Bonus 23: Naming people (and especially babies) (Patreon)

Here's a riddle: 

Everyone has one, but I use yours more than I use my own. 

What is it?

A name! 

Naming a brand-new tiny human is a big linguistic task. They might carry that name for the rest of their life -- or at least for a number of formative years, if they decide to change it when they're older. But a baby can't tell you anything about what kind of name they'd like. So how do you pick a name for someone? 

In this 23rd bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about the linguistics of naming people. There are lots of factors to consider: does a name sound old-fashioned or super-trendy? How does the name fit in with the rest of the family and with the cultural context? How might a name get misspoken, misspelled, misheard, or mis-nicknamed? Plus, we share how our parents decided on our names, and other name decision strategies to consider as Lauren prepares to name her upcoming tiny human. 

How did you get your name? Have you gotten to name anyone else (like a child or a pet) and if so, how did you decide on their name?

Links:

• Lauren's having a baby: her top 5 nerdy pregnancy announcements 
• All of Lauren's other names when she worked in a call centre 
• Britain's first baby to be registered with a sign name 
• Common names which aren't that common now (Baby Name Wizard)
• Tiger Webb and given names 
• Sibling sets: Lauren vs Olivia (Baby Name Wizard)
• Bespoke baby namer is a real job, apparently 

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript is available for this episode as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page.

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All ThingsLinguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producers are A.E. Prevost and Sarah Dopierala, our editorial producer is Emily Gref and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.