Kick to Pick: The app that lets babies name themselves

For parents torn between "Jaden" and "Caden," this iPhone app is a stress-reducing miracle. Others deride it as pathetic

For indecisive parents-to-be, the "Kick to Pick" iPhone app naming responsibility in the hands, and kicking feet, of the unborn baby.
(Image credit: itunes.apple.com)

Parents unsure what to name their soon-to-be-born baby can now spare themselves the hand-wringing, and let the fetus decide itself. Developer Nathan Parks has created a 99-cent iPhone app called "Kick to Pick" that allows an expectant mom to place her iPhone (or iPod Touch or iPad) on her belly, and scroll through a list of possible names until the baby "picks" one by kicking. Although the app generates a random list of names, the parent can limit the options or customize the list. Is this a genius idea, or a cringeworthy cop-out?

No question — this is pathetic: Forgive me if I roll my eyes again and again, says Adrienne Crezo at Neatorama. Naming a baby is not exactly "grunt work," and it's certainly not "the worst thing about being a future parent." But by all means, throw your 99 cents "down the proverbial drain." Maybe then this app will get marketed to celebrities, and there will be fewer kids "named Pilot Inspektor and Petal Blossom Rainbow."

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