Now that we know we're having a boy, we have upped the name search. Sadly, we had more or less decided on a great girls' name when we found out our baby is a boy! Oops. So much for planning ahead.
I know that choosing a name is hard, but from my experience it's mostly about choosing a name with a meaning the parents like and that fits nicely with the last name. However, in Japan, the difficulties are raised to a whole new level.
Yes, there's a certain amount of thought put into the meaning and sound of a name. There's a whole other dimension because of the Chinese (kanji) characters. With characters, there's a certain number of strokes. In order to determine the fortune associated with a name the number of strokes are combined from the first and last name to determine if it's a good, lucky, number or not. There's also consideration for the actual characters themselves. Are they "good" or are they "boring" characters!?!
In the past, all of these determinations were made by using books. Thank goodness for the internet!! There are a lot of sites that will actually do all these calculations and say what the name means as far as fortune is concerned. These sites are all in Japanese, so Shimon is in charge of figuring out that part. I get a say in the "sounds good" department.
I have a good list of middles names built up, but until we choose a first name we can't really choose a middle name. My job is more or less on hold until we find the magic first name. Every time I think we're stumbling closer to a name, we stumble backwards a few paces. It's kind of frustrating, but we still have about 3 months to go before we HAVE to have a name. I'd like to have it sorted out before going to the hospital though.
Wish us luck!
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