Advice on choosing a name for your baby, or your pet, or your car...
Throughout the ages, one of the most important aspects of having a child was to choose his or her names, after all these are going to be with them from cradle to grave (unless of course they change it by deed poll).
There are many methods people have implemented to reach that perfect name for their baby boy or girl. Quite often people have opted for names of parents, grand-parents, uncles or aunts as either first or middle names in their honour. Parents have also named children after their heroes - whether footballer, popstar or filmstar - and even the place where their child was conceived as in the case of Posh & Becks who named their first son Brooklyn. So when that all important question pops into your head; "What to call my baby?" we hope to give you a few ideas on how you can choose.
When choosing a name for your baby there are certain considerations to be taken into account, and an important factor to consider is the shortened versions, or nicknames which tend to happen when they start school.
For example baby girl names such as Margaret can be shortened to Maggie, Marge and Peggy and as for baby boys names, Robert can soon become Robbie, Rob and Bob. It is also worth bearing in mind that if you name your daughter, Antoinette, thinking later on it will be shortened to Toni, you may find that she prefers to be called Annie or Ann. Of course classic names such as Paul, Elaine and Jon tend to remain intact.
Using our baby name finder can be fun, but to help find that perfect name you can also opt for the Top Girls Names, Top Boys Names, choose from a list of all names, or even use our Random Baby Names Generator and see which ones you like best. Most people tend to shortlist their favourite names and eventually opt for the one they like the most.
Whichever method you use to choose your baby's name, remember to have fun doing it but also think of all of the above - after all their name is to last them a lifetime.