Would you outsource the naming of your baby?
I have an extensive essay on my web site about naming practices around the world which you can check out here.
I recently received an e-mail from the United States responding to my essay. It said:
“I found your blog when I was doing research on baby names. I work as an editor for BellyBallot – http://babynames.net/, a start-up company which introduces a brand new concept of naming a child, based on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, where parents and soon-to-be parents can invite friends and family to vote for specific baby names parents have chosen for their newborns.
On top of this new approach to baby naming, BellyBallot also tries to provide information about specific countries and regions where names are used, and we also have our blog where we discuss new trends in baby naming and where parents can interact in our weekly naming contests – http://babynames.net/blog/.”
I responded as follows:
“I was fascinated to hear of your project, but very surprised that you believe that parents will outsource the naming of their child to family and friends.This approach seems to run counter to everything I know about naming practices. Most parents regard the choice of name as an intensely personal matter and are powerfully influenced by cultural and religious influences rather than the views of associates. The majority of the world’s population is still not connected to the Net and, even in developed countries, social media tends to be used by a minority of Net users.As for your predictions for 2013-2014, I regard four of the five as very American and not at all relevant to most of the world. The only prediction I would endorse is number 3 that old names will make a come back. But this has always been the case. Many names follow a cycle, but predicting which names will make a comeback and when is difficult.”Sorry not to be more enthusisatic about your start up, but I really believe that naming one’s child is a very personal act, strongly influienced by local culture, and that the USA – as in so many other respects socially – is an outlier.”
April 11th, 2013 at 8:46 pm
There’s an app for that! See An App for Names.
April 12th, 2013 at 8:47 am
In China, in many occasions, the job of naming of a baby will be passed to one of the grand-parents, to show respect to the senior…of course, discussing the best name among the family is a common thing.
April 14th, 2013 at 7:27 am
When my friends were having babies I was most forthcoming with my choice of names for their new children. And they were most forthcoming with their rejection of my advice!
April 14th, 2013 at 8:09 am
I think that proves my case, Nadine!