As soon as we hear this great news .. the first thought that comes to mind is:
Is it going to be a boy .... or a girl?

Some of us can´t bear the suspense and find out through the modern techniques. For those of us who have will-power and can bear to live in suspense, wait till the last day.
Of course then it becomes everyone´s guessing game " Is she carrying a girl or a boy?"
"She´ll have a girl" , why? "Because she´s looking so pretty."
"She´ll have a boy", why? "Because she´s carrying the baby high (or low)
and the list goes on and on ............

Nowadays the biggest dilemma with new parents is :
Choosing the baby´s name.

Back home in India it is a different situation. Parents have a number of years to decide on a name. They can change the baby´s name hundred times, if they like... or not give him/her a proper name but call them ´Billoo´, ´Babli´, ´Chhotu´.... till he or she is ready to go to school. The school records the formal name of the child for the first time.

In America the situation is a little different. The baby´s name has to be chosen and registered within ten days of baby´s birth. If you have already chosen it, all the better. You can register the name right there in the hospital before you are even discharged to save the hassle of going to the County offices.

The real fun begins when we start thinking up baby names. If you don´t know whether its a girl or a boy, then you have to think of at least one name for each. You can start by asking your relatives and your friends to prepare a list of baby names.

In the olden days Godly names like - Bhagwan Das, Ishwar Lal, Krishan Lal, Govind Ram, Kanhaiya Lal, Sarawati Devi, Savitri Devi, Parvati etc were extremely popular. Then came the time when names like - Tinku, Pinky, Rinky, Dolly, Rita, Bobby, Rocky, Sunny, Monu, Sonu, Tonu .... became fashionable. Then came the "Mahabharta" revolution and parents went back to keeping meaningful names like Arjun, Karan, Kunal, Vijay ... etc. In India the child is named with whatever names are in vogue.

In this country however, choosing a name is really not that simple. You have think of all the possible "side effects" with each name you are thinking of.

First things that comes to mind are:
Can the people living in this country pronounce it without our help?
Is the name too long for people to remember?
Does the name involve too much tongue twisting?
However it doesn´t stop there.

Unknowingly you may give your child a beautiful name like "Ishita" - very easy to pronounce, but there is one little problem, it has a four letter word in the middle of it. She may be teased in school by peers because of this. Names such as "Bhushit", "Rakshit", "Parikshit", "Dishit", "Sheetal", "Ashit", "Anush", "Manush", .............. have similar four letter words.

Children may be teased not only because of the way their names are spelled, but also because of the way they sound.

For instance a person named Gopi - may be teased and called "Go-Pee",
Shanmugan may be known by "Son-Of-A-Gun",
People may tease Rashmi by calling her "Don´t-Push-Me, Don´t-Rush-Me"

Also if there is too much tongue-twisting involved - "Hormazdyaar", "Purvagna", "Harshish", "Hitendra" .....

or if it is too long - "Kashonath Srinivas Krishnamoorthy", "Kasturi Rangan Subramaniam"......

or too difficult to pronounce- "Yashovarman", "Kartikeya", "Ranganatha"...... It makes people not only difficult to remember the name but also avoid speaking it.

The possibilities are endless.

You should always have a final list of names ready. Write down the name and see if they can pronounce it without your help and vice versa, that is you pronounce it and see if they can write it down. After all you sure don´t want someone calling you up for an important matter to say "Hi, can I speak to, to... how do you pronounce this......"A-j-a-t-a-s-h-a-t-r-u" !!!

We have compiled a list of baby names to make your task a little easier: