What's in a name?

Southeast Missourian

Jacob Cooper Roberts already has a name though he won't be born until March. The same is true of Jaren Anthony Rowles, who's expected to arrive in April.

Jacob's parents, Dana and Nick Roberts of Cape Girardeau, chose one of the most popular names for boys born in 2003. But the couple plans to call him by his middle name, Cooper.

"We wanted something that when he was older sounded like he'd have a 'grown-up name,'" Dana said.

Her husband has always liked the name Jake, so Jacob was a natural choice for the first name, she said.

Natika Rowles and her husband, Jared, had a different set of standards to consider when choosing their child's name: family tradition. There are three generations of Rowles with the initals JAR, so Natika had some limitations in what she could choose.

The name has been under consideration since the birth of her first son, Julian Alexander, now 4. "But we weren't brave enough to do it then," said the Cape Girardeau resident.

She wanted to name her son Jared after her husband, but he didn't want their son to be a junior. So the couple brainstormed and came up with Jaren.

The Robertses have been reviewing names and thinking about what they'd like their first-born son to be called since October. To help with their quest, they offered suggestions to family members and friends to see what sounded best. They bought baby name books by the dozens.

But it turned out that the book with 40,000 names wasn't nearly as helpful as one with just 150 names, Dana Roberts said.

"You go back to the ones you hear most often or what comes to the top," she said.

Cooper isn't an entirely unusual name, but there probably won't be 10 children with the same name in her son's kindergarten class either, she said.

Naming a child is a difficult decision for a parent. They haven't seen their child's face or delved into a personality, nor do they know if the name they've chosen will truly "fit."

Most new parents come to the hospital already knowing what their child's name will be, said Elizabeth Brooks, a certified obstetrics nurse at St. Francis Medical Center.

"We've had some come in before and they've had blankets and bags monogrammed, and you're so hopeful that the baby will be exactly as they wished, but there are some surprises," she said.

Some parents wait until the last minute to finally choose a name or ask a nurse how to spell a name, particularly when the child is being named for an inanimate object, said Emily Shanks, an OB nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

The names could range from Heaven, Precious or Diamond to Lord, Christian, Brooke, Ridge, or even liquors and brand names, like Dior.

Of course there also are parents who seek to name their child after a star. One mother at St. Francis chose her child's name -- Arysa Brynn -- after watching episodes of MTV's "The Real World."

Some parents check to see what their child's initials might spell before choosing that name. The initials of the first names Dana Roberts would have chosen would have spelled "HER." She didn't think that was an appropriate set of initials for a little boy.

The Social Security Administration tracks the most popular baby names each year online. You can search the site to discover the most popular this year or last and how those names have increased or waned in popularity over the decades.

Brooks said some names that seem more traditional showed up at the hospital this past year: Ronald, Cecil and Earl. Those babies were named for family members, she said.

Some names keep showing up year after year: Brittany, Hailey, Mary and Mary-Ann, Madeline, Claire, Jacob, Joshua, Matthew and Ethan.

How they spell the name is one way parents make their child stand out among the crowd. Nurses always have to ask parents about spelling before completing birth certificates, Brooks said.

"There's such an array of names and pronunciations."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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What's popular?

Here's a listing of the most popular first names for children born in recent years:

Statewide

2002, the last year information is available

Girls Boys

Madison Jacob

Emily Ethan

Hannah Andrew