»  Ben's blog

Anyone in advertising or ID / product development knows that coming up with a great name for a brand, product or a service can be a challenging task. Well it just so happens that it’s only slightly easier when doing the same for a child. Granted you don’t have it get it “cleared by legal” but every name you can possibly think of must make it through the same repeated scrutiny as it would for a client. There’s even a number of books and websites dedicated to the art of selecting the proper name for your offspring. But do you really want to call the little ones the hot celebrity name of 2011?! Lets face it, for every name you can come up there’s a hundred different reasons why it’s not the best choice. Sure everyone is willing to give you their opinion on what they think fits but there’s always a case of one of your pregnant friends already claiming the name or perhaps you know some dirtball with the same name and you rather not be reminded of him while speaking to your child on a daily basis. The list goes on and on. Then of course there are the family names. I think most people like to pay homage to family and it’s nice to let your love ones know that you care about them by including some form of their name in your child’s signature. So I was super interested to see what titles came up when my mother-in-law sent us a list of her family names dating back to the 1600′s. And while there are definitely some good ones… there are probably a few that are better left in the 1600′s. Here’s a few that didn’t make the list.

Thankful
Ebenezer
Asenath
Zephaniam
Lucretia
Ransom
Ephram
Patience

Note: Ben and his wife Kara are expecting twins this spring. The photo above is Ben's great grandfather Jacob Weaver, shown during what is believed to be a fraternity initiation at Penn State in 1915.