Choosing the name of a son or daughter is one of the most difficult tasks of couples for obvious reasons. On the one hand, because when looking at names you realize how many people you dislike, and you both end up saying a mythical phrase already between the parents: "No, that no, that I know one who is called that and ..."; on the other hand, because it is difficult to agree with the couple, since you are two to choose a single name; and finally, because the name you put will accompany you all your life, and although it seems that no, that is a great responsibility.
A recent survey has found that a fifth of parents regret in some way the name they gave their children, and notes that if they could choose again they would be given another name. In addition, some children with very exclusive names even tell their parents: 'Call me David mom, I want a normal name'.
When you avoid calling him in public
Of this survey they have spoken today in DailyMail, where they have explained the history of Linsey Briston, a mother who avoids calling her son in public so that others do not know what his name is.
His 7 year old son is called Jediah, in honor of the Star Wars Jedi. Apparently, when he was born they had not yet decided the baby's name. It was an unwanted pregnancy with the boy he was with at the time and he insisted on giving it that name. She was not very clear (in fact it seemed ridiculous) because he liked more finley, but the father went to register his son with that name and made cards to announce his birth with the name of Jediah, and then he could do little.
Linsey's parents, moreover, were delighted with the name because, as Christians, they remembered that a Jedidiah appears in the Bible, which means "beloved of Jehovah." And she finally gave up.
Six months later she and her partner separated. Now he is with another man, and together they have decided to call him Jed, in a situation where neither she is comfortable, nor the boy, who one day came home after spending time with a friend and told him that I wanted Steven to call him, who wanted a normal name.
How the name affects people's lives
Although we are all clear that a person's name should not be meaningful at all, and that he should be respected above all, in practice it is not so. It is known, for example, that in England a girl named Eleanor will be 100 times more likely to be accepted at the University of Oxford Than a call Shannon or Jade. Similarly, the surnames Peters, Simons or Annas also favor children.
In U.S.A. it was decided to do a study also about it and they were created several completely equal fake resumes, with the only difference of the person's name. Some had names that looked like white people, like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker, while the other half had African-American names, like Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones.
They saw that those who appeared to be white people received 50% more calls than those who seemed to be black people. The strongest thing is that only resumes were sent to companies that had equal opportunities as their flag.
Another study conducted in the Illinois Northwestern University, analyzed the scores of 55,000 children of a school in the district of Florida. When analyzing the notes that teachers put on their students, they saw that children with names that looked like white children had better grades than those who looked like they were from another ethnic group. The explanation given is that the grades often responded to teachers' expectations, which they ended up being unconsciously subjective when scoring.
A third study in Britain, analyzing more than 6,000 names, led the author to conclude that calling himself Elizabeth or James is associated with success; that Lucy and Jack are associated with greater fortune, while Helen and John would be the names of people with worse luck; that Ann and George are names associated with unattractive people and that Sophie and Bryan with the most seductive. In this way, according to the association that is made with the name of a person, more likely to succeed in life.
A boy named Chaitanya
Lisa Reid, 40 years old and of Hindu origin, decided at birth her baby who would call him Chaitanya, a Sanskrit word that means "cosmic intelligence." Over the years they started calling him Chay because almost nobody understood the name, and his grandfather always called him Harry, who was his middle name.
The worst came when at school they saw him being called in every possible way, except for his real name. Even in an awards ceremony, the director said his name so badly that the boy didn't even know he was named. When he got home he asked his parents why did he have such a strange name, why they had done something like that.
Can you change a child's name?
Yes you can. But it's not easy, probably to prevent it from becoming a habit or fashion, and because it must be clearly demonstrated that the change is positive (and not negative) for the boy or girl. That is why it is easier the older the child is, and the simpler when he passes of the age of majority, because then he is the one who requests it.
The reasons why a name change is usually accepted is when it is difficult to pronounce it (what they usually do then is to modify the name to adapt it to the language variant of the country), or if the name causes teasing, contempt or difficulty making friends with other children
In the cases that we comment on, when it is the parents who repent, or the children who are not comfortable, the process is much more complex, since it must be certified that the child has been called for at least two years by the name it would replace the original (with the inscriptions to the school, library, extracurriculars, etc.).
So if you were already doubting what name to put your baby, surely this adds more pressure. Sorry but the choice seems more important than we thought.
Photos | iStock
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