Here’s a final run down of important points to consider before deciding on the name that your child will bear for the rest of her/his life:
Ground rules
Set down the names that are to be excluded from the list (example, former partners, pet hates, types of names).
Commemorative
Do you want to honour a relation, close friend or someone you admire?
Religion and culture
Does your belief system mean that you want to follow a spiritual or cultural practice for naming (example, naming after a saint or choosing a name from the holy scripture).
Gender
Is the name suitable for the gender of your baby or do you want a gender‐free name?
Style
Have you identified your naming style? Is it traditional, creative, popular, literary, or mystical?
Meaning
Have you checked what the name means both historically and in its current use?
Association
What image is conjured up by the name for most people?
Foreign
Does the name mean something unfavourable in another language? Try an internet search and check what comes up.
Middle name
Does it complement the first and last name? Would your child be embarrassed by it?
Initials
Do the initials make an acronym that is a word? Is it undesirable?
Nicknames
Are there any obvious nicknames for the name? Do you like the idea of nicknames? If not, choose a single syllable name that is difficult to shorten.
Puns
Does the name, initial, or a nickname combined with the surname become a pun? (example: Robyn Banks, I.P.Freely, Frank N.Stein, Ben Dover)
Spelling
Have you chosen the most common form of spelling the given name? What is the present trend in spelling the name? Is it with ‘c’ or ‘k’, ‘y’ or ‘ie’?
Pronunciation
Will a child be able to pronounce the name? Is it spelled the same way as it is pronounced?
The whole name
Does the name work well as a whole? Write it out in its several forms: initials/surname, middle initial, nickname/surname.
Sound and rhythm
Is there undesirable repetition of the same syllable or sound? Does it work when spoken as well as when it’s written?
Sharing
Are there any well‐known people with the same name? Will this cause a problem for the child when growing up?
Future use
Will the name be suitable for every stage of life? How will it sound to a Secondary school student? Will it suit a serious professional or a pensioner?
Popularity
Have you chosen a popular name that the child may have to share with several classmates? Where does it feature in the recent top 100 names?
Onomancy
If this is something you believe in, have you checked whether the name works well with astrological and numerological factors?
Testing on others
Have you taken note of what others think of the name? What was their reaction? Are their objections reasonable? Have you asked a child and have they come up with an obvious nickname that you hadn’t thought of?
Getting used to it
Have you allowed enough time to see if the name grows on you or whether it becomes stale within a few weeks?