What's in a name?

Who would have thought that choosing names was so difficult? From baby names to business names, there are so many choices and combinations, there is no limit to the number of appellations one can create.

When I found out I was having twins, for some insane reason I thought that would make the naming process easier. I thought, "Perfect! I don't have to narrow it down to only one name - I get to have two!" Learning that I was going to have boys would make it even easier, I thought. I only had to look in half of the "1000001 best baby names" book now. Of course, that meant Charlotte and Isabel were no longer options....

You want to make sure your child's name is a name that fits an infant as well as a toddler. And a teenager. And a young man. And a wrinkly old man. So you start thinking. And rhyming. You suddlenly realize that half the names you like ryhme with either a body part or a bodily function, and you just know some linguistically precocious playmate will realize this in preschool, and before you know it, your little darling enters kindergarten known as "Pooper Cooper" or "Marty Farty".

And the spelling of the name. Luckily, it seems that boy names have, for the most part, escaped the grasp of "creative spelling." Bill is Bill. I know, I know.... there is Bryan or Brian, John or Jon, Zack or Zach, Steven or Stephen. The list goes on. But at least there is usually only one variation. Perhaps I am sensitive to this because I taught in a high school for almost a decade. I could have five girls named Lindsay in class, and they all had a different spelling of their names. Lindsy, Lyndse, Lindsey, Lynnse... LinZ?