and a feast follows. The ancient Sanskrit texts provide numerous and divergent guidelines to the parents for choosing names. Most recommend that the boy's name be two or four syllables, starting with a sonant, a semivowel in the middle, and ending in a visarga. A girl's name is recommended to be an odd number of syllables, ending in a long ā or ī, resonant and easy to pronounce. Unpleasant, inauspicious, or words that easily transform into bad or evil words must be avoided, state the Gryhasutras, while the preferred names are those affiliated with a deity, virtues, good qualities, lucky stars, constellation, derivatives of the name of the father, or mother, or the place of birth, or beautiful elements of nature (trees, flowers, birds). Baby's first outing, Nishkramana Nishkramana (IAST: Niṣkrāmaṇa, Sanskrit: निष्क्रम) literally means "going out, coming forth", is the rite of passage where the parents take the baby outside the home and the baby formally meets the world for the first time. It is usually observed during the fourth month after birth. On this ritual occasion the newborn is taken out and shown the sun at sunrise or sunset, or the moon, or both. Alternatively, some families take the baby to a temple for the first time. The rite of passage involves bathing the baby and dressing him or her in new clothes. The baby's outing is accompanied by both the mother and the father, siblings if any, as well some nearby loved ones, such as grandparents and friends. The significance of Niskramana and showing the baby heavenly bodies is derived from their significance of Sun, Moon and nature in the Vedic literature. At the time the baby is present before the sunrise or moon, it is the father who holds the baby and recites a hymn that means, "the brilliant sun has risen in the east, he is like the hamsa (swan) of the pure worlds, let us salute him, because he dispels darkness". When the baby is in presence of the moon, the father says, "O Moon, thou whose hair is well parted, let this child come to no harm, nor torn from the mother". Baby's first solid food, Annaprashana Annaprashana (IAST: Annaprāśana, Sanskrit: अन्नप्राशन) literally means "feeding of food", and the rite of passage marks the first time a baby eats solid food, typically containing cooked rice. Most Gryhasutras recommend this ritual in the sixth