Few things inspire such fierce debate as what parents-to-be will call their child -- to the point that more moms- and dads-to-be are refusing to divulge their preferred monikers until after their baby is born, for fear that friends, family, coworkers and even strangers will offer unasked-for opinions on the name they've chosen.
So it's not much of a surprise to read, according to a couple of news reports last week, that more parents are paralyzed by the choice of names and experience serious regret about the name they did choose for their little one. There doesn't seem to be hard data behind this assertin - it's really the conclusion of one "baby-name expert," Laura Wattenberg, as reported on FoxNews.com and a few other outlets.
Wattenberg wrote about the topic of "name remorse" in a two-part post on her blog, "The Baby Name Wizard," entitling her post, "Why Your Baby Name Choice Is Making You Miserable." Wattenberg notes that one book of baby names offers no fewer than 140,000 different choices. That, she writes, is "already a guaranteed recipe for misery." And a risk heightened by American parents' desire to choose a name that will make their child stand out -- but not too much that they'll experience ridicule or no one will be able to correctly pronounce or spell their son or daughter's name.
Here's a list of the top-10 most popular boys' and girls' names for 2010, according to the Social Security Administration:
GIRLS' NAMES:
1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Emma
4. Olivia
5. Ava
6. Emily
7. Abigail
8. Madison
9. Chloe
10. Mia
BOYS' NAMES:
1. Jacob
2. Ethan
3. Michael
4. Jayden
5. William
6. Alexander
7. Noah
8. Daniel
9. Aiden
10. Anthony
Do you think about what you'll call your child or children?
