How to compile your
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Why not turn your baby names list into a memorable keepsake that you can look back on (with your child!) in the years to come?
Remember your thoughts and feelings, as well as where you found the name, or how you found it, and even when the final decision was made!
Here's how to do it.
What can you use to record your baby names list?
Here are four options - you could use them all!
A notebook/album
Treat yourself to a really special notebook or album. It doesn't have to be very big - it all depends on how much work you think you're going to have to put in on this project!
You might, of course, already be keeping a pregnancy album - in which case, you might like to record your baby names list ideas in that.
Or you might be an avid scrapbooker and decide to do a baby name scrapbook - or you could use this opportunity to start your first ever scrapbook!
Online journal/blog
You might want to blog about your baby name experiences - Google's blogger.com is a simple blog system to use, and it's free. The only possible downside with using something like this, however, is that your blog is never quite yours - and if the web provider decides to remove its freebie service, you might have to wave bye-bye to your blog one day! Nonetheless, for all practical purposes, it's a nice way to share your thoughts with your family and friends - if you want to - and you can always print out your entries and store them in a notebook too!
Computer journal/diary
It's also easy to use software on your own computer to record your list of baby names. You could use Microsoft Word or another word processing or notepad editing program. Just don't forget to back up your precious files just in case your computer crashes!
Video
Once you are fairly close to choosing a name, why not film a short video of mom and bump - and have a chat about the names you are thinking of? What a memory... they almost called me that!
What to include in your baby names list journal:
- Write a list from memory, of names you might have already considered.
- Now list your partner's ideas. Tell each other why you like those names.
- Write a list of names you... hate.
- Get your partner to do the same. Now tell each other why you don't like those names.
- Pick your favorite baby names book. Devote a couple of pages of your album (or more, if you have several books you're using) to record names that strike you.
- Do the same for your fave parenting website, forum/message board. Are you chatting about choosing baby names with other moms online? Keep a few pages free in your notebook to jot down ideas for your baby names list that you get from them! (Don't forget to tell them about this site!)
- Write a list of all the first names of people in your family. In fact, you may even want to make a family-tree type chart and stick it into your journal (or list it online, too.) You can also quiz parents and grandparents about family member names - if you're sure none of them will try to persuade you to name your baby after them!
- Think of the names of other babies/children you know. Check out with other moms what's popular, what's not (or look at my popular names section.) Note down any possible names, or record a couple that you aren't going to choose - and why!
- Got clippings from mother and baby magazines, printouts of articles on choosing baby names? Stick them in your journal too.
- Compile a "favorites" section for your baby names list - the names you really think are contenders.
How to plan your journal:
Divide your journal into sections - they could follow the lines of the suggested contents above. For example:- names I like
- names my partner likes - what we both think about these
- names I don't like
- names my partner doesn't like - and why we don't like these names
- names from baby name books (you may have a few of these)
- names from baby name websites
- my own family names
- names of other children from schools, of friends, etc
- clippings from magazines or printouts of web articles
- my favorites section
If you work this way, you can date things as you go back and forth, working between sections. Or you may prefer to write a chronological journal, one day at a time when it suits you.
...And your ideas?
If you have any more ideas for a baby names list journal - I'd love you to contact me!
