by Eileen Goldenberg

Created on: August 16, 2009   Last Updated: August 17, 2009

In 1992 I was pregnant with my son and fighting with my husband. He wanted to name our future bundle of joy "Jackson", which I felt sounded ridiculous with our very ethnic sounding last name. I thought the name Alex sounded better, and had a list of secondary choices. To back up my case I found a very useful tool - a book called The Baby Name Personality Survey.

Now re-titled the Baby Name Survey Book, this book is not just a list of names and their meanings, origins, and variations. It is a survey of people's perceptions of particular names. Obviously, some of this is based on how popular culture affects the perception of popular names. What do people think about when they hear a name? What kind of person immediately comes to mind?

We had fun looking up our own names. Most people thought of my husband's name as belonging to a gay fellow, or a lifeguard. My name made people think of a clever but scattered girl, as I recall. (scarily accurate!)

When we looked up the name Alex, we read "When hearing the name Alex, people think of a popular, worldly and successful young man, probably blond. The description for Jackson was " an older, very polite butler"! Now this was 1992, remember, and I am sure the results are different today and in the updated version.

But at the time, I did feel the book helped my case. My husband, who I fondly acknowledge has a bit of a pretentious side, felt "Alex" was too casual, not substantial enough. He held out for Jackson. My emergency C-section caused me to be in the hospital for almost a week, which gave us plenty of time to argue, I mean debate, the drawbacks of both names. Day after day I sheepishly told the woman with the clipboard "Tomorrow, we'll know, I promise we will decide then." Finally, on the day I was to be discharged, I won the debate with the condition that we refer to my sweet, 7.5-pound baby only as "Alexander". Of course, not once did I address him with any other moniker than "Alex" which just suited my cheerful, easy going newborn perfectly. My husband gamely tried using Alexander for a couple of months, finally realizing that since everyone else, sister, grandparents, friends, were calling him Alex, his efforts were futile.

We had also used the book when deciding my daughter's name, Alana, and again, her personality fits the bill.

This is definitely an alternative way to research names for your baby, which is a very important decision. I know people who have agonized, fought, and second-guessed themselves.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>