Choosing a baby name proves to be a challenging task for many parents.And they're wise to work hard at it.A name can have a profound impact on a child that reverberates well into adulthood,a growing body of research suggests.
"There is a reason why baby name books are extremely popular," said David Figlio of Northwestern University in Illinois."We're always trying to think about the first bit of a child's identity and so if we as a society pay a lot of attention to names it makes a lot of sense that people's names might influence how they think about themselves and the way in which people might think about them."
Plenty of research suggests the name chosen impacts a baby's life well into adulthood.For instance,donning your newborn boy with a girly sounding name could mean behavioral problems later in life.And unique baby names that only your child will have can be a hardship too.
A British study of 3,000 parents released in May suggests one-in-five parents regret the name they chose for a child,many of whom were distressed over the unusual or oddly spelled names they'd chosen.And even those who didn't explicitly regret the name choice admitted there were names they knew now they wished they'd chosen then,according to the study conducted by Bounty.com.[List of history's most popular baby names.