Choosing Baby Names

Before choosing a name for your baby, there are several things that you need to consider and by the way you can take your time. Don’t feel you have to name your baby right away especially if he or she arrives early. This is a matter that does deserve some careful thought.

The first thing you need to consider is the baby’s ancestry. Usually it is nice to give your baby a first or a middle name that refers somehow to a relative in your family tree or at the very least a name that relates to a respected figure in that culture. This goes back to an ancient belief that maintains that the guardian spirit of the person the baby is named after will always watch over the child.

Before you give your child a name, be sure to look up it’s meaning on a site like ThisName.com to make sure that it does not have unflattering connotations. For instance, the name Luxton, might sound very elegant and mean “elegance” in English, but if your child is Jewish, the name will translate to mean “limp noodle.”

Another example? The name Kali might sound cute and pretty for a little girl, but in India it is the name of a Goddess of Death. Before naming your baby you should also do the “call it out loud test.”

Realize that during the first decade and a half of the child’s life that you will be calling (and maybe even yelling) this name out frequently. This is where choosing a name with a good casual short form is a good idea. The best names are those that also grant the child a versatile shorter name. For instance the name Delilah could allow a child to be called Lilly, Lilah, Dee and Del.

Yet another thing is to consider if other children will make fun of your name. Remember Gaylord Focker in “Meet the Parents.” You want to avoid a scenario like that for your child. I once had a friend named Dorcas who was the daughter of an admiral. This had great significance for her father because the name meant “Sea Goddess.” However she was cursed by the nickname Dorcas her entire life. Is the name really difficult to spell?

You can save your child a lot of grief later in life if you avoid names that don’t sound like they are spelt or that can be spelt several different ways. A classic example is Sharmain or Sharmaine or Charmain or Charmaign or Charmaine.) These can get misspelled on government and insurance forms.

You should also not give your child a name that might be shared by too many other people in the world. For instance if your last name is Smith try for a more exotic name for your child than Susan, Tom, or John. This could also cause them problems with government forms and identity theft later in life as these names are really all too common. Now that you know the ground rules when it comes to naming your child, you are ready to choose a name. The rest of the course is really just a matter of your good taste!

More Mocktails for Moms to Be!

Here are some more nutritious, non-alcoholic cocktails that pregnant moms can enjoy.

Avocado Aperitif
Peel an avocado and cucumber, chop into chunks and place in a blender. Add the parsley and lemon and blend until smooth. Add crushed ice and pour into a martini glass. Add a dash of salt or pepper as needed. Garnish with cucumbers or lemon peel.

Blackberry Foam
Mix blackberries, raspberry lemonade and a cup of plan non-fat yoghurt in a blender. Pour into a glass over ice and enjoy. Garnish with additional blackberries and sprigs of mint if you desire.

Brown Pelican
Mix five ounces of apple cider with 2 ½ ounces of ginger beer and mix with ice. Pour into a tall tumbler and serve. If you like you can garnish this with apple or drop a piece of ginger into the bottom of the glass. This is another good mocktail for curing the nausea that can come with pregnancy.

Lemonade Foam
Cut up lemons and place in blenders. Add a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and 560 ml water and blend until smooth. Add 1 egg, mint sprigs and four ice cubes and blend until smooth. Serve in a tall glass over ice or add more ice and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with additional mint.

Pink Panther Cocktail
Mix a bit of milk, a spoon of raspberry jam and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a blender and give it a quick whiz. Pour over ice in a martini glass and enjoy. This cocktail looks nice garnished with a raspberry.

Pussy Foot
Combine two ounces of orange juice lemon juice lime juice and a dash of grenadine syrup with one egg yolk in a cocktail shaker. Shake well with ice and pour into a martini glass. Serve with citrus slices as a garnish.

Rail Splitter
This famous non-alcoholic drink is a simple blend of sugar syrup, lemon juice and ginger ale that is poured over ice in a tall highball glass.

Spikey Hedgehog
Mix 1 oz of grenadine syrup, 1 oz cranberry juice, a dash of lime juice and fill with ice and club soda. Garnish with a lime and serve.

The Star Virgin
Shake mandarin juice, grapefruit juice and lemonade together. Pour over ice in a tall tumbler and garnish with a wedge of Star Fruit.

Watermelon Sparkle
Mix six ounces of watermelon juice with six ounce of Sprite. Add a dash of confectioner’s sugar. Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and then pour into a martini glass. Garnish with watermelon.