European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 1, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 20 scene Star s and stripes july 2007 family the baby Mem parents pressure to be inoffensive spawning new Industry o c 0 i whats in a name sociologists and name researchers say they Are seeing unprecedented Levels of angst among parents trying to choose names for their As family names and old religious stand Bys continue to lose parents Are spending More time and Money on the Issue and Are increasingly turning to strangers for some parents Are checking social Security data to make sure their choices Arent too while others Are fussing Over every consonant like corporate branding there also pulling ideas from web Sites and software and in some hiring professional baby name consultants no use mathematical for Denise a California Mother of two who expecting a Daugh Ter this spent to have a numerologist test her favorite Leah to see if it had positive Assoc a it this one nervous Montobe from Illinois listed her 16 favorite names on a tournament bracket and asked family and people she met at baby showers to fill it the Winner Anna Sean and Dawn Mistretta from Char tossed around possibilities for five months before they hired a pair of consultants baby name Book authors who draw up lists of suggestions for during a 30minute con Ference Call with a and a securities the consultants discussed names based on their phonetic popu and ethnic and linguistic origins then sent a 15page list of pos Sibili when their daughter was born in the Mistretta settled of one of the consultants suggestions Ava but Only after taking one final Straw poll of doctors and nurses at the author Karen Markov who works for the planning department in Orange spent months Reading baby books and scouring web Sites before settling on Nicole Jose but four years Markovics says she wishes shed chosen something less trendy and has even considered legally changing her Daugh ters name to Josephine in having names she the chief reason for the paralysis is we live in a marketing oriented people who understand branding know that when you pick the right youre giving your child a head the Seattle times some Paren Stobe Are looking to web Sites and self proclaimed baby naming specialists for too much about 80 baby name books have been published in the past three according to a publishing database compared with just 50 such titles Between 1990 and More than 100 specially web Sites have popped up offering everything from sear Chable databases and online snap polls to private one says it draws about million unique visitors a a 50 percent increase in five years and people have used its customized naming which provides 12 names for just this the site began offering half hour phone consulting sessions for then there is the seismic influence of when Julie a High school teacher who lives near eau typed her favorite name for a Zoe into the search she was forced to go Back to the drawing the name was already taken by a British porn it was on the first Page that came she celebrities think Apple Shiloh Joli Pitt and Pilot inspector Ries Graf Lee Are helping to drive up the and the growing Brand consciousness among Consumers has made parents More aware of How names can shape the result a Childs name has become an Emblem of individual taste More than a reflection of family traditions or cultural we live in a marketing oriented says Bruce a former advertising executive and author of eight books on baby including baby people who under stand branding know that when you pick the right youre giving your child a head academics say theres been a Demon Strable shift in the Way people name in social Security administration data show that the 10 most popular baby names were Given to 41 percent of boys and 23 percent of but in just percent of boys and roughly 8 percent of girls were Given one of the years 10 most popu Lar names a combined decline of about 40 percent from the averages in the says Cleveland Kent an associate psychology professor at Bellevue University in and a past president of the american name so while a once Tiqui Tous name like Mary has fallen from 1 during most of the 1950s to 84 last Many new names Are taking Nevaeh heaven spelled backward ranked 43 among the most popular names in the in 2006 and another recent was Given to 224 names have become a matter of fashion and says Harvard Sociol Ogist Stanley not everyone is Happy about this Albert a professor emeritus of psychology at Urcla and author of the baby name report has conducted surveys of How people react to different he found that More common names elicited positive while unusual names typically brought negative to giving children names that stand out May ultimately be no different than sending them to school with their hair dyed you can have someone stand out by being but that Doest mean its going to be he for Scott and Katie Keppler of the decision to seek help stemmed from a fundamental disagree with their second child on the an wanted something traditional to match their first sons her a software preferred unique names like Jolt for a boy or Jilly for a he was harassing me with some really strange Katie to break the decided to spend for a service on that provides six options based on everything from a couples mothers Maiden names to their general taste preferences tradition ethnic and among when their son was born in they tapped their favorite name from the list Max the web site was a truly impartial third Scott it want a grand it want an