Advice from Emily Post – How to Name Your Baby

This is what Emily Post’s Pocket Book of Etiquette, published in 1967, has to say about choosing a baby name:

Avoid giving the baby a name that is too long or difficult to pronounce clearly or that forms an unpleasant combination with the last name. Choose instead a simple or biblical name or one with some significance, perhaps because it is the name of some member of the family or a beloved friend. When the son is given the same name as his father, he may be given a middle name different from that of the parent; in adult life he may prefer to be known as “R. William Meadows,” instead of “Robert Meadows, Jr.” Roman Catholic baptismal certificates must record a saint’s name as the baby’s first or middle name. Most Jewish babies are traditionally named for a deceased relative.

This particular “Emily Post” book wasn’t written by Emily Post herself, but by Emily’s daughter-in-law Elizabeth.

P.S. Did you know that the kangaroo that is the logo of Pocket Books has a name? Yup — Gertrude, after the artist’s mother-in-law.