DR. WALLACE: I'm 19, and my husband is 21, and we have been married for over a year now. It was crazy being newlyweds right at the beginning of the pandemic last year, but we stuck together and have made it through fine so far. My husband is a good guy, and I love him with all my heart and soul.

He works for his grandfather at a small company. It's a good job, and he is well paid. Both of us are thrilled that, in five more months, we will become parents to a beautiful and healthy daughter. Everything has been perfect about our becoming parents. Our parents, grandparents and close friends are happy for us, and we appreciate their well wishes, of course.

Everything is going smoothly for us, except one small situation involving my grandmother. She is a wonderful lady, and I love her very much, but she does have too much to say about the possible name of our baby.

My husband and I have come up with several names for our daughter, and we will select one when the little girl has officially joined our family. My grandmother is telling me that the baby's name should be named after her. Her name is Alice, which was a common name when she was young, but times have changed, and the name Alice seems old-fashioned to me.

I don't dislike Alice as a name, but my husband and I have chosen a different name for our daughter. Would you recommend that my husband and I name our daughter with our name choice? I hope you will agree. P.S. I love my grandmother Alice very much and always will. She's a wonderful person and grandmother 99% of the time, but she sure is using the other 1% to hound me relentlessly about this name issue! — Mother to Be, via email

MOTHER TO BE: I agree with you and your husband very much on this one. The baby girl should be named with a name selected by you and your husband, one that you feel your little girl will enjoy and feel comfortable with going forward.

There are a few options I'd like to make you aware of, just in case one of them might be of interest to you. You could add the name "Alice" (or a derivative of it) as a middle name. By derivative, I mean you could change the spelling to make it a bit more modern yet still give a nod to your family's past. How about Alyce? Alicia? Allison? Aliss? Allie?

As you can see, there are many options. One last point to mention is that we typically think of names in groups of three — a first name, a middle name and a last name. If you already have a first and middle name selected for your daughter, you can still opt to add a second middle name as well.

In the end, the choice is yours. I can tell you that, in our family, most people have the usual three names, but we do have a few family members with four names and some, believe it or not, with only two names — meaning no middle name at all!

SHOCKED BY OUR FRIEND

DR. WALLACE: Due to COVID-19, I haven't seen a family friend in over six months, and when I finally did, I was shocked. He's an older guy, and he was very skinny and gaunt and totally looked like another person. I was stunned! He looked like a stranger at first, but I could, of course, see the familiar facial features once I looked more closely at him.

I think he might have the virus, or might have had the virus. I was glad I kept my distance and was wearing a mask and we didn't touch, but he said he was fine. Should I get tested? — Stunned by His Appearance, via email

STUNNED BY HIS APPEARANCE: By all means, get tested, since anyone can get tested whether they have symptoms or not. You didn't state whether you had any symptoms, but either way, it's up to you to decide.

And for the record, people do age in different ways, and being quarantined in place for nearly a year has affected different people in different ways. Your family friend may or may not have had COVID-19, but it's wise to keep a close eye on your personal health at all times.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: AndisBilderwerkstatt at Pixabay