Choosing a family name for your baby boy is still a frequent practice, but there are other approaches you can take. In some families, the son (typically the first kid) has the same name as the father, but with a "Jr." (meaning junior) suffix added at the end. This allows room for future generations by preserving the family name but not being limited to two names in use at once. In other families, a new family name is chosen for each child. This keeps track of success or failure, and also helps prevent conflict with other family members' choices. Finally, you can choose a symbolic name for your son, which may or may not be his actual given name. These names often have special meaning for the family or individual who gets them named. They can be very personal -- the choice of names someone else gives to you for your child is called a "patronym" -- or they can be more general, such as "Sonny," "Mike," or "Steven." Names can tell us a lot about the people who give them out. If you want your son to grow up smart and successful, name him after someone intellectual -- a scientist, an inventor, a philosopher. If you want him to become a professional athlete, name him after a sports star. If you want him to go into politics, do research on current politicians and see what names are used frequently among them.