How in the world do you decide what to name your kid? It’s a great big decision right at the beginning of the life of a person you don’t even know yet. I feel like a name shapes a person and contributes to who they are and what they will become. There are baby names that sound presidential, names that sound like rock stars, and everything in between. So with a decision so vast, how do you even get started?
We decided to start at the last name and work backwards. My wife and I both have quite strong familial ties and would love to pass on as much family history to our child as we can. My wife lovingly took my last name a couple of years after marriage, so our baby will be a little Foy. We want to include my wife’s maiden name as well, so that will be our child’s middle name. Now that we’ve got the middle and last name handled, we are hemming and hawing over the most important part.
In today’s world of hipster names and overused popular names, there’s a fine line between sounding bland and sounding crazy. I’d hate to choose something we love and then have the poor kid end up in a kindergarten class with 12 other kids of the same name. On the other end of the spectrum, we aren’t going to call our kid Mowgli or Apple in an effort to have them stand out from the crowd. We’re finding it pretty tricky to nail down a name that is strong but creative, classic but not stuffy, and cool but not too cool. And finally, we are trying to take into account the playground mentality where any and all names can be fodder for teasing at the hands of a merciless classmate. (I remember being called Rye Bread in elementary school and it drove me nuts.)
So we are working on our short list. We are going for something unique but not off-the-wall, that can be shortened to a really great nickname. But we sure could use some suggestions. Help me out, what are some of your favorite boy or girl baby names?
More Baby Name Ideas:
