25 Considerations For Naming Baby

Many moms and dads wait until they meet their babe to decide on a definite moniker. At that point, some couples still can't choose, so they take their wee one home from the hospital without a name. Celeb mama Brooke Burke and David Charvet were more than excited when they welcomed son Shaya, but it was weeks before they named him. Twenty-five percent of our readers named their babies within one month of birth too.

While some moms give their daughters monikers after their own, it's not nearly as common as it is for fathers. Famous chef Giada De Laurentiis named her daughter Jade, which is the American way of saying Giada. While it's the same meaning, it's different enough to stand on its own.

Some parents choose to honor a long lineage of names in their family, and others opt to call their child something unique. Here are some tips for breaking the news to relatives.

Whether it's something traditional or never heard before, every name has a meaning. Some people inherit family titles, others carry the same moniker as '80s cartoon characters, and some names are plucked straight from a book. Will meaning influence your choice?

Many girls have the name Paris or Ava, but does the former make you think of the City of Light or a certain celebutante with the last name Hilton? And do you associate the latter with a family member, the Gabor sisters, or Reese Witherspoon's daughter? Hollywood's baby boom has dusted off some older names like Olivia, Alice, Ruby, and Vivienne. While some parents-to-be take the trends as inspiration to name their babe, other moms and dads nix monikers like Angelina, Brad, or Shiloh (even if they are family names) because they don't want people to assume their tot's name came from Tinseltown.

The Duggars have a democratic way of naming the newest members of their family: they vote! Jim Bob joked that his vote was worth 20 and Michelle's should be worth 40, but they ended up naming their 18th bundle of joy Jordyn-Grace Makiya by popular demand.

When funnyman Adam Sandler and his wife, Jackie, announced that their baby girl was named Sunny Madeline, it was clear there was an "S" thing going on, since the baby joined big sister Sadie at the Sandler crib.

While it's an honor that most would find incredibly flattering, talking to the person you are naming the baby after is probably a good idea. Here are some tips to eliminate putting them on the spot!

Parents who are curious about the history of monikers might google their favorite names to see what pops up in the search results. It may not require an Internet quest to realize that Alexander paired with Bell would remind most people of the telephone, but if you entered "Henry Collins," then you would discover that there have been four famous men by the same name: a Canadian politician, an Australian boxer, a United States government employee/Soviet spy, and a character from the soap opera All My Children.

Some women are quick to admit that their spouses are incidental in the grand scheme of their baby names. But what happens when things go awry? If you and your ex-boyfriend picked Isabel as your favorite girl's name, is it off-limits with your baby daddy?

The Stefani-Rossdales and the Richie-Maddens have done it, but will you? A researcher on a study published in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science said choosing a unique name may be a sign of narcissism. That's a statement best left up to debate.

Parents carefully choose their child's name, but that doesn't mean people will call the kid by it. Nicknames are invented everywhere from the delivery room to the schoolyard by friends, strangers, and foes. For better or worse, monikers are created because of the way a youngster looks and acts or situations they end up in. And sometimes, the title is altogether random. There are moms and dads who try to stop the practice before it begins by requesting that people call their child by their given name.

Parents spend much of the first half of their pregnancies picking out both boy and girl names as they wait to learn the baby's sex. Once the tot's gender is determined — either at the 20-week sonogram or upon delivery — it's fair game to ask new parents about the names they held in reserve for a child of the opposite sex. While some parents are willing to share a name, others guard the selections for future offspring.

Choosing a person's name is an honor and an undertaking! Parents-to-be often fret over monikers for months and discuss different options with friends and family members. Lots of couples change names once, twice, or even 20 times during the process. Mamas can be fickle, because there are so many things to consider.

A name isn't just a name. A CNN article reported that 10 percent of mothers considered changing their baby's name. Some of the women chose to legally do so, and others waited for their children to decide.