5 Ways to Get Dads Excited About Baby Names
I’m that rare flower in the world of baby-name blogging: a man.
And while I’m content to be in a female-dominated field, it’s puzzling that more dads don’t take an interest in naming their kids.
It seems like it’s usually the mom who draws up lists and researches each possibility exhaustively. The father just retains veto power.
Of course, this is a gross generalization (I’m about to make several of those), but men need to take a more active role. And I don’t mean insisting that their son be called “Jr.”
So in the interest of breaking down sexism by making a series of very sexist assumptions, here are five things that might get dads more excited about baby names.
1. It’s like fantasy football.
Naming your kid lets you comb through more than a hundred years of stats in order to find the perfect choice. What fan of baseball or football wouldn’t delight in that? You can drill down to state-level data (maybe the top 10 list in Wyoming has the best “draft picks”) or even go overseas.
If you have more than one kid, it’s like assembling a team. The pressure’s on to find players that can mesh. (Sorry, but I’m not sure your sibset of Bianca and Russ is going to make the playoffs.)
2. It’s more fun than picking stocks.
I wrote a piece last year about how stock-picking techniques can be applied to baby names. But the best part happens after you’re done. Then you can sit back and see if your choices appreciate or depreciate.
If you can pick a top 500 name that ascends to the top 100, you’ve got some serious skills. Of course, you don’t want it to get TOO popular — that’s like busting in Blackjack. (Alright, my analogies are starting to get pretty muddled here.)
3. Leave your mark.
You may buy a sports car during your mid-life crisis, but there’s a better way to confront your mortality: Find a kickass name for a person that will outlive you.
That kid will be walking the Earth — impressing people with your good taste — long after you’re gone.
4. Get back to your roots.
Naming a child is a good excuse to learn more about your family and ancestors. If you cede your baby-naming duties to your partner, you lose a chance to pass along a piece of your heritage.
Not every family shares a surname these days, but it’s nice for the children’s names to reflect the shared history of both parents.
5. Your future livelihood may depend on it.
Research has shown that kids with certain names have more successful careers than others. (One study found that people with shorter names were more likely to become executives.)
When you’re retired and living on a fixed income, you may need some financial help from your child. If you give them the right name, maybe you’ll be able to live in their pool house someday.