From CNN, Baby-name remorse, what do you do?
...a surprising number of parents who, following the birth of their child, suffer namer's remorse. In a recent poll of 1,219 mothers conducted by BabyCenter.com, 10 percent considered changing their baby's name. The reasons they gave ranged from being inspired by another name to having a relative disagree with the choice.
And,
"Today, there's this perception that naming a child is almost like naming a product -- there's this huge national drive now to not be like anyone else," says Laura Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard" and founder of the blog BabyNameWizard.com.
In our drive for self-fulfillment, in our quest to become truly individual, we have come to view our children as products, hoping to provide them with the benefit of being not like anyone else. This is a direct break from being connected through the heritage of your ancestors, culture, and religion. Following heritage and tradition requires responsibility, naming a product unlike any other demands individuality.
Two points to ponder, with regards to this phenomenon,
- In the UK, Muhammad is now the 2nd most common name given to baby boys. Are, we seeing the results of a decidedly post-Christian culture?
- The notion of "what's in it for me?", inherent in the reasoning behind naming (and re-naming) your child. How does this effect, if at all, the means with which we evangelize non-Christians (and, for that matter, disciple Christians)?
We don't have this problem. We named our baby after my father.
Posted by: baby boy | February 19, 2008 at 06:43 AM