Baby Name Books
We've decided we need to get serious about thinking up baby names, so I ordered a copy of my favorite baby name book. It arrived yesterday and we're all getting a kick out of perusing it.
The first time I bought this book (when I was pregnant with Ralph), it was called Beyond Jennifer & Jason. And then it was Beyond Madison & Montana. And now it's Beyond Ava & Aiden. I like it because it's not a simple alphabetical list of names and meanings. Instead, there are dozens and dozens of different sorts of lists -- like Metrodude Names and Vintage Starbaby Names and So Far Out They're In Names -- plus good conversational writing between each section. I remember reading it for the first time and thinking it would be a fun bookclub book. We also like looking up the names of our current children to see what lists they appear on in each version of the book.
Even if we don't end up using a name from the book, it's a fun volume to have around. Turns out the creators of the book are also responsible for Nameberry -- which is a super fun site to check out names.
Do you have a favorite baby name book?
Labels: baby
posted by Gabrielle of Design Mom at Friday, March 19, 2010
31 Comments:
My favorite is The Baby Name Wizard - lots of fun lists and groupings of names. I like the suggestions of sibling names. Fun website too: http://www.babynamewizard.com/
I found my son's name in A IS FOR ATTICUS by Lorilee Craker. It's a collection of names from great books. It's my favorite baby name book.
fun! my husband & i always have a hard time coming to an agreement on baby names. it'd be fantastic to find something truly original but easy to pronounce/spell!
The baby name wizard is AWESOME!
Baby Name Wizard is THE BEST!
It shows the popularity of a name over time and even suggests sibling names. I love it.
A is for Atticus is the best book ever! I love reading it just for fun. It has all the great literary names, but is missing a couple obvious ones like Edmond and Edward. The book has some really awesome lists.
I agree - The Baby Name Wizard is, hands down, my favorite baby name website, blog and book. I just had twins and had fun perusing the website often.
One more vote for the Baby Name Wizard. Lots of interesting categories and the "sibling names" suggestions were spot on, in terms of matching my tastes.
Jumping in to recommend Laura Wattenberg's book & website -- and look! Two others have already done it. She's fantastic.
These all look like great resources- we are pregnant with number two and having a hard time choosing names!
My favorite baby name book is the Bible... I read through all of the baby name books but found all three of our children's names in the Good Book!
You probably already know about this, but www.nymbler.com is a great site. You enter a few names you like, and it makes recommendations based on those. Not sure how it works, but I was always intrigued by the suggestions.
i have a great baby name book from maybe the 50's. passed on to me from a friend who had had it passed on to her.. & so on. happy to lend! i just have to get it back, as it's going to be lent from me for generations i hope.
I'm another Baby Name Wizard fan. Love the book and the cool tools on the website. Can't wait to find out what you decide to name your new little one. Good luck!
Nameberry says that Emerson is now more popular for girls! If only that were true for me in elementary school!
The Oxford Dictionary of First Names.
We had such a hard time coming up with a name for baby number six–we were tapped out! The first three were just a question of narrowing down family names to include and names we'd chosen long before the need to use them. From there it grew progressively more difficult to come up with names we felt were as strong as the others.
We have stacks of name books used in previous attempts (with the exception of the one mentioned in the post), but I'd have to say the Baby Name Wizard site gets my vote as well. It has lots of cool little tools that offer a fresh approach. That said, I do find their meanings of names to be a bit weak.
I love the names you chose for your other children, best of luck with this one!
Another vote for Baby Name Wizard. I loved it!
When my best friend was pregnant with her first baby, we got a kick out of reading 'What NOT to Name Your Baby'. It's fun and gives all the reasons NOT to use a particular name. Our favorite was the entry for 'Ashley' in the 'boy names' section. It simply read, "girl name! girl name!"
the scriptures
I don't have a baby or a favorite baby name book but I have been wondering if your next baby will also have a five-letter name!
have you tried www.nymbler.com ?
its such a neat baby name site!
Baby Name Wizard -- book and website. Such good info!
I can't remember what it is called, but when I was pregnant my husband and I would go to the bookstore, grab it and sit on the big chairs to look through it. It's defining feature is that it suggests sibling names. I like when names "go together," and not just in the sense that they have the same first initial.
I also LOVE the Baby Name Wizard. There is a section that suggest a sibling name when you look up the name of your children. It wasn't a name we picked, but I thought it was fun to see.
I will be so curious what you pick. Your kids have the greatest names.
Happy name picking,
whitney
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sorry (deleted my own comment because I hate typos!)
This isn't a baby name book, but this website had me laughing so hard, I cried:
http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html
I'm another vote for "The Baby Name Wizard." I just got that one, since naming our fourth is turning out to be ridiculously difficult (and it's not like we had the easiest time with kids 1, 2, and 3). The other one we've really liked is "Cool Names for Babies" by the same authors as the Jennifer/Jason, Madison/Montana books (I still have the Jennifer/Jason edition from when I was pregnant with my first, and now I wonder if it's so outdated that it's steering us in wrong directions?).
Baby Name Wizard, baby!
Yes, I agree. I bought the last edition and I loved it. I also bought the Baby Name Wizard, and it was helpful as well. Good luck with your decision making process!
the baby name wizard!!!
that book is freaky in its accuracy of pairing brother and sister names. freaky.
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