Mom-To-Be Wins $5,000 In Exchange For Letting The Internet Name Her Baby

According to The Huffington Post Parents,  a 26 year old pregnant teacher has won a contest sponsored by Baby Belly that allows the internet to name her baby in exchange for five thousand dollars. The woman, Natasha Hill, was chosen out of eighty applicants as the winner of the contest. The names on the ballots have not been released yet, but Hill has expressed her faith in the public in giving her child a unique but “nice” name. The names are based on current trending names, although some of the website’s sponsors will also get a say in the naming process. Many people have been weighing in on the decision of Hill to allow a combination of strangers and advertisers to name her baby. While some may see the benefits of starting a college fund for the child before it’s arrival, others are arguing that leaving the name up to strangers is irresponsible.

For most a baby’s name is a very personal thing. This can be due to beliefs and values, or just wanting a child to stand out. Hill argues that a baby’s name does not necessarily have anything to do with how they will turn out in life, but there could be some studies that find against that. When Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner wrote Freakonomics, they caused quite a stir with their analysis of baby names. Now they take things a little farther on their blog, passing on the results from a study that shows that there could be some advantages to having a name that is easy to pronounce. This could seem like common sense, especially if you have an unusual name, but there are other reasons why maybe letting the public name your child could be a bad idea.

Since baby naming is such a personal thing, parents often choose names that are an extension of their own personalities. Modernmom.com suggests that different personalities tend to choose different names. The article suggests that more sensible types tend to choose classic names, while those with more of a free spirit tend to choose names that are unconventional. It seems that having the public name your child for you would break that connection, which could lead the child to question their own identity in the future. A name seems to not only give identity to a child, but also serve as a connection to the parents and extended family. If the child is named by strangers and advertisers it would seem that they would miss out on that bond.

Another thing to consider when naming a child is that child’s gender. At the time of winning the contest, Ms. Hill was only three months along. By most standards a gender can not be established with complete accuracy by this point on an ultrasound. Parents.com points out that a gender can be seen in an ultrasound between 18-20 weeks. Since Hill has won the contest already and names are being decided on we can hope that there are options for both boy and girl names or gender neutral names that would work for either boy or girl. But, there are still a couple of things about having strangers name your baby that might not have been accounted for.

One of the things that children go through while growing up is the overall experience of getting teased. With no say in her child’s name, it seems that Ms. Hill is giving up the option to try and protect her child from ridicule. While it could be argued that a child will get teased by classmates no matter what, it seems like it would be a whole lot easier for a child to get teased if they had a very strange name. (Some of us already know this.) Aside from that, there is the thought that the mother and the child might hate the name that the public places upon them. A nickname could help with that, but at the end of the day the child’s given name will still be the child’s name.

Starting a college fund for a child before it’s even born is a very noble thing to do. Still, it seems as if the child is sacrificing as well as the parents in order to make this goal a reality. With the parents having no say in what the child will be named it seems as if part of the connection between parent and child will be lost. Also, the uncertainty of what the name will be is daunting. For right now let’s believe that the public will hold itself to a higher moral standard and name the child something it can be proud of later in life.