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Grace, Gregory ... Google?

A Mom Reflects on Choosing a Baby's Name in the Computer Age

By Jennifer Reynolds

Wishing to be different, some parents deliberately choose something way off the grid. One child in our local elementary school was named Jeronimo. And that is the other warning in this cautionary tale. It's great to go for unusual, but you don't want your child to have a mockable name. There's a good reason Ishmael, Ichabod, Wilbur and Orville are associated with only one person each in American history or fiction.

Miller confirms this point. "Some children have such weird names that we teachers feel sorry for them," she says. "It's a negative to pick something too unusual."

Parents should think hard about picking a common name and spelling it differently. An Ava who is spelled "Eva" will spend her life correcting either pronunciation or spelling, at least in English speaking nations. My toddler was once invited to the birthday party of a child named Ceira. It was one of those "invite the whole class" invitations, and it came early in September, before I had met everyone. Imagine my embarrassment when I showed up at the party and asked "Is Keira excited?" The stony response: "It's pronounced Sierra."

A few years ago, my eldest child, Ian, came home from school and announced that he had met a girl with a really unusual name. Her name was Mary, and Ian wasn't kidding.

Last year, my middle child came home from school and said that an art teacher had stopped him in the hallway to ask "Hugh, do you like your name?" Hugh admitted that he wanted to be called Will when he was much younger, but now he enjoys having Bono or Sting-like status. He's the only Hugh in the school, and no last name is required for differentiation. Satisfied with the answer, the art teacher named her newborn son "Hugo," and he's still the only one in the playgroup.

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