HTT - Name Edition

It's a moot point, but I've been having some regrets about Miss Dub's first name recently.

It's not that I don't like her name - I think it's beautiful and ultimately meant to be her moniker - but I don't like the sudden surge in popularity it's had since her birth merely a year ago. Everywhere I go, I meet babies with her name or have someone tell me, "My sister just named her daughter that!"

And while it's flattering, I don't want it to become too common. Mostly, because I want Miss Dub to be the only one with her name in her school class, but also because I was sort of looking for an unusual but not out-there name for her, and I kind of feel like I failed.

(At this point some of you are undoubtedly saying, "Just tell us her name!" But it's sort of a matter of principle/privacy so I'm going to refrain. But I will say it was the 320th most popular name in the U.S. according to the SSA. Also, someone will probably spill it in the comments section so be on the lookout for a biblical name - and no, it's not Bathsheba.)

Apparently, I'm not the only one suffering from baby name anxiety. I've been reading this blog for a while now, and it appears that many people are obsessed with finding a unique but not ugly name for their child ... even ones that aren't conceived yet.

Those who have read Freakonomics, or the aforementioned blog, understand the problem: We're all pursuing something unusual, but we're all environmentally conditioned to pursue the same unusual names at the same time. And - voilà - Emma goes from being rare to overdone in a year's time ... and tons of people stop using the name as a result, even though they still like it.

Sometimes we can blame celebrities or television, but it's a chicken/egg problem - are the stars or shows mimicking the national trends or starting them? Mostly likely, it's the former. After all, everyone says they're all about naming their babies "old school" names like Lily and Sophia, but most grandmas had names like Norma and Bertha, so why aren't there more baby Berthas? Because our shared life experience has conditioned us to prefer the sound of Maeve to Myrtle.

Anyway, before I muse you all to death, let me ask you something, "How do you pick a baby name?"

Do you look for something unique? Or is it only important that you like it, even if everyone else does, too? And how the heck do you ever decide?

As for me, I'm hoping that my next child will rank in the lower half of the top 1000 names, if not off-the-charts. But when the times comes, I'll go here or here for ideas. Because last time I settled as soon as Mr. Dub proposed a name I didn't mind. And while I'll always love it for Miss Dub, I'll always wish I'd looked a little harder.



Oh, and for extra fun, what are your favorite names? (Promise we won't steal them ... unless we really love them!)