Customer Reviews

The Baby Name Survey Book

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love the concept of this book. It's so interesting to see what image people have when they hear a certain name. Of course we're all influenced by movies, TV, and real-life acquaintences. Some of the influences listed in the this book are a bit outdated. For example, the name Ariel doesn't list anything as being influenced by Disney's The Little Mermaid, but the name Barnaby says the image comes straight from TV's Barnaby Jones. Who??? I don't think this book would be helpful to new parents looking for a fun baby name book. Some names that you love might carry a less than pleasant "image," and that might wrongfully sway what should be an objective and personal decision. Overall, the book is fascinating, but once you've looked through it for about 10 minutes, you've already looked up your name, your family's names, and the names of all your friends. Maybe you've had a laugh or two. Even so, you'll probably feel like you made a truly frivolous purchase. I'm sure you could find this same information on the internet somewhere and save yourself a little green.

The problem with any book that attempts to give a name an "image" is that, while it might be dead-on accurate for the way people think about names today, it'll always be outdated, because by the time the baby you've given a name to grows up, people will have totally different images, simply because of waxing and waning popularity of names. Take, for instance, the name Linda -- one of the most popular names of the last generation. Not surprisingly, the adult respondents of the survey gave it generally positive impressions. However, very few people today are naming their babies Linda, and a Linda born in 2000 will probably be seen as hopelessly old-fashioned, since quite a few babies born today probably have grandmothers named Linda. Another problem is that, in order to integrate a number of survey responses into the writeup of a name, the image often comes out to be overcrowded and sometimes contradictory. There is one fun aspect of the book: looking up your own name and those of friends. It also might be useful for creating names for fictional characters. As a baby-naming book, though, it's not much help.

I don't get these kinds of books for they're intended for - I'm not expecting and I don't plan to have children for some time. However, I do find them helpful in my constant search for names for the characters in the stories I write. I picked this book up for that purpose.

The authors of this book surveyed many people and recieved between 30 and 150 responses for each name in the book. The book begins with two lists, boys and girls, of personality traits and the names that supposedly make people think of those traits. Then it has two alphebetical lists of names, their meanings, the image people said that name called to mind, and famous people