Collaborative post. When my youngest was born it took us a really long time to decide what to call him. We knew we were having a boy so we had 20 odd weeks to prepare and yet I struggled. I had lots of ideas for names for my daughters, but I found boy names much harder.

Why Is It So Hard To Choose Baby Names?

It’s surprisingly hard choosing a name for your baby. It’s only when you sit down with your partner and go through names that you discover just how many people you don’t like. I’m serious! Most names my partner suggested I could think of someone who I knew at some point with that name who annoyed me.

And of course you can’t choose a name of a close family member or their children as that can cause offence. The same name of one your friends can look a little odd, is there something you are trying to say? Personally I really like the name of my ex-husband, but that would be pretty weird to name my new partner's child after my ex.

Historic family names can be good, great grandparents or great uncles for instance, but often their names can be dated and out of fashion, probably better suited to middle names.

Oh and you need to check what the potential initials would be too. No child wants to go to school with their bag stating their initials of B.O.G, D.I.K or P.O.O.

If you need to avoid names of people you know well, those linked with negative connotations and find something you both actually like, then how are you meant to find a name? After all it’s something you are going to be using for many years to come and the last thing you want is to call them something they hate.

Where To Find Baby Name Ideas

We went through a BIG book of names to find one we like. I was diligent and went through every page just in case there was something I missed and it took ages. A smarter way is to use a search engine like Namiiz which specialises in names. With thousands of names to choose from there is plenty of choice, but unlike a book, with a specialist website you can search and filter names. 

Do you want a name that starts with a particular letter? No problem. Maybe you have a long surname and want to balance it out with a really short first name? The website makes that easy. If you want to recognise your family's roots you can select areas for the name origin too. Of course you can use multiple search filters so for instance if you wanted gender neutral Mexican names the search engine will quickly show you the results (currently there are 4 suggestions). Looking for a girl's name that is biblical and has also been a character in a Disney film? Well apparently there are 4 of those too, including Ariel. 

When you find a name you like you can research it further. The website shows statistics for the different names including how common it is (currently looking at data for France and America only) and whether the name is mostly used for boys or girls  So of course I had to check out my own name. Apparently Kate is pretty uncommon in France with it only being given to an average of 12 babies a year, in America however 591 babies on average a year are named Kate. Interestingly a variant of my name (Catherine) was hugely popular in France around the 1960s before falling out of fashion. 

It’s fascinating looking at the different suggestions and it really helps you think of what type of name you want for your baby. This would definitely have been helpful when I was naming my son.