Picking Out the Perfect Name for Your Child!

Once you find out you are expecting you start hunting to find the perfect name for your child. More than likely you'll purchase some sort of book that has a list of baby names or you'll spend hours on the internet searching for the perfect name. Of course you start thinking of all your relatives and wonder if you should name your child after any of them. Several people do name their children after a beloved relative that has passed away in order to honor their name.

When I found out I was expecting it was very easy for me to name my first child. For as long as I could remember I knew I wanted to name my son Nicholas. I'm not sure why I ever chose this name, but I've always liked it. I can remember my mom not being thrilled about the name, but I wasn't really concerned about what she thought. My husband I liked it and to me that was all that mattered. Picking a middle name was also very easy as we had planned on giving him the same middle as my husband.

Here's the funny thing about naming my child Nicholas. I absolutely love his name, but I can not stand the name Nick. You're probably wondering why I'd name my child Nicholas when the short version of his name is Nick. Well, I was determined that I'd never allow anyone to call him anything other then Nicholas. I figured if I corrected people the first time I'd be fine and not have to remind the again. Our family was all told early on they were not to abbreviate his name and six years later we've not ever had to remind them. Often times people hear us calling him Nicholas and they do the same. Not many times have we had to correct people. From time to time people who might not know us well will say Nick and either my husband or I correct them and we're good to go. So I was pretty happy that after six years I'd only had to correct a few people here and there as far as his name goes.

This year Nicholas is playing T-ball. On the form you fill out it asks what your child's name is and then it asks what they prefer to be called. I think they do this pretty much everywhere nowadays as I remember his school enrollment form asking the very same thing. They meet twice a week and we started three weeks or so ago. He's not ever been called anything other then Nicholas while at practice or during a game. During his last practice I heard one of the coaches say "Good job Nick." Of course I thought to myself "His name is Nicholas and if you read his registration form you'd know that's what he goes by." He didn't correct his coach and I wasn't really going to march out on the field to let him know that he called my child by the wrong name. I'm curious as what he'll call him at the next practice. I suppose if it happens again and bothers me enough I might say something.

So, when naming your child make sure you take every last detail into consideration. That way when your child is six and someone calls him Nick you won't cringe. I'm sure as he gets older his friends will start to call him that and I'll have to deal with it, but for now he'll remain Nicholas!