You know how the Bible says ‘Men shall be lovers of themselves in the last days’? I came across an article on Yahoo News to prove just that…

I am a person who think names are important. They carry a meaning for that particular person and could have an effect on people. The article on Yahoo is about how parents today choose their children names. According to the article parents are choosing more unique names. Names for the INDIVIDUAL.  A researcher, Jean Twenge, seems to think that ‘when taken to far, this individualism could lead to narcissism’.

Okay, let me slow down. Parents today are naming their babies unusual names and I know that for a fact. I work with children  and some of the names are weird without any meaning behind them. A lot of young parents are choosing names no one ever heard of. Twenge is saying that while individualism is great it leads to the love of one self.

Twenge continues: ‘The biggest decrease in usage of common names came in the 1990’s’ I guess I am one of those babies  from the 1990’s born with a unusual name. But my parents gave me a name with a Biblical reference. I know children who do told me that their parents made up their name. Many couples told me that their first child has half of  the father’s first name and half of the mother’s first name. I always thought that was cute and creative but strange. ( While in college, I met a student whose parents made up the family’s LAST name by taking part of the mother’s and father’s last name and creating a new one for their children. That is very strange. ) Sometimes I wonder why parents want to make up a name without also defining the name. It’s like making up a word and not giving it a definition. Then in the long run, the parents and the child would not know what their name mean. And what’s worse than having to say, oh, my name is made up without a meaning to people who ask what it means.

I know of a few celebrities who named their children after places. That, I don’t mind. After all, I am named after an ancient Greek City- Lystra- well almost. Mine has a twist. But still, I know the origin of my name and it still carries the same definition. I also know parents who name their children after Biblical cities like Samaria and  Nazareth. Jordan is the most popular one.

In conclusion, I am going to miss the more common names. As a matter of fact, I already do. It is something American about the common names, the Biblical names. Something more  21ST Century American about the change in names. After all, we do have a president named Barack Obama. Now, who ever heard of that name?

II Timothy 3:2 “… For men shall be lovers of their own selves…”

read the article at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100224/sc_livescience/parentschoosingmoreunusualbabynamesnow