rec.arts.theatre.musicals

On Sep 25, 8:10 pm, MaryLyon wrote:
> Greetings:
>
>
> Middle name will probably be Paul, after my dad. It is possible that
> Paul will be the first name, but the child will be called by the
> middle name, whatever that is. That is the tradition in my husband's
> family. It depends on how everything sounds together.

FWIW, I think calling a child by his middle name is a bit troublesome.
For example, at the start of every single school year he'll have to
explain in every class that he goes by his middle name, not his first
name.

Also, my dad's name is Charles, and while he might have been called
"Chuck" on rare occasions as a kid, he's "Charlie" to everyone except
his parents (who call him Charles). So if you can live with either
Charlie or Charles, don't worry about Chuck. Chuck isn't the most
obvious nickname for Charles, so if you just hate the word "Chuck," I
wouldn't be bothered by that. On the other hand, if you just want to
make sure that the kid's given name will be what everyone calls him,
you might want to avoid Charles. I'm glad that my name doesn't lend
itself to nicknames--I was glad I wasn't named, for example,
Christopher, since then I'd be forced to be answering the "Chris or
Christopher?" question my whole life.

One of my thoughts on names is that the rarer/longer/more difficult to
spell the last name is, the more common/shorter/simpler the first name
should be. So I agree with wanting a two syllable name. And since your
surname isn't Smith or Jones, you don't need to make up a bizarre
first name to keep your child from sharing his name with thousands of
other people.

My suggestion would be to look through lists like this one:
/baby_names/
and start at 20-25 or so (anything more popular than that would be too
common) and find something you like.

And finally--congratulations!

Kevin