Choosing a Baby Name

Desperately Seeking Answers to the Baby Name Riddle continued...

Davis and her husband, Brian, wanted to incorporate a family name and while visiting her in-laws one weekend, Brian's father mentioned his father's name. She looked at her husband and they both smiled at the name Preston, which they proceeded to use for their son.

Some parents go the traditional route and search their family trees. Some find inspiration on maps, movies, and even ESPN. Others are intent on finding a personal connection, or a story, behind a name.

It took only 10 seconds for Karen Watts, a book developer in Westchester County, N.Y., to settle on her son's name. He is named Cooper after Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, where she and her husband, both diehard Yankees fans, shared their first date.

Joanne Rendell, a novelist in New York City, named her 5-year-old son Benny after her favorite Mexican restaurant in the East Village, Benny's Burritos. "I ate there all the time when I was pregnant and now it's my son's favorite place to eat," she says.

"My second child named herself," says Ursula von Rydingsvard, chief operating officer of YouHere Productions in Manhattan. Six months pregnant, she was covering fashion week in Paris and her baby would kick every time a Belgian model named Delfine walked down the runway. She and her husband didn't know the sex of the baby, but three months later, they decided to name their baby girl Delfine.

What's in a Baby Name, Anyway?

Choosing a name should be fun, says Wattenberg. "It's the most fun and forward-thinking you do preparing for a baby. It makes you step back and picture an entire lifespan ahead, not just a baby but a kid and a grown-up. That's exciting, but it's also a lot of pressure."

People who have high self-esteem tend to like their names more, according to a recent study from the department of psychology at Cardiff University in Wales. This is called the "mere-ownership effect," -- that is, if we like ourselves, the feeling spills over to things that belong to us, and vice versa.

It makes intuitive sense, says Satran, who is the creator of a new site called Nameberry.com. She recommends thinking twice before saddling your child with a clunky name like Agatha or Floyd. "That's definitely an argument in favor of choosing a name your child is going to like," she says.

Instead of relying on an intuitive, emotional approach, parents should be more objective, says Albert Mehrabian, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA and author of The Baby Name Report Card. He designed a survey rating system based on characteristics such as success, ethical/caring, and popular/fun.

He warns parents not to get too creative. "As names become more unusual," he says, "the reactions to them become less desirable. The pleasantness of the individual as implied by the name drops - producing anxiety or stress."