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Baby Room Themes: Fun Ideas Your Baby Will Love

Author: Alli Ross

Decorating a nursery for your new baby can be a fun and exciting experience. It will be the first place for your baby to dream, to experience, and to grow. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Location. Calm surroundings are critical to a newborn's development. Avoid room's that are close to a busy street, where there could be more noise. Will the baby's room be on the same floor as your bedroom ? This makes it more convenient to monitor your baby. However, you can always opt for an audio or video monitor.

Time to decorate! Choosing a particular theme and design for your baby room depends on how much you want to spend, how much space you have, and whether it's a boy or a girl. To be safe, you can always go for gender-neutral colors such as greens, purples, and reds.

Choosing a theme. Now it's time to let your imagination run wild. To get some ideas, visit a few baby stores and check out different styles. They may even have example rooms set up that you can check out. Take a look at the following nursery themes to get a few ideas rolling.

Animals. This motif could include kittens, puppies, farm scenes, or teddy bears. This is a common theme that can easily be found in stores. You could purchase everything from the sheet and comforter set to coordinating wall hangings and wall paper.

Cartoon / TV Characters. The options are numerous here. Winnie the Pooh, Spiderman, Aladdin, Curious George, Bugs Bunny, Snoopy, and Peter Pan are just a few examples.

Noah's Ark. This a popular theme with plenty of designs to choose from. You can accesorize with animal pictures, a nursery lamp, bedding, and even a rocking chair.

Dolphins or other underwater scenes. This theme will add a cool, refreshing feeling to your new baby room. The cool colors will also be comforting for you baby. For decorating, you could use sea-related wall hangings, sea shells, a border with waves, or even sea horses.

Crayons. Remember how much fun crayons use to be. Introduce your child to a new and creative world with this theme. You could use accents in the shape of hand prints or stencil of your choice. Place these on the walls, window frames, closet door, or even the lamp shade. Looking for the perfect paint. Crayola has come out with paints with their colors made specifically for the baby's room.

Whichever design you choose, use inexpensive stain-repellant area rugs that can be easily replaced when you want to update the design. You'll want a room that your child can grow into. The most important thing to keep in mind with choosing a baby room theme is make sure that it is safe and comfortable. From there, the possibilities are endless. Best of luck!

About the Author

GranMamma is the webmaster at the Baby Names Box - Where you can explore over 6,000 baby names and their meanings. Sub-categories include Disney ,J.R. Tolkien names, Fantasy and Folklore names, and many names from the literary classics. Be sure to say hi to GranMamma!

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Baby Names

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Baby Names for Twins

Author: Sarah Mitchell

Choosing a baby name for your new born can be quite a stressful decision. With thousands upon thousands of names at your disposal, you may begin to feel a little over whelmed. Well, for twins, you can double the trouble! This article is aimed at helping soon to be moms and dads of twins to choose those perfect baby names.

Using anagrams for naming twins
One way of choosing baby names for twins is to take one name that you like and rearrange the letters to make another name. A few examples of this are:

Reva & Vera
Ira & Ria
Mary & Myra

If you are a fan of traditional baby names, then your choices are slightly limited with this option. But, if you don't mind bending the rules a little, then you can play around with this idea forever.

Using synonyms for naming twins
Another idea for choosing baby names for twins is synonyms! A synonym is a word (or a baby name in our case) that has a similar or exact meaning of another word. So, you might want your twins to both have names that mean 'flower'. An example of this would be:

Eve & Zoe
Yasmin & Lala
Dahlia & Daisy
Camellia & Heather

All of these names refer to a flower in general or a particular flower, although they are all quite unique from one another. For example, Heather is an English name, whereas Camellia is a Latin name. If you would like to experiment with this idea some more, visit www.namestobe.com Simply type in a meaning or part of a meaning and a list of names that corespond to that meaning will appear.

