name for the newest addition to Tameika R. Randle your family, the task can seem daunting. Should you go traditional or “MY HUSBAND WAS NOT AS EAGER pick something unique? Gender neutral to start the baby naming process as or clearly boy or girl? Bruce Lansky, I was so it took quite awhile. author of 5-Star Baby Name Advisor (Meadowbrook Press), Late in my pregnancy, I had a dream in which I called along with many other baby Read more the baby Sarah. So I told name books, offers his baby name stories at my husband her name was advice to parents who want Sarah and that was that— to pick the right name for ChicagoParent.com she had to be named!” their little one. in the discussion W Penny Pierce forums. “MY HUSBAND IS ITALIAN so he really wanted Italian names. My second child was a girl (and) we were undecided between two names. Unfortunately his father passed away suddenly, thus throwing me into preterm labor. When my daughter was born, we were still undecided on which name to give her. On the back of (my father-in-law’s obituary) was an advertisement for a play, the name, Isabella. That was one of our two names. Thus my daughter is Isabella Athena (my middle name).” In your book you rate 1,800 different names on a five star scale. How did you determine how many stars each name received? There are about six or seven factors I based the stars on. The first is first impression. I did a survey of about 1,000 people online asking them what comes to mind when they hear a particular name. So the impressions were either favorable, neutral or unfavorable. Another consideration is when you tell someone the name, if they ask, “How do you spell that?” That tells me the kid will have a spelling problem, even if you choose the most popular spelling. If you’ve sent out a birth announcement and someone says “How do you pronounce that?” you know you have a practical problem as well. These are all problems that could create a mark down in the Alexandrea Baietto ISABELLA “MY OLDEST DAUGHTER IS NAMED Alaina June. The meaning and origin varies by spelling, but it is Irish and means precious and beautiful. June is after my mom who passed away when I was 8½ months pregnant with Alaina. My middle daughter is Abigail Grace. Grace was from the song “Amazing Grace.” Abby’s due date was 9/11/01, and although she didn’t appear till 9/29 the song was heard a lot during that time and reminded us of the amazing grace of God. My youngest daughter was named Marisa Joan. We struggled for three days on a name at the hospital for her—my husband came up with Marisa and we all agreed as a family that we like the name. Her middle name, Joan, is after her grandmother on my husband’s side.” CAIDEN Karen Mowinski 16 | Fall 2008 | ChicagoParent.com http://www.ChicagoParent.com http://www.ChicagoParent.com
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