Some of the baby naming approaches frequently used include the fallowing:
1. Mesh two names together to form a new one.
2. Pick a name you've always loved.
3. Find a name that bodes well for a promising career.
4. Go with the name that connotes a trait honesty, friendliness, savoir faire.
5. Use the mother's maiden name for the first name.
6. Honor the beloved relative by using their name.
7. Stick with something safe and honored.
8. Pick the most popular name for your hero.

Thing to remember while you are dabbing in the name games:
1. Avoid a name that's carrying baggage equivalent to Amtrak, as in Cher , Michael, Jackson, Richard Simmons, Billy Joel, or Sting.
2. Don't let the family member talk you into a "junior" unless you dont mind your your child being called "little John" or "Junior". Listen to all the suggestions of your relatives, and make your final call.
3. Don't be too bothered by existing connotations that you associate with a name ("I knew a Margaret in school, and she was the best person in our class," " I sat next to Stone in college, and she had a million moles"). The reason why you should'nt let old associations trip you up is that once you name your child Tasha or Truman, there isn't another person in the world with that name who matters.

Tips for Successful Baby Names:

1. Consider the sound, does it work with your last name?
When the full name is said aloud, you want something that has a nice sound, not a tonque twister or a rhyme. You may find that a long last name jibes best with a short first name or vice versa.
The union of a first name ending in a vowel paired with a last name that starts with a vowel is not the great choice. For example: Ava Amazon. It's just hard to express. Puns are not good omens for a happy life, either. Look at the infamous Ima Hogg name of a Houston philanthropist. If the poor woman was not burdened enough, she also had to deal with life long rumors of a sister named Ura.

2. Know exactly what happens when you give your baby a crowd-pleaser name.
Give your kid a common name, and she'll probably end up Sarah B. in a classroom with six Sarah's. She may be comfortable with the anonymity that a plain-Jane name lends her, considering it far better than being the class Brunhilda, who gets ridiculed daily. Or, she may ask you every other day of her childhood why you weren't more original in naming her: "Why did you give me the same name fifty million other kids have? Why couldn't you have come up with something better? Why didn't you take more time?"

3. Think seriously about the repercussions of choosing a name that's over-the-top in uniqueness.
You are definitely sticking your neck out by giving your child the name Rusty if your last name is Nail. Sure, he may muster up enough swaggers to pull it off, but what if he doesn't? Lots of people with unusual or hard to spell last names will purposely opt for a simple first name for their child, just to ease the load of having two names to spell over and over. Some research suggests that kids with odd names get more taunting from peers and are less well socialized. You can be sure that junior high kids will make fun of a boy named Stone, but later, as an adult, he may enjoy having an unusual name. Jun make sure you don't choose a fun name simple because you the idea if having people praise your creativity, instead ask yourself how your child will feel about being a Bark or a Lake.

4. Ponder the wisdom of carrying on that family name.
Aunt Priscilla did fine with her name, but how will your tiny tot fell in a classroom full of Ambers and Britney's? Extremely old-fashioned names sometimes make their way back into circulation and do just fine, but sometimes they don't. (Will we really over see the name Durwood soar again?)

5. Consider the confusion that is spawned by a namesake.
A kid named after a parent won't like being Junior or Little Al. Ask anyone who has been in that position about the amount of confusion it generates in regard to credit cards and other personal ID information. You'll spend half your life unraveling the mix-ups. Psychiatrists (many of them juniors themselves) will tell you that giving a child his very own name is a much better jumpstart than making him a spin-off or a mini me.

6. Make your family/background name an understudy (the middle name).
Let's say you want your baby's name to reflect his heritage or religion, but you strongly prefer more mainstream names. You can fill both bills by using the ancestry name as a middle name.

7. Ponder whether the name's meaning matters to you.
For some people knowing a name's meaning is extremely important, often much more so than its Greek or German origin. And you child could turn out to be the type who loves investigation such things. So what happens when that offspring of yours finds out that her name Delilah means whimpering harlot guttersnipe? She may wish you had taken a longer look at the name's baggage.

8. Look at shortened versions of a name and check out initials.
Don't think your child's schoolmates will fail to notice that his initials spell out SCUM and you can be sure that Harrison will become Harry or occasionally Hairy. View the teasing as being as much a given as school backpacks, and think twice about whether you want to give your child's peer group something they can really grab onto. Tread lightly. Naming always starts with good intentions, but you can do your kid a favor by considering each name candidate's bullying potential.

9. After you've narrowed your lists, try out each name and see how it feels.
Say, Barnabus Higgins get yourself over here! Or Harrison Higgins, have you done your homework? Or Hannibal Higgins, would you like some fava beans?

10. Once you and your mate have decided on a name, don't broadcast it.
You may want to keep your name choice secret otherwise relatives and friends are likely to share all of their issues with the name and a long string of other, better options. Another possibility is that people will start calling the unborn baby that name which will be unfortunate if you happened to find one you like better.

Bottom line: take the Name Game seriously, but don't be afraid to go with the one that just feels right. That precious infant who will change your life dramatically is sure to be the best thing that has ever happened to you - give him or her name that your love singing and saying every single day, a million times over.