Meaghan O’Connell writes about how impossible it is to pick the perfect baby name. So much of this article reminded me of the experience Erin and I had.
We’d settle on an idea and then see it everywhere. We’d overhear other women at Baby Gap shopping for their nephews with one of our names. It sounded so not special when they said it.
I eavesdropped on more conversations during the nine months Erin carried then- now-Declan than I had in my entire life prior.
Giving your baby a name, it turns out, also includes anticipating how other children will cruelly twist it to hurt them. After a few rounds of brainstorming possible mean things, you begin to think you may have missed your calling.
This is bad in general. Imagine your surname is Liss. On the list of baby names we can never ever use:
- Cash Liss
- Chastity Liss
- Hope Liss
- Love Liss
- Richard Liss
Meaghan also has some excellent advice:
When I brought up a name I liked and a friend told me that, just so I knew, it was on her list of potential baby names […] I decided that even if I did have the perfect name, I would never, ever share it with anyone.
In a not-particularly-unusual stroke of genius, Erin thought it’d be wise for us to make that very promise to each other. I can’t recommend it enough for soon-to-be parents.