The joys of baby name politics

Whether you look to Disney movies for inspiration, or find it out the window in nature, choosing your baby’s name is definitely up there as being one of the toughest tasks of motherhood. 

 

a From the moment you announce that you are expecting, the politics start, most notably within your family where each person has a list of names they think you should go with.

 

Every visit is a baby name debate, with fathers and aunts telling you that you need to follow on the family tradition,  even if the last person to have that name died three generations ago – it’s still a family name, don’t you know?

 

Once you give birth, you then have to deal with the constant stream of “have you chosen a name?” questions. You'll be frustrated, but realistically, we’re all guilty of doing it.

 

When a celebrity has a baby, one of the first things we want to know is the name and we are quick to judge their choice: an unusual name is met with eye rolls, while a simple, traditional one is often slated for being boring or bland.

 

When you do finally settle on a name after many nights of deliberation, you then need to go through your Facebook page to double check you don’t know anyone else who shares it. If they do, then you need to decide just how much you like them - you don’t want to be reminded of that person every time you call your youngster, do you?

 

You'd be forgiven for assuming that once you settle on a name, the stress is over, but no - now you need to decide how to spell it. As parents get more and more creative, you don’t want to be the only one sending your youngster to school with a plain looking name, surely?

 

And when you have finally signed, sealed and delivered on the name, every now and then you will hear one while you are out doing your shopping and think: “hmmm why didn’t I think of that?”

 

Phew! Bet you thought the hardest part was going to be giving birth...

 

Mary Byrne is a staff writer at MummyPages and mum to a horse-crazy, sports-mad, seven-year-old girl.