Is it human or is it dancer?

[j4]

Tomorrow we'll hopefully find out whether the baby is an alien or a predator a boy or a girl. So far I have been told that:

* it'll be a girl because everybody I know has had girls recently
* it'll be a boy because everybody I know has had girls recently
* it'll be a girl because you get more morning sickness with girls
* it'll be a boy because of the position of the bump
* it'll be a girl because of the position of the bump
* it'll be a boy because 'boy' scores more in Scrabble

So that's two answers from people who don't understand probability, three answers which sound to me more like superstition than something which is backed up by any actual research (though I'm happy to be proved wrong), and invisiblechoir being silly. :-)

Two of my colleagues have a bet with each other about which it will be. I don't stand to gain any money from this bet myself, unfortunately. On the other hand, since earlier today one of them couldn't remember which way he'd bet (he'd decided at the time by tossing a coin) I don't think he's taking it that seriously. The other one asked me if I'd tried putting a toad on the bump to predict the baby's sex (I'm not sure quite what one is meant to do with the toad, or wait for the toad to do...?), so I guess he's not wholly serious either. I hope.

I confess I'm keen to know the answer, not least because referring to it as "it" feels awkward. Yes, I may get flamed for Gender Fail, but I'm afraid we're just not progressive enough to try to bring the child up without any awareness of the existence of sex or gender, and let's face it, there's a staggeringly high chance that it will be biologically male or female. Also, I'm going to have at least one more scan after tomorrow's, and I don't want to have to "look away from the screen now" for fear of spoiling the result -- I want to see what's going on! Basically, in most cases I will generally choose the path of More Information.

We also want to start thinking more seriously about names, and it'd be useful to narrow down the choices a bit. Other tactics for narrowing-down include: avoiding names with ambiguous spellings; avoiding extremely long names; avoiding alliteration; and summarily rejecting every single name that appears on this site. So that's a big 'no' to Breckin, Maxigan, Skyler Alexander, Cam'ron, and Kaytaquana. Suddenly, my silly suggestion of naming my child Badger doesn't seem all that ridiculous...

Comments

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

I met a woman Marine officer who had had a daughter whilst stationed in Germany. The child's name was Portia, spelled Porsche, because that was the only spelling Mum had ever seen...

Child has three given names and a hyphenated surname but we chose not to know the sex until the birth. His middle names are both old surnames from our two families. Firstname was really my choice as I vetoed what turned out to be three of the top names of the decade (Alexander, Oliver, Jack/John) and was bored witless at the idea of another William (one cousin) or Angus (another cousin). Using family surnames is unfashionable but fun.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Porsche! Poor girl...

I like the surnames-as-middle-names thing (though surnames always sound a bit more like boys' names, somehow) but I don't think we have any particularly exciting ones in our families. Though of course Owen has his old surname ("batchelor name", by analogy with maiden name?) as his middle name now... but he doesn't seem particularly keen to pass that on.

If you don't mind me asking, why did you chose not to know the sex until the birth? (Not that there has to be a reason -- entirely your decision & "just didn't want to" is fine! -- just interested to know why if you don't mind telling.)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Using surnames as first or middle names is wildly trendy, and if you have a family reason for doing so, even more so. That wouldn't stop me if I wanted to, though.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

:-D "wildly trendy", eh? We move in different circles... I was thinking that naming him Triss Fleming Alkador, "a brother for Poppy Faience," was wildly trendy. I shall change his name to something less trendy by deed poll at once!

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I did realise after writing that that 'wildly' was perhaps not the bet adjective and 'trendy' requires more statistical analysis than 'popular'. I can't even remember how far back UK data is provided, but I can do a brief statistical analysis if you like, but not tonight.

I wouldn't worry about trendiness, anyway, and I would assume that anyone who was did said statistical analysis *before* choosing their names. (I'm also not a statistician, so I may well be doing it wrong.)