The Name Game (A Boy Named Upen)

Hi everybody! Welcome to our third blog posting and the first primarily authored by me, the dad to be. Up until now, I have been content (read: lazy) with assisting Kristin with her blogging, which has been excellent. However, with so much going on for the three of us, it seemed like a good time to make my first foray into the blogosphere.

Kristin is six months (27 weeks) along this week and second only to the popular “Do you know the sex of the baby?” (We don’t) is “So, have you two started thinking of names yet?” It turns out naming babies is quite a task, and we have made it no easier on ourselves by failing to rule out 50% of the options. Luckily for us, there are countless books on the subject. The book we purchased apparently has over 100,001 of the best baby names (I’d hate to see what didn’t make the cut). While that number of names may seem daunting, you have to realize that the vast majority are entirely unsuitable. I won’t go into detail on the ones we wouldn’t use, because I would hate to offend anyone whose taste may differ. They also give you the origin of the name and the meaning. For instance Daniel (Hebrew – God is my judge) and Kristin (English – Follower of Christ).

What is difficult is taking a name you initially like and submitting it to the rigorous testing all potential names must go through. The first of these is the spouse reaction test wherein one parent-to-be says to the other “Ooh, how about Gaylord (French – High spirited)?”, and then watches the spouse’s face for the tell-tale crinkling of the nose or furrowing of the eyebrows. This is usually followed by “Hmmm, do you like that, sweetie? We can think about it.” Dead in the water. Following this test are saying it in conjunction with the last name, seeing if the initials spell anything obscene and/or embarrassing, and shortening it into potential nicknames. If it passes all of these, it makes the list as either a first or middle name option. We would tell you what happens after that, but we haven’t yet reached that point.

The book has lots of lists that can help us name the baby based on potential jobs. For instance should we want our daughter to be a tri-athlete, we could name her Emma (German – A universal woman). This would also prepare her for a career as a gardener, lawyer or philosopher. There are names from various regions of the world, too. We are fond of Canadian names and also have a soft spot for Irish and Scottish names. Adventurous, we know.
At this point, we will probably have a couple options ready for each gender at delivery. Once we see the baby, we can see which fits. Right now, if it’s a boy, I’m pulling for Upen (Hindi – Indra’s younger brother) as the first name. Middle name – Adam. Yes, I do like that, Sweetie :-)