What's in a christian name?

We had a large family lunch yesterday to celebrate la Ya-Ya's (grandma's) 64th birthday.  By large, it was no larger than usual since it seems to be normal here that the entire family meets for lunch weekly.  But this time there was cake and cava.  Lovely.

My brother-in-law and his wife are expecting their third baby in April and announced yesterday what the name will be.  Heavens above, they don't even know the sex yet.  After we came home Ivan chatted to a friend of his who is expecting in March, and they have also named theirs.  It seems once again I am in disgrace for not naming ours.  Other than managing to conceive at all, it seems I am failing this crucial test.

I’m not especially superstitious but perhaps a little fearful of counting my chickens before they hatch and of bringing bad luck to the birth of my child.  There's almost a need to avoid personifying the baby too much or creating an image of my child in my head before it's born.  I have no idea what he'll look like let alone what sort of temperment he'll display.   And a name is so important and so final.  So what's the rush?

What I find really quite unnerving is people who use their baby's name in public before birth.  We're using a nickname during pregnancy..."Popcorn"...which refers to my description of how it felt when I sensed those precious first movements all those months ago.  At 37 weeks, the movements may not feel like popping corn anymore, but the name has stuck.  Relax, I'm fairly sure that it will be discarded the moment he has a real name.

As for the real name, we'll keep that to ourselves until we feel it's a good fit (which we'll have to do pretty quickly given the time constraints for registering the birth).  It seems that I am not alone in this, although I may be the only woman in Spain to think this way.  To quote Seinfeld talking about people who refer to their baby using his or her name in the run up to when it's born, who cover the nursery with embroidered bed linen and pictures using the name, "Not that there is anything wrong with that…it’s just creepy to me."  My sentiments entirely.

There are also practical reasons why I don’t want to share the name until he's born.  During pregnancy, relatives and friends often feel free to criticise the chosen name or worse, become insulted if the child isn’t named after a certain loved one, or a certain tradition.  My experience of throwing just a few names onto the table is exactly that.  But it’s harder to be critical of the name if it’s announced with the arrival of a precious newborn. After all, it takes real nerve to confront brand new parents over a name.  Or perhaps not in Spain.