Reversing names for twins
Choosing baby names for twins can sometimes be as easy as spelling a name you like, backwards! As you can imagine, this will only work for a small selection of names, but if you have the time to sit down with a pen, paper and some patients then you will eventually find some that you are fond of. An example of this would be:

Aiden & Nadia

Other tips for naming twins
Some other tips for naming twins are to use names beginning with the same letter, use names that rhyme, or even use names that have no connection between them what so ever. Sometimes parents get so wrapped up in trying to choose the perfect names for their twins that they forget the fact they have the option of choosing two names that have no connection at all. Regardless of what option you choose to name your twins, you should take the time to sit down and put some serious thought into your decision. Best of luck to you!

About the Author

For over 10,000 baby names and meanings visit http://www.namestobe.com This article was written by Sarah Mitchell. This article is free for peprint so long as the article is published in full (including this footer) and all hyperlinks are kept active.

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Baby Names - Choosing Trendy or Traditional

Author: Barbara Freedman-De Vito

Lists of baby names are always fun to look at, whether you're seeking a name for your soon-to-be-born baby boy or baby girl, wondering about the popularity of your own first name, or just curious about what baby names are currently hot.

What I find particularly interesting is tracking the popularity of baby names over the decades. In looking through U.S. government baby name lists from 1880 to the present, some amusing patterns emerge, particularly in regards to baby names for girls.

For example, in Victorian times Biblical names, such as Mary, Sarah and Ruth were very popular for baby girls. There were also many baby names that sounded very old-fashioned to me, as a kid growing up in the 1960s, including names like Martha, Alice, Bertha and Minnie.

From the 1920s to the 1950s certain baby names rose in popularity. For example, I went to school with many Susans, Debbies, Patricias, and Lindas. All of these baby names have since waned, to be replaced, by the 1980s, with fancier names such as Jennifer, Jessica and Nicole. When I was a children's librarian in the 1980s my preschool storyhours were populated with little girls named Lauren and Jenny, and little boys named Alex and Matthew.

More recently there's been a lot of renewed interest in more "old-fashioned" baby names like Hannah, Abigail and Ethan, plus many Biblical names such as Sarah, Rachel, Joshua, Jacob, and Samuel. There's also been a surge in nontraditional baby names including Madison, Ashley and Brianna for baby girls, and Brandon and Logan for baby boys.

It's interesting to consider the whys and wherefores of such developments. Sometimes, I suspect, the popularity of a specific actor or fictional character might result in many babies with a particular name. For example, were some of the Lauras born in the 1970s and 1980s given a name suggested by older brothers and sisters who were growing up watching "Little House on the Prairie ?" Were some attributable to the super popular Laura of "General Hospital" fame ?

Today Madison is a very highly ranked baby name for girls (ranking number 3 in 2003) but, when the film "Splash" came out in 1984, Tom Hanks' character told Daryl Hannah's character that Madison was not a bona fide first name.

While baby girls' names seem quite subject to the whims of fashion and the top ten lists can change radically over time, I've noticed that, in general, the top baby names for boys remain far more stable. Names like John, William and James are perennials, perhaps because baby boys are often named for their fathers, perpetuating the popularity of certain baby names from generation to generation. The "Junior" factor aside, baby boys are also less apt to be given fanciful names.

A comparison of the changing fortunes of my own first name, Barbara, with those of my husband's name, Robert, gives a good illustration of the difference in stability between baby girl names and baby boy names over time.

My name grew in popularity in the 1930s, '40s and '50s, peaking at the number 2 position in baby name popularity, which it tenaciously held from 1937 to 1944. When I attended grad school, of a class of approximately forty students, there were no less than three baby boomers named Barbara. Should I thank the actress Barbara Stanwyck for this ? Alas, my first name later suffered a slow, steady decline and placed at a pitiful number 628 position on the baby names popularity list for the U.S. in 2003.

Robert, on the other hand, has survived the vicissitudes of baby name popularity. It held a coveted spot on the top ten most popular baby names list every year from 1896 to the late 1980s, often peaking at number 1 between the 1920s and the 1950s. It has gradually slipped since the 1990s, but still managed to hold the respectable slot of number 35 in 2003.

When naming a baby there are, of course, many other points to consider besides how popular or unique a name is. Here are some helpful tips that you can use with your other children to get them involved in choosing a name for the new baby and to make the process fun:

1. Baby names need to go nicely with the sound of your last name. Also, pick a first name and a middle name that go together well. (So maybe not something like Erasmus Beelzebub Smith !)

2. When your family finds a name you all like, look at the initials to be sure that you don't give the new baby a name with initials that will make people laugh. (So maybe not Pamela Iris Green, which equals P.I.G. !)

3. You might not want a baby name that is so unusual that the other kids will make fun of your little brother or sister as he or she grows up. (So maybe not Rosebud or Molasses !)

4. You also might not want a baby name that is so trendy that it will sound funny by the time the baby is ten years old. (So maybe not Sunshine !)

5. You probably shouldn't pick a name that's really cute for an adorable little baby but will sound silly when the baby grows up. (So maybe not Dimples !)

6. Avoid baby names that might produce insulting nicknames when people shorten them. (So maybe not Smellonius, or Smelly for short !)

7. You and your family might not want a name that is so hard to spell or to pronounce that people will always get it wrong and your poor little brother or sister will have to go through life correcting people. (So maybe not something like Incandescence, or is it Incandessints ? )

8. You and your family might want to pick baby names in honor of favorite relatives or ancestors, or special names that show your family's ethnic roots. You might even find a special name from a book or movie that you love. (Like Harry ?)

9. You might want to look through books of baby names and pick one that has a special meaning that you like - maybe something that means "sweet" or "kind" or "brave." (So maybe not wimp !)

10. You might want to think about names that will go nicely with your name and your other brothers' and sisters' names, so that if mom or dad are calling you all for dinner or signing a birthday card to grandma it won't sound too crazy.
(So maybe not "Happy Birthday, Grandma ! Love, Joey, Cindy and Dweevo !")

There are hundreds of names waiting for you out there, so good luck on your search for the perfect name !

About the Author

Barbara Freedman-De Vito, professional storyteller, teacher and artist, has a website with baby clothes, children's clothing and gift items decorated with her colorful and amusing artwork for kids. Visit Baby Bird Productions Children's Clothing and Baby Clothes at http://www.childrensclothingbabyclothes.com

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Baby Name Trends: From Classic to Hip

Author: Alli Ross

Goodbye Bertha, Hello Kaitlyn! The top baby names of today break with tradition and follow-up on new trends. Because choosing the perfect name can be a daunting task, many informative web sites have been launched with parents in mind.

A name is central to a child's earliest sense of identity. It's often the first word he or she learns to read and write. Naming trends of today are defined by celebrities, literary classics, and even name brands. Look no further than your favorite book, car, or brand for baby name ideas. Names like "Armani", "Del Monte", "Infiniti", "Celica", "Chevy", and "Lexus" are increasing in popularity.

Unisex names are another trend that is gaining steam. Parents are using names such as Jordan, Madison, Devon, Bailey, Parker, and Logan on boys and girls. However, when naming a baby, parents must consider if it invites potential teasing. Boys are often targeted more heavily than girls.

Want to add a twist to your baby's name? Another naming trend includes spelling classical names untraditionally. There are usually at least five different ways to spell any name. This way, you can add variety to a classical favorite.

You could also use a name inspired by nature. Examples for boys include Ashton, Avery, Birch, Bradley, Grant, Holden, Landon, Logan, or Wesley. For girls you could use Beverly, Brooke, Erica, Hayley, Lauren, Lillian, or Olivia.

Want a crafty name? Bailey, Baker, Carter, Cooper, Foster, Mason, Porter, and Turner may be more your style. However, you can�t go wrong with the following chart-topping baby names, whether you prefer the 1900's or the 1990's.

Names of the 1900's:

Boys: John, William, James, Charles and Robert
Girls: Mary, Helen, Elizabeth, Marie, and Alice

Names of the 1990's:

Boys: Michael, Christopher, Joshua, Jacob, Andrew, David, and Tyler
Girls: Ahley, Emily, Sarah, Amanda, Taylor, Megan, Kayla, and Nicole

Best of luck. ; )

About the Author

GranMamma is the webmaster at the Baby Names Box - http://www.babynamebox.com - Where you can explore over 6,000 baby names and their meanings. Read articles on parenting, family, home and gardening. Be sure to say hi to GranMamma!

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