Baby’s name

Put baby’s name on top of a piece of paper. Make copies for each guest. Give guests about one or two minutes to make as many words out of baby’s name as they can.

Celebrity Babies

Each guest is given a list of celebrity moms and babies. Moms will be on left, while a scrambled list of babies names will be on right. The object is to match each celebrity mom to name of her baby/child. Link to example sheet.

Play-dough Babies

You will need about 2 cans of play-dough for every two people. Have each player make little babies. The mother-to-be will then judge each sculpture and winner gets a prize.

Pin Baby in Mommy

Make or find a big picture of a pregnant woman and another picture of a baby. This game is just like Pin Tale on Donkey, except you pin baby in mommy.

Patronymics are common in almost all European cultures. For example, a man named Ivan whose father’s name is Nikolay would be know as Ivan Nikolayevich or “Ivan, son of Nikolay”. In Gaelic, prefix “Mac” is used to form a patronym. An example would be “MacKenzie” - son of Kenneth. The use of matronymic is much less common. Common occupational names included Baker, Shepherd, Carpenter, and Wright. The Romans adopted surnames as far back as 2,000 years ago, while other areas of world were slower to begin using surnames. However, by Middle Ages, they were used regularly, first by nobility and then by gentry. Following fall of Roman Empire, Ireland was one of first countries to adopt surnames. These Irish surnames are found as early as tenth century.

Today's names are influenced by celebrities, common popular names, and biblical names.