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RSS FeedWhich is most beneficial to your child: A common name or a unique name?
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| Common | 43% | 50 votes | Total: 116 votes | |
| Unique | 57% | 66 votes |
Common
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Add to FavoritesWhen it comes time to choose a name for your baby, there are many things to consider. Will you pass on a family name? Will you choose something popular, maybe with a different spelling to make it not so common? Or come up with something that's truly different, even a name of your own invention? The most important question is the effect the name you choose will have on your child's life.
Some family names are still currently popular enough to 'fit' a newborn; others, not so much. Even if your inclusion in the will depends on it, and no matter how much you love your Aunt Mabel or Grandpa Hobart, neither name would work these days.
Changing the spelling of a popular name to make it unique can end up being a problem. The name is only different when written, and spelling your name all the time can get annoying. After all, 'Ashley' is still pronounced 'Ashleigh' and 'Brian' still sounds like 'Bryan', no matter how they are spelled.
To invent a name requires more care. You are basically linking syllables together, so be reasonable. Get carried away and your child's name will sound like a Hawaiian fish. Will the name make your child stand out, or stick out? There is a difference.
Dr. Albert Mehrabian, wrote The Name Game and The Baby Report Card. After a decade of research, he published studies that support the theory that people have negative reactions to anything uncommon or different, and that includes names. An unusual name can have a negative effect on the level of happiness and success a person experiences. Children with odd names get tend to get lower grades and are less popular than other classmates in elementary school. They are more likely to drop out of college. The problems don't end with school, as they are also ridiculed more by the people they work with than those who have more common names. There are greater numbers of emotionally disturbed children and psychiatric patients who are saddled with odd names. Studies also show their resumes are more likely to be passed over.
Some countries think this is important enough to ban odd names. The Dominican Republic, among others, is considering the move after names such as Dear Pineapple, Iloveyou Lover, and Mazda Altagracia were filed on birth certificates. Parents who think choosing a name for their child is an opportunity to be clever or funny are immature and insensitive. A truly offensive or silly name should prompt scrutiny from Family Services ,as the parents obviously lack consideration for their child, which can be a red flag for neglect and abuse.
Of course, there is a middle ground. Look at the most popular names and cross off your list any name in the top 40 or 50. The favorite baby names by year can be found at www.ssa.gov/OACT/bab ynames. You can learn the top 100 names by state or decade. The lists date back to 1879. There is also a section on popular names for twins.
At any rate, avoid the really weird, like Moon Unit and Dweezil (how many times have they been used as an example of a bad choice?). Just imagine what kids on the playground would do with those names. They might work for celebrities' children, but most of us are not rich enough or famous enough to pull that off. This is the same premise as in the only difference between eccentric and crazy depends on how much money you have.
Perhaps as more and more parents choose unusual names, the problems will lessen as the unusual itself becomes the more common. Until then, give your kids a break and save your creativity for their middle names. Remember, they'll be choosing your nursing home some day and paybacks can get ugly.
Learn more about this author, Maren Sage.
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Unique
As the world becomes more tolerant of different cultures and beliefs, there is a significant increase in contemporary names. There are so many of us and people want to stand out and be individuals. For example, if you were to type in the name "John" into a people search criteria field on-line, the results yielded would be overwhelming. Even with a last name you would usually find that there are hundreds of people with the same exact first and last names in the world.
Biblical names are no longer necessarily names of the people in the bible themselves, but the popular trend as of late is actually naming children religious nouns and adjectives such as Hope, Destiny, Faith, Charity, or Freedom, to list a few of the more popular names. Mothers are not as subject to persecution from their peers in comparison to years passed concerning what they name their children. This is partially due to the fact that market places are more frequent and communities are more diverse with a growth in renting versus the old tradition of everyone owning a permanent domain.
In relevance to the subject at hand, however, unique names do not appear to have a negative impact on children in this era. Other children their age find them interesting. Angela may be less popular with the other children compared to Angel. While Angela is a common name, Angel is unique and in the perspective of a child's frame of mind, that individual seems special and might actually be an angel. It romanticises their opinion on that person because children are more naive and would be prone to link a word or name directly to what it is named after.
Another advantage of a contemporary name is that when an employer is searching through the dossier of applicants and thumbs through a dozen Christine's he is instinctively dis-positioned to halt when he reaches Charity's dossier. It was "different" and caught his eye. Therefore, Charity is now employed and there is a score of Christine's seeking employment elsewhere. Freedom is likely to stand out in a crowd of Frank's, to make a point. If a teenager is separated from her youth group at a theme park she knows where to look if she hears someone calling for "December." It may be more difficult to find Ashley in the skating rink when you call her name and catch the attention of thirty concerned parents thinking you may be a pedophile.
My point is that a unique name is exactly that. Standing out in a crowd is an advantage when you live in a highly populated world. Put into more analogistic terms, finding "Nero" in a haystack isn't so difficult with a magnet, and recognition draws in the same manner as a magnet.
Learn more about this author, Daniel Bentley.
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