Looking for Meaningful Baby Name Ideas?

Naming your baby is a big chore. A child’s name is something he or she will have and use every single day of his or her life, and it is something that others will use to identify your baby, too. With such weight associated with a name, it’s no surprise that so many parents struggle for months to find the perfect name.

Different parents end up settling on a name for different reasons, and there really is no right or wrong reason to settle on a name. Here are some different ideas for arriving at a name:

Familial Names

You may not want to name your child a “Junior” or “Third”, but that doesn’t mean you can’t include some familial history in his or her name. When my daughter was born, we feminized her two grandfathers’ names (Lawrence and Michael) to arrive at Lauren Michelle. Her name has meaning to her, to us, and to others in the family. Yet we tried on names of grandmothers, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles, too. Some parents include a family surname, such as the wife’s maiden name, as a middle name for the child.

Meaning

It can be difficult to choose a name based on meaning without meeting your child first. For instance, you don’t necessarily want to name a child a meaning that means “victorious” or “leader” without knowing he or she can live up to such a name. Yet some names just do seem fitting. For instance, we settled on the name Sarah for our last child, which has the meaning “princess”. She was bringing up the rear by a rather large gap in age from her siblings, and we knew she would indeed be the princess of the house.

Celebrities

Many people look up to celebrities, and this may include famous actors, musicians, politicians, community leaders, writers, artists, and so forth. You may admire someone in particular because of their unique talents, skills, and abilities, and you can consider giving your child the gift of that person’s name. Some parents hope their child may emulate that celebrity in some way, and others simply want to honor someone who they find to be fascinating by naming their child after them.

There are many different approaches you can take to naming your child. Sometimes, however, you may come up with a name that you think sounds absolutely amazing and has special meaning, too, and yet after trying it out and saying it out loud for a few days, it just doesn’t seem right. You do want to take a name out for a test drive, so to speak. This is a name your child will have to use for many years to come, and you will be using it, too. So practice saying it and writing it down when talking to your partner or spouse about the baby, and if it’s just not sitting right with you, you will want to go back to the drawing board to come up with something new.

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