The new royal baby is named Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. What makes your name so special? Let’s find out why names matter and how they affect you!
Your name’s got a special magic for you –  music to your ears. Whispered by your mother, murmured by a lover, it can rouse you from the deepest sleep. Brain scans show tiny babies respond instantly to the sound of their name. Names identify you, have a rhythm and meaning reflecting your family and culture. Remembering a name – and saying it – is a genuine compliment. Forget someone’s name, mispronounce it or misspell it  – and you’re in big trouble!
A lovely part of being a midwife is the naming of the new baby. It usually happens in that quiet space, right after birth, before the phones start. A  to hear the name, declared by proud new parents. Couples spent months choosing a perfect name. How does it sound? Can you shout it? Does it go with the surnames, do the initials spell anything rude? How is it written, typed in an email address? You see a different side to your other half when you get into the naming game. The gloves are  – off because a name is for life, on a legal document. Tempers to flare. My advice? Ground rules of a 3-veto strike, sweet reason and definitely no sneaky registering of a birth name!
Why do so many parents mess it up?
I never got to the bottom of why my father was called Stanislaus … in de Valera’s uber-Irish Ireland! This exotic name proved too much for the Holy Faith nuns. By lunchtime, on his first day at school, he was renamed before the last peal of the prayer bell faded. Angelus, I kid you not! Character forming? That name gave the world it’s youngest atheist, handy of fist and quick of lip.
Naming was simpler in days of huge families. Names were recycled to honour elders in strict rotation. Nothing unusual and plenty of saint’s names. Boys got a ‘Mary’ added in for good measure and no-one batted an eyelid.
Some names are just too grown up for a tiny baby. Pet names do stick like glue and are hard to shake off. Lolly Davies became a  divorce lawyer with, as she puts it, balls of steel! “My three brothers couldn’t pronounce Laura when they were little,” she explained, “But maybe they did me a favour!”
I still wonder how young Mahogany Mercedes fared at school. Her mum and dad decided to honour her African German heritage. Maybe a pet name or nickname emerged to make it truly her name.
When the name fits your job
John Hyland describes how people seem drawn to their job by virtue of their name. He calls this ‘nominative determinism.’ How apt that Frances Crook – whose first name means Freedom – is a leading UK prisoner’s rights activist!
Old fashioned, classic, names are coming back into vogue. Harry, Frank and Jack are starting playgroup while Dara, Oisin and Ryan are leaving school. Aoife, Aisling and Niamh, now in their thirties, are cuddling baby Eva, Isabelle and Sarah.
Royal Baby Names
Charlotte, the feminine of Charles, (signifying strength) paternal grandfather of this infant who is 4th in line to the throne, and neatly encompasses her maternal grandmother’s name, Carole. Aunt Pippa Middleton has Charlotte as her middle name. The new princess’s great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, is honoured in her middle name. Diana, Princess of Wales, mother of William is remembered in the little princess’s Greek third name, Â which means ‘huntress.’
What’s your name? Why was it chosen for you and do you like it?
How did you choose your children’s names?
