I think its not just a matter of naming the closest person with the easiest sound, and the second closest person with the second easiest one. You know how paren

I think its not just a matter of naming the closest person with the easiest sound, and the second closest person with the second easiest one. You know how parents say they can tell by the cries of their baby what the baby needs? After the birth of our kid I found there is actually some truth to it. When he was hungry, he smacked his lips (like when sucking) and it made a mamamama sound, or myammyammyam or maybe even nomnomnom (overlaying the crying). When he had pain, it sounded more like auääää (excuse the umlaut) or auayyyy, due to the way he suddenly opened his mouth. I can imagine this is the source of expletives like Ouch or Aua in many languages. Now that he is a bit older (~10 months) he has more control over the sounds he makes, and is experimenting with speech, but the mamama and auäää seems to stick. Funnily, he seems to say "daddy" to me, although thats not the word in this region of the world (that would be papa) and I don't know where he got it from. Also, its too early to tell if he is consciously using it for me or just experimenting with interesting sounds. I guess parents tend to overinterpret the first utterances of their kids a lot :-)