Want us to tackle your baby-naming issue? Email Swistle at gmail dot com and tell us all about it. Include details such as finalist names, estimated arrival date, surname (or a name that sounds like the surname, for trying names out), names of your other children, names you’ve considered and rejected, names you’d use if the baby were the opposite sex, how many children you plan to have.

But be sure you only send me information that’s okay to post on the site—or specify which parts should not be posted.

I typically choose from questions submitted during the previous week. The volume of emails we now receive means we can’t answer all the questions. (Please don’t continue to re-submit the same question.) We tend to give priority to questions that:

1) give a surname or a surname stand-in (like Neelsen for Neilson, or “it sounds like Donson, but with a J”),

2) ask for help with a boy name OR a girl name (if you don’t know the sex yet but you’ll be finding out, I suggest waiting to email until you know), and

3) ask for help with a name for a USA baby (I don’t know much at all about how names sound / seem / are used in other countries), and

4) address an issue and/or naming combination we haven’t recently covered.

You will also need to email an update when the baby is born and named, or else our lives feel like an exercise in sad unsatisfied futility.