Recently I was talking to a friend who was considering whether to make a name change.
   

    Not her own name. Her one-year-old son's middle name. She wants to switch the name to honor her son's deceased grandfather. (In Jewish tradition, it's typical to honor departed relatives by naming children after them.)
   

    I listened to my friend closely, because deciding my son's middle name was an arduous task for my husband and me. We had many close relatives we wanted to honor and several great names to choose from. Is it too late, I've occasionally wondered, to make a change? Would it confuse my son, now 16 months? Would it insult the side of the family we named him after? And, more sheepishly, what about all the beautiful monogrammed gifts we received?

    Apparently my friend and I are not alone in facing baby-name remorse. A surprising number of parents have considered changing their children's names and some have even filed the paperwork and made the trek to civil court to do so. A piece on CNN.com cited a poll of 1,219 mothers conducted by BabyCenter.com, in which 10% considered changing their baby's name. Meanwhile, in the Washington Post, an essayist wrote about staring at her one month old daughter and realizing 'Oh man. We gave our kid the wrong name.' (She ended up changing the child's name to Summer from Presley.)

     Parents worry about giving their children too trendy or common a name one set of parents changed their daughter's name after they realized that 4 of the 13 kids in her daycare were named Sophie. Other parents simply fall in love with another name after the fact. Perhaps the name they loved during pregnancy just doesn't suit the child once his or her personality emerges. Or maybe the child has gotten unbearable flack for his or her name from relatives or friends.
   

    Psychologists say that by a year, most children already recognize the sound of their names, and that after age two, parents should seek the child's input and approval if they decide to make a change. 'It's best to change the name before then, because by 2 or 3 they have a sense of identity, and it could send mixed messages. The child might ask himself, 'Do you want to change me?'' Dr. Karla Umpierre, a Miami psychologist and family counselor, according to CNN.com.

 
    Parents these days invest loads of time and research into coming up with the perfect name not too common or trendy, but hopefully not too freakish that the kid will get a complex. 'Today, there's this perception that naming a child is almost like naming a product  there's this huge national drive now to not be like anyone else,' Laura Wattenberg, founder of the blog BabyNameWizard.com, according to CNN.com.
   

    The most common names, according to a Social Security Administration release last month, are Jacob, Michael and Ethan for boys, and Emma, Isabella and Emily for girls. But according to new research, most parents opt for less common names. In 2007, only 9% of boys had a name that ranked among the top 10 most popular names, compared to 1955 when 32% had a 'popular' name. The same trend held true for girls only 8% of girls had a top-10 name in 2007, compared to 22% in 1955.
   

    Baby names have been a popular topic here at the Juggle. Readers, have you ever had any naming remorse with your children or with your own name?
   

    最近，我同一位正考慮是否改名的朋友聊了一會(huì)。
   

    不是她自己的名字，而是她一歲兒子的中間名。她想換一下這個(gè)名字，以紀(jì)念孩子故去的爺爺。(按猶太人的傳統(tǒng)，通常都會(huì)讓孩子沿用離世的親人的名字，以表紀(jì)念之情。）
   

    我認(rèn)真傾聽了朋友的講話，因?yàn)闆Q定我兒子的中間名對(duì)我的丈夫和我來說也是一項(xiàng)繁重的任務(wù)。我們有很多想要紀(jì)念的親友，也有好幾個(gè)名字需要從中選擇。我時(shí)常會(huì)想，現(xiàn)在改名是否太晚？這會(huì)讓現(xiàn)在16個(gè)月的兒子感到迷惑嗎？是否會(huì)冒犯采用這個(gè)名字的那一部分家人呢？更令人為難的是，我們收到的那些嵌有名字的漂亮禮物怎么辦？

 

    顯然并非只有我的朋友和我對(duì)孩子的名字感到后悔。竟然有如此多的家長(zhǎng)考慮給孩子改名，有的甚至不惜向民事法庭提交文件以達(dá)到這一目的。

CNN.com 的一篇報(bào)導(dǎo)援引了 BabyCenter.com 對(duì)1,219位母親進(jìn)行的調(diào)查，其中有10%的受訪者考慮給孩子改名。與此同時(shí)，在《華盛頓郵報(bào)》，一位評(píng)論人寫道，她盯著一個(gè)月大的女兒，突然意識(shí)到，“噢，天哪。我們給孩子起錯(cuò)名字了?！?（她最終將孩子的名字從Presley改為了Summer。）
   

    父母擔(dān)心給自己孩子起的名字太過時(shí)髦或是普通，當(dāng)一對(duì)夫妻發(fā)現(xiàn)托兒所的13個(gè)孩子中就有四個(gè)名叫蘇菲(Sophie)后，他們就給女兒改了名字。還有的家長(zhǎng)只是在事后喜歡上了另一個(gè)名字。當(dāng)孩子的個(gè)性逐漸顯露出來的時(shí)候，她們?cè)趹言袝r(shí)喜歡上的名字或許不再適合了?；蛘吆⒆与y以忍受親友對(duì)其名字的演繹。

 
    心理學(xué)家說，到一歲時(shí)，大多數(shù)兒童都能聽出是否在叫他們的名字，在兩歲之后，如果父母決定給孩子改名，應(yīng)該尋求孩子的參與并征得同意。CNN.com 的報(bào)導(dǎo)稱，邁阿密心理學(xué)家、家庭輔導(dǎo)員安培瑞(Karla Umpierre)說，最后在此之前給孩子改名，因?yàn)榈搅藘?、三歲時(shí)，他們就會(huì)有認(rèn)同感，而改名會(huì)發(fā)出混亂的訊息。孩子可能會(huì)問自己，你想改變我嗎？

    如今，父母?jìng)兌紝⒋罅康臅r(shí)間和精力用到鉆研好名字上面，不要太普通，也不要太新潮，但也不要太怪異，免得對(duì)孩子的心理產(chǎn)生不好的影響。據(jù) CNN.com 稱，博客網(wǎng)站 BabyNameWizard.com 的創(chuàng)始人沃騰伯格(Laura Wattenberg)說，現(xiàn)在，有一種感覺是給孩子起名就像是給產(chǎn)品命名一樣，目前全國(guó)都有一種不想同他人一樣的巨大動(dòng)力。
   

    據(jù)美國(guó)社會(huì)保障總署(Social Security Administration)上月發(fā)布的數(shù)據(jù)稱，男孩中最常用的名字是雅各布(Jacob)、邁克爾(Michael)和伊桑(Ethan)，女孩中最常用的名字是艾瑪(Emma)、伊莎貝拉(Isabella)和艾美麗(Emily)。但根據(jù)最新研究，大多數(shù)父母都傾向于不太常見的名字。在2007年，只有9%的男孩的名字位列十大最常用的名字之中，而1955年時(shí)這個(gè)比例是32%。女孩名字也是同樣的趨勢(shì)，2007年時(shí)只有8%的女孩的名字位列十大最常用的名字之中，而1955年時(shí)這個(gè)比例是22%。
   

    孩子的名字一直是《工作?家》欄目的一個(gè)熱門話題。讀者朋友們，你對(duì)孩子的名字或是自己的名字是否有后悔的時(shí)候？