My wife and I are expecting our firstborn child in 2023, and we have not found any name yet that really inspires us. This market resolves to the 10% (rounded up) of proposed names that we like the best. Proposed answers that are not names will not be considered.
Close spelling variations that do not change pronunciation (in my opinion) will only be considered once, with preference given to the first-submitted option. (Consider an example where there are 25 options submitted, including Aiden, Aden, Aidan, Michael, Mikhail and 20 others. Aiden, Aden and Aidan count once, while Michael and Mikhail are pronounced differently so they count separately. That leaves 23 names considered, of which we will choose 3 names to resolve to (10%, 2.3, rounded up to 3).)
Some factors that might influence our decision:
-An ultrasound on week 20 identified the baby as a boy, and we are planning to choose a name that is either gender-neutral or typically given to boys.
-We are moderately contrarian--we are less likely to choose an extremely common name, but we do not plan on inventing a new name.
-Names shared by nerds/scientists/astronauts/etc are more likely to be chosen than names shared by sportsballers/politicians/actors/etc.
-Our heritage is American, Canadian, German and Scottish, and we are more likely to choose a name linked to one of those cultures.
-We are open to considering arguments in the comments challenging any of the above.
-I have promised to choose a name that my mother will be able to pronounce.
I will not vote in this market, aside from the mana already placed on the "Cornelius" answer. I commit to not selling that position, and I commit to not resolving to that answer. That mana is a subsidy provided to the market, since there does not seem to be a "subsidize" button for free response markets as there is for yes/no markets.
Close date updated to 2023-02-13 11:59 pm
1,000
3.00@NathanpmYoung Now that those are out, that seems like it might make sense, but the timing didn't quite work. Maybe for the next kid!
https://blog.rachelshu.com/2021/07/04/Rationalist-Baby-Names.html some fun name ideas here, if you're a certain type of nerd!
@DesTiny We're still narrowing it down. For now, I can rule out the current top 5 (August, Otto, Alastair, Evander and Jerome) and the bottom 5 (Val, Vincent, Woodruff, Boatie and Robert). We're letting others marinate.
@DesTiny It's a strong name, and we considered it, but ultimately we thought it would be weird naming him after a month that he wasn't born in. And February is too weird of a name.
@JimHays That's not really something we're considering. While we'll avoid spelling something with his full initials, I think that will come into play more with the choice of the middle name.
Otto Hahn https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1944/hahn/biographical/
Heinrich (Heini) Hertz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Hertz