“Have you chosen a name?” is now the most popular question asked by friends and family.  Since we still have two months to go, G and I aren’t too worried that we haven’t come up with the perfect name.  Technically, we also have two weeks after birth to pick a name and turn in Jr’s registration papers.  So it may come to down to pulling an all-nighter before the deadline, furiously brainstorming over a pot of coffee (just like my college days).

Naming is an important task.  In the hierarchy of ways to emotional traumatize children, I’d rank choosing the wrong name close to the very top.  Other kids can be very creative in coming up with not-so-nice nicknames, so it’s no wonder that there are scores of websites and books available to help keep parents from inadvertently choosing names like Richard, Woody, or Fanny.  In fact the last chapter of Freakonomics discusses the socio-economic impact a name has, and the importance of timeliness.

As if choosing one name wasn’t enough, G and I really have to decide on two – an English and a Chinese name.  Hopefully, the Chinese name can be anglicized, but that just makes the task of picking an ideal name that much harder.  Fortunately, my parents have offered to help choose a strong Chinese name.  Given G and my limited mandarin vocabulary, we would’ve very likely settled on 蛋黃 as his Chinese name.

In the meantime, we’ve started referring to Junior by a different English name every day, just to feel how it sounds.  For instance, after calling him Angus (popular in the UK, and also terrific for steaks) a few times, we knew that this name wasn’t going to be “the one”.  Aiden/Jayden/Cayden/Dresden are out.  I like Aiden, but apparently so does every other parent in the world this year.  And so the search continues.

Back when we thought we were likely to have a girl, G had already started thinking of names.  One of which unfortunately stuck, Gwen.  G loved that it was a combination of her name and mine.  I can’t say that I’m terribly thrilled with it, and since we’re having a boy, it’s a moot point.  But, since G wanted a combination of our names, I proposed that we name our kid Wengr.  She was not amused and stated that no one out there has such a name.  Of course, that isn’t true:

Well… close enough.  While we’re not Swiss, nor a Web 2.0 website, at least my proposed name isn’t completely out there (like Moon Unit).  So for the time being, until G comes up with a better proposal, Wengr it is ;-).