Choose well, that name is for ever.

You have about nine months to find the right name for your child. It should sound good when you say it, shout it out in a ball game, coo it to a cute baby, or hear it announced in a graduation ceremony. As a bonus, try to choose a name that actually means something to you.

Embarking on the baby name hunt? We have some things you might want to consider. Consider well, as that name is one of your first major decisions as parents.

A name may sound great, but do consider what the initials will spell. You might want to ditch Samantha if your last name is Unger and your husband’s is Kennedy. That would make your baby SUK! Watch out too for initials that spell out YUK, SOS, PMS or the explosive TNT.

Try sounding out how it goes with the last name. Beware of alliterations as they tend to sound silly. Cases in point: Jenny Jenkins, Eve Evans and Sam Samuelson. As for rhyming names, you can leave those to fictional characters like Amelia Bedelia. Oh and don’t name your twins Molly and Polly or Fred and Ted. It’s not only too cutesy, you’re giving them leeway to say, “but I thought you were calling him,” with fingers pointing at each other.

Consider playground-proofing your child’s moniker. Avoid names that rhyme with something funny or just downright bad. Tucker is not a bad name, but we know what it rhymes with.

Think of naming your child after a beloved relative or a great person whom you admire. Let the name embody your ideals. You can even play around with your own name if you like it. A Patrick can have a daughter named Patricia. Throw in your mother’s name to make your child carry something from both sides of the family… So Patricia can be Patricia Anne. That’s a lovely name.

Some parents tend to stress about what to name their baby. Don’t. Your have a few months to browse around and it will come to you. Baby name books are worth a look as they often have names and the meanings attached to them. Do check out the Social Security Administration Web site where you can browse for baby names classified as the most popular and the least popular, arranged by year and state.

Now here are some celebrity baby names that you won’t find on the Social Security list. Good for a chuckle. Great cautionary tales for your own adventures in baby naming.

• Moon Unit Zappa (Frank Zappa)
• Jermajesty (Jermaine Jackson)
• Tu Morrow (Rob Morrow)
• Pilot Inspkektor (Jason Lee)
• Moxie Crimefighter (Penn Jilette)
• Audio Science (Shannyn Sossamon)
• Apple (Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow)
• Pirate (Korn lead singer Johnathan Davis)
• Rebel, Racer and Rogue (Robert Rodriguez)

Yes, these are all actual names of actual children. Do some of them sound too strange to be true? Well, this made the news a few years ago…. In New Zealand a child had to go to court to have her name changed. The time, money and effort were well worth it as her parents had named her – Talulah Does The Hula From Hawaii. Now did the poor girl’s parents really have to make her go through all that?

Happy baby-naming! And please, think well and be kind to your child.

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