Here’s a relatively common dilemma: we announce our favorite name to a parent.
Sometimes we hedge. “We’re thinking about Everett.”
Other times we flat out tell: “Her name will be Athena.”
And that parent? Tells us that the name is awful. We can’t possibly go through with it! They’ll have to call their beloved grandchild by a nickname instead.
The wisdom of the internet often replies with the following supremely unhelpful response: That’s why you don’t tell anyone the name in advance.
Here’s my response – which acknowledges that we are human, and want to share important things with the people we love.
Your parents aren’t supposed to like your baby’s name.
Did they love your favorite music in high school? Do you and your mom share clothes? If you had to agree on a vacation destination, are you automatically on the same page?
The answer might be yes to some of that, but chances are that your style diverges from your parents. It’s supposed to! Different generations prefer different things, and names are part of that shift.
We can love and respect our parents. But that doesn’t mean we’ll see eye-to-eye on every decision, from the simplest to the most consequential.
Share your name in advance or not, but if you do? Recognize that disagreeing on names is the most normal thing in the world, and it’s not a proxy for how much your parents – or anyone else – will love your child.
ELSEWHERE ONLINE
A Cassian and a Constance in this edition of British Baby Names birth announcements. The round-ups are always great, but this list featured some real gems.
Juliette, Stella, Daphne. I love it when a brand chooses great names for their line.
Could Decker be the name the Fast & Furious franchise (sort of) launched? The long-running series now includes ten official films – Fast X comes out next month – plus a few spin-offs. Characters come and go from the original 2001 film through the present. Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw emerges briefly as a bad guy in 2013; a few films later, he’s an ally. Deckard gets a bump following the character’s introduction, but so does Decker … and now Decker is just outside the current US Top 1000.
A good list of sci-fi inspired baby names from Clare, spanning the obvious (Atreyu, Winry) to the subtle (Rose, Ben).
Spider, Winter Snoh, Leodis, Kilmer Dove, Iceland, India Moon, Esti Maxine … we’re not even halfway through the year, and the list of celebrity baby names is playful, surprising, rich with meaning.
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That’s all for this week! As always, thank you for reading and have a great week!
