Mom-to-be lets online voters pick baby’s name for $5,000
Natasha Hill couldn’t decide what to call the baby she is
expecting in September.
So when a baby-naming website offered $5,000 to an
expectant mom who was willing to let the public vote on the best moniker, the
26-year-old jumped at the chance.
“I just thought it was a really cool idea,” said Hill, an
art teacher who works with young children. “I found it when I was online
looking for baby names on different websites.”
Hill, who lives in West Los Angeles, was one of 80 women
who entered the contest, which was sponsored by a Texas based company called
Belly Ballot.
The social media website grew out of a naming game
sometimes played at baby showers, at which participants are given a list of
acceptable names by expectant parents, and then vote on their favorite ones.
At Belly Ballot, expectant moms sign up groups of family
and friends, and offer them five possible girl names and five possible boy
names, said owner Lacey Moler. The group votes, and then the mom can either go
with their consensus or ignore it.
For the contest, Moler and her staff secured funding from
advertisers, and decided to offer a $5,000 prize to an applicant who was
willing to let anyone in the world vote on a name for her baby.
The voters will be presented with a list of names chosen
by Moler, her staff and the advertisers, Moler said. Product names will not be
allowed, nor names that are “too crazy,” and everyone gets just one vote.
Unlike the more casual balloting conducted for groups of
family and friends by the website, Hill won’t have the option of rejecting the
name that is chosen.
But she trusts Moler’s promise that the name won’t be too
strange – and she says that given her own eclectic tastes, the baby may be
better off anyway with a consensus name chosen by the public.
“I think whatever name is chosen my child is going to be
grateful that it didn’t come from me,” Hill said.
Her boyfriend is a little less sanguine about it. He
remembers a Facebook contest in which a man said he would name his child Batman
if he got 500,000 likes on his page.
"He thinks people are going to use it as a chance to
do something pranky,” she said.
To choose Hill as their winner, Moler and her staff
sifted through essays written by each of the applicants. They were moved, she
said, by Hill’s promise to use half of the money to pay down credit debt and
the other half to start a college fund for the baby.
“We heard all kinds of stories,” Moler said. Moms
promised to use the money for diapers, helping with newborn costs, financial
support to take a leave of absence – even a down payment on a house.
“People told stories about their pregnancies,” said Moler,
herself a mother of three. “People definitely did pull at our heartstrings.”
But, Moler, said, letting the whole world choose your
baby’s name isn’t for everyone.
At her own baby shower, she said, guests voted on a slate
of names for her daughter, and chose Stella.
Moler named the child Anna instead.
I have very strong opinions about my names,” Moler said.
Hill, nervous enough about the baby and now the name, has
decided not to check the website to even see what appellations wind up on the
final list.
“I’m afraid if I look at them I’ll get my favorite one,”
said Hill, who had previously considered names including Katorah (no, she
doesn't know what it means) and Winter. “And then I’ll be disappointed.”
If she doesn’t like the name, Hill said, there’s still
one available exit strategy.
And it’s a classic.
“There’s always a nickname,” the mother-to-be said.
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