You want your baby's name to be unique, but not too unique. The name should be just different enough that it doesn't entice ridicule, but also not so extraordinarily trendy that when you call your child's name at the playground, 40 other children come running. With so many factors that could come into play in naming a child, it's enough to send parents in search of outside assistance with naming their children-a practice many parents already have put into place.
You might think, "Choosing a baby name shouldn't be so hard." After all, it isn't rocket science, with many parents-to-be simply looking to family members, celebrities and even Google searches for inspiration. Others, however, would disagree, especially the linguistic experts who would argue that yes, in fact, vowel placement does matter.
One such expert is MIT researcher Amy Perfors, who in 2004 did a study on how a name affects how attractive a person is perceived to be. By posting photos with fake names on the web site HotOrNot.com, she found that men with "front vowel" names that produce sounds produced from the front of the mouth-like Matt, for instance-were rated more attractive than the photos with "back vowel" names (sounds from the back of the mouth), like Paul. With women, Perfors found just the opposite to be true.
In June 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported on the lengths some parents go in securing the "right" baby name. The article, titled, "The Baby-Name Business," showcased one parent who spent $475 to have a numerologist test the positive associations with her favorite name and another couple who hired a pair of consultants to come up with a list of suggestions. Fifty dollars and a 30-minute conference call discussing things like phonetics, popularity and ethnic origins later, the parents had their name.
Rather than consulting the experts, some parents head straight to the web. Sites like BabyNames.com and BabyNamingCentral.com offer a fee-based service to help parents in choosing a baby name. Even the Social Security Administration has a web page dedicated to the most popular baby names of 2006 (data for 2007 is not yet available), a perfect starting ground for parents experience baby-naming trouble.
Others still turn to books. A quick search on Amazon turns up popular titles like, "The Right Baby name: The Scientific Guide to Naming Your Baby," by Oliver Tavakol, and "The Baby Name Bible: The Ultimate Guide by America's Baby-Naming Experts," by Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz. Both books deploy tactics for choosing a name based on expert opinion and name associations with income and education.
Why all the fuss? Some experts say that choosing a name for baby has less to do with uniqueness and ridicule and more about how a child's name reflects on mom and dad, arguing that many parents choose hip and trendy names to prove they haven't lost their cool, even though Saturday night now consists of diaper duty.