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iGeneration Baby Naming

Scanning baby name books is so last generation! As our world becomes increasingly obsessed with internet fame, mothers-to-be are preparing their unborn children for their 15 minutes of online fame. From sharing photos on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, to internet-stalking on Twitter to broadcasting personal reality shows on YouTube, the internet offers countless opportunities to see and be seen.

Rob Brown from McCann Erickson posted a video on changes in the communications field since Web 2.0, and pointed out that parents are naming their child based of “Googlability.”

Perusing baby name books for inspiration or naming your little one after a grandparent just won’t cut it anymore for a lot of parents-to-be. To qualify, a 2.0 baby must have a unique, identifiable name that will produce exclusive search results on engines like Google. Brown points out that a common name like his, just wouldn’t make the grade. Even when “Rob Brown” is searched in conjunction with “Erickson,” the results pull up three unique individuals.

He mentioned a Wall Street journal article that featured a story on a woman who ran all the potential names for her baby through Google first to guarantee her child couldn’t possibly be confused with anyone else in the world.

Not only that, but parents are also setting up social networking accounts for the womb-dwellers. Most do it to find other expecting parents to share the joys of new-parenthood with, but some are also doing it to set up future friends, to make sure their child never has to experience a life without a virtual social network.

This isn’t just about the iGeneration anymore, the decade of “me”. People are going beyond personal exposure to make sure that they, as well as their children, and yes, even their pets, have social groups. It’s not about hogging the limelight anymore, it looks as if there could be a shift from “me” generation to “we” generation.