Babies are tiny, adorable and sweet, whether they are asleep or awake and smiling happily. Before you know it, you’re calling them “squeaky mouse”, “baby bear” or “sweet pea”. In other words: you use diminutives. For a baby, it’s fine. It is important to realize that babies grow up. If you are thinking of naming your little girl ‘Bunny’, for instance, she might have a difficult time with that name after she reaches puberty. For an older, professional woman ‘Bunny’ isn’t a very suitable name, either. Avoid all babyish names, because your children won’t be kids forever. That also goes for ‘Petey’ and ‘Bobbie’, but to a lesser extent. Once they are older, they can always choose to go by Peter and Robert... or Pete and Bob or Rob. The same applies to ‘Missy’; It’s a nice name while you’re daughter is small, but Grandma Missy is less of a success. Remember; a given name lasts
a lifetime!
Another example is Michael. That’s a name that offers flexibility. If a child’s official name is Michael you can call him Mikey when he’s young. When he gets older and would rather be referred to as Mike he can use that name without problems. Perhaps, also when it comes to official documents.
Our advice:
A child has to be happy and content with his or her name. Therefore, choose a name that
doesn’t sound too childish and don’t use a diminutive for an official name.
That way, your child can be just as proud of his name as you are, even when he’s older.
Why Benjamin?
“We already had five children when I became pregnant with Benjamin. We knew that it would be
a boy and were pretty sure that it would be our last child, too. We both thought Benjamin was a very
solid and appropriate name for a baby, a boy and eventually, a man. We were still very happy with him
and his name when I became pregnant again and had another son.”
