Are you someone who’s had your babies’ names picked out since you were young? Or do you follow tradition, like the first son will be named after the father/grandfather/etc.? Well, I’m pregnant with my third baby, and let me tell you, this name picking business hasn’t gotten any easier for me. I’m pregnant with a girl after having two boys, so at least I get to switch categories this time! It’s safe to say that I’ve read through more baby name lists than I ever thought possible.
In fact, I did have a girl baby name picked out at a very young age—Emma. But then 2002 rolled around and Rachel, from Friends, named her baby Emma, and the name has been on the Top 10 girl’s name list ever since! Seriously, it’s been 15 years! Now I know some people love to pick their baby names off of popular baby name lists, but personally I prefer using names that are just a little less common.
Time will tell when this little baby girl finally has a name! In the meantime, I’ll be perusing some of my favorite baby name lists and websites. Which do you use?
Baby Name Wizard. I love the Name Voyager in this one. It shows you the popularity of a name over time in an easy-to-read graph. You can see the rank of the name each year, see any peaks or see if a name is trending upward or downward.
Social Security. Get basic lists of baby names ranked in popularity in the United States by year with no extra frills.
nameberry. Another robust site with plenty of baby name lists to check based on topics and trends. I like their name hunter feature, which lets you type in some of your favorite names and they suggest other names based on your selections.
BabyCenter. BabyCenter publishes a Top 100 Baby Names list each year based on what their 400,000+ users have told them. While it’s not as accurate as the social security list for US names, it still gives a good idea of what’s popular.
Oh, and once Facebook catches on that you’ve been searching baby names, you will be bombarded with every sort of baby name list you can imagine in your newsfeed. Game of Thrones-inspired names, anyone?
The other question I want to ask is do you tell everyone what you’re naming your baby before birth or do you keep it a surprise? I like to keep it a surprise—for one, I think it adds a fun announcement to the birth, especially if you’ve shared the sex of your baby ahead of time, and as an added bonus, you won’t have to hear people’s opinions about the name beforehand. Most people have enough tact to keep their opinions to themselves after the deed’s already done (but not always!).
Tell us, did you wait to share your baby name? And how did you make your final selection?