Choosing a baby's name is 1 of the most exciting and important things in a birth. After all, it's a heritage that you'll be passing on to the child for life. Unfortunately, with popular culture changing all the time, what may be a cool sounding name today may be associated with something else or someone tomorrow. Imagine being named 'Dick'.
Anyway, to get back to the topic. In Finland, names are not chosen until after the child is born... sometimes after a span of several weeks! I remembered being bewildered when I asked a colleague the name of her newborn and she said a) it hadn't been chosen or b) she wouldn't tell until after the Christening. And that's the second difference, even if the parents had chosen a name, it wouldn't be revealed to the world until after the Christening. Well, after awhile, I reckoned that this tradition probably had its roots in superstition of the past - not revealing the child's name so that the devil would not be tempted. The Singaporean way would be to have a name chosen for the yet-to-be-born baby and announced to all and sundry :) simple and fuss-free.
The 3rd difference is the Finns' preference for the sex to be a surprise. I suppose it's like opening your presents on Christmas (oh yeah, the Finns open their gifts on the Eve) and to discover whether you get a pair of socks or a box of truffles from your mother-in-law. The Singaporeans of course prefer to know upfront. Personally, I wanted to know minibeanie's sex so that I know whether to get a pink dress with little ribbons or a shirt with trucks.
We've a list shortlisted but we haven't decided on one yet. Using the Finnish 'name calendar'* as inspiration, I thought Elmo would be fun.
M, Sleepless in Helsinki
38 weeks 4 days
* the 'name calendar' is a calendar where each day is associated with a few Finnish & Swedish names. E.g. 11th Jan is Kari/Karri/Osvald. What this means in practice is that all Kari-s, Karri-s & Osvald-s would get a cake on 11.1 because it's their name-day :) Elmo's name-day is 3.1.
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