It's not just about a name, but the initials

In finding a name for our baby, we have ideas of things we don't want to put our child through, like being picked on, mispronunciation of her name, and being mistaken for a boy. I guess the list could go on, but those are our biggest concerns. We have a list of names and have thought about initials for first, middle and last name...

I have a confession: I am a data geek or a data rock star (which is why you have seen visualizations like birth trends by month or What's in a name? on my blog). The other day my co-worker suggested that I name my kid so that the initials are CSV. I thought about it, intrigued, but we had not thought of any names that start with the letter C so I swept it under the rug. Until just the other night when we thought of a C name that stuck with us. Well fortunately, and unfortunately, it did not stick with us that long; the next day I went to my co-worker the good news about finding a C name that would fit the initials and that opened a can of worms. Next thing I know my co-worker is adding that now we can call her Dot for a nickname, you know .CSV. I did not like dot as a nickname, but it did not stop there. Another co-worker chimed in, or you could call her "flat files." At that moment, the C name was off the short list! I thanked him for adding his input as I probably would not have thought of that, and as he put it (with sarcasm,) what adolescent girl doesn't want to be called flat files?

There you have it, it's not just the name, but the initials.

My suggestion is to try out a name, hear how it sounds, what emotions does it bring, and can you live with saying it for years - if so, you've got yourself a baby name.