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Baby Names |
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Back in the good old days, naming a baby who was about to be delivered into this world
was… well, still complicated, but at least it seemed to rely on what were, shall we call
them, more commonsensical rules. The entire family was usually involved in the process,
and they would gather up, hold a family counsel if necessary, and short-list certain names
that they all agreed on, or, alternatively, they definitely did not want to count as potential
names for the upcoming newborn. In most cases, the baby’s godparents would also be
consulted, and in some cultures it is still customary to consult with them prior to naming
the child, or even to select the godmother’s or godfather’s name, depending on the baby’s
gender, as their first or middle name. Nowadays, however, the process is increasingly
complex, say sociologists and other human sciences experts. Why so? We asked the baby
naming pros over at www.babynames.co.uk for possible explanations and they came up with three
main reasons for which naming a child is apparently becoming an increasingly difficult
process. Read on, if you’re curious, or if you’re about to embark on the painstaking
process of naming a baby of your own.
Information Overload
The problem with naming babies nowadays is that there are much more sources of
information and inspiration than in the past. According to one of the largest publishing
databases in the world, some eight baby name books have been published over the course
of the past three years alone, compared to the fifty such titles issued during the first six
years of the 1990s. Adding on to this veritable information overload, there are also some
one hundred dedicated websites on the matter, which offer databases that the users can
search through, as well as polls that promise to paint a picture on the status-quo of
naming babies, not to mention private consultations with baby naming experts. Some of
the most popular such websites have reported incredible amounts of traffic, going all the
way up into the millions of unique users.
Celebrity Quirks
Another powerful source of influence on the baby naming process is the current
obsession with celebrity goings-on. Remember how much of a fuss was made over the
name singer Chris Martin and actress Gwyneth Paltrow chose for their baby daughter,
Apple? What about Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, the daughter of super-celebrity couple Angelina and
Brad? According to specialists, the eccentric choices stars sometimes make in matters of
naming their babies influence the general public, in the sense that they are making us all
much more aware of the power of personal branding. Indeed, if naming one’s child has
come to be regarded as an act of branding, then its impact cannot be denied. The
marketing-focused society we’re living in has driven parents to obsess over the act of
selecting the precisely right type of name for their child, based on the belief that the
‘right’ name, whichever that may be, can influence a child’s start in life, as well as their
entire worldview.
Veering Away from the Mainstream
All these trends, cumulated, have driven an increasing number of expectant and new
parents to opt for ‘traditional names’ much less than they used to, some one hundred years
ago. It was reported in 2006 that only 9.5% of boys and some 8% of girls received one of
the year’s most popular ten names for their respective genders. Are we turning into a
society of individualities? Seems so.