Having a baby is an exciting event for the whole family, especially the parents of the blessed little one. With modern medical advances, many people are able to find out ahead of time whether their baby will be a boy or a girl. If this is the case with you, it is exciting partly because you will be able to tailor your name search to just one gender, making the process half as complicated as it might otherwise be.
There are several things you will want to consider in order to choose a perfect name for your girl. For many people, the ethnicity of the baby plays a big role in how they choose a name. Often, people with Italian decent choose an Italian name, Latinos choose Latin names, and black people choose names either with an African origin, or they might name their girl after an important African-American woman such as Harriet Beecher-Stowe or Rosa Parks. The same logic can be applied to any ethnicity or culture.
Other times, people will choose a name for their girl based on other family members. Sometimes, the baby will have the same name as a parent, grandparent or another relative that the parents wish to honor. While this can be a good option, especially in very traditional families, one has to stay aware that the girl will be her own person, and will not necessarily take after her namesake. Others use a variation on the relative's name. A good example is the children of Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith. Their son is named Jaden, a variation of his mother's name, and their daughter is Willow, a variation of her father's.
Test your girl's names for timelessness. Girls' names can get a little too cutesy, like "Bitsy" or other names that may sound fine for a little girl. However, as hard as you might fight against it, your little girl will grow up. Make sure you test the name in situations she will likely be in as she gets older, like her wedding day, at a job interview, or graduating from college. You want to be sure the name she hears in these situations merits respect from those around her.
You also want to beware of negative personal and societal connotations, for example Katrina and Rita may not be the best choices right now. The names themselves are fine, but the fact that they are the names of recent devastating hurricanes make them less appealing. It's also probably not a good idea to name your daughter after you ex-boyfriend's mother-- no matter how pretty you think her name is.
Once you have taken all of these things into consideration, you can look at the list from a baby name book or website. You may just want a name that sounds nice, or you may want to pick a name that has a meaning that reflects a quality you want your daughter to possess when she gets older. For some couples, it's important for them to choose a name from the Bible. Many sites also will rank the popularity of a name. Depending on their values, some people purposely choose popular names, and others avoid them. There is not right or wrong; it's just a preference that should be addressed.
Lastly, you want to be prepared to change your mind. No matter how much you prepare, sometimes a baby is born and somehow the name her parents chose for her does not fit. In this case, you may find yourself back in discussions of the perfect name for your girl. But that's okay. This may be the biggest decision you'll make for your baby. You'll want to get it right.
Gretchen Lee Bourquin - After writing mostly fiction and poetry most of my life, my scope began to expand in 2005 to Commentary and Blog type pieces. Before I ...
Join the Conversation