| | Choosing the Right Name for Your Baby
Finding the right name for your new baby can be a challenge, but it is also a lot of fun. Parents often find that they disagree on names or have trouble selecting a name that they can both agree upon. This is one perk to single parent adoptions. You may want to consider a number of factors when choosing a name for your baby, including family names, personal heritage or baby’s heritage, or names with significant personal meaning to you. Some couples may find themselves choosing not only baby’s first name, but her last as well. Other families simply choose a name that they like from the baby name book. Some parents choose to name their baby while they are waiting for him or her to arrive, while others may have a few possibilities and wait to meet their baby before they name him or her.
Let’s begin at the end. Choosing a last name for your adopted baby may be simple if you and your partner share a last name, or if you are planning a single parent adoption. Unmarried couples, whether gay or straight, may find it more challenging to choose the right last name for their baby. This dilemma may also impact married couples who have not chosen to share the same last name. Some parents choose to hyphenate or otherwise combine both parents’ names into one name for baby. Others may opt to give one or the other parent’s name to baby. You can also choose to give baby both last names, using one as his or her middle name.
The best name for your baby is one that you love, and that you and your partner, if relevant, can agree upon. Baby name books and websites can be a good source of name ideas, and perhaps each of you can make a list of favorites. Many parents opt to honor a beloved family member by naming a child after him or her, or to choose a name with other sentimental connections. Do keep in mind that your child will live with this name for his or her life, and look for a name as suited to your chubby infant as to a professional adult. You may want to choose a name relevant to your ancestry, or perhaps to your child’s birth family’s ancestry. In an open adoption, you may even want to involve the birth family in the naming of your child.
Baby name books offering ideas fill the shelves of every bookstore, and a number of websites offer baby name directories. Consider browsing http://www.babynames.com/ as well as other online resources. Parents looking for a popular name, or conversely, looking to avoid a popular name, will find http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ an especially helpful resource. Naming your adopted baby is one of the fun parts of this sometimes arduous and stressful process, so try to relax and enjoy it and choose just the right name for your new addition to your family.
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