Choosing a name for your baby.

Apart from life itself, a name is perhaps the most precious thing you will give to your baby. Sociologists, baby experts and teachers agree that your child's name impacts on his or her personality, baby's ability to interact with his or her peers, and how he or she is seen by total strangers. Here are a few things you should take into account when choosing your baby's name.

Uniqueness: The current fashion is to give baby an unusual name or a traditional name with different spelling so that she stands out from the crowd. A friend has a daughter called Emily. At school there are 2 other Emilys in the class, so she is known as Emily T. It was a year before the little girl understood that her name was Emily and not Emily T! So it is easy to understand the temptation to go for a name that's different.

However, there can be problems too: the name will be misspelled and mispronounced. "My name is Elvira, but children and teachers would make it Elmira, Olivia, Alvera ...I soon learned to come to whatever sounded like my name", said Elvira Bates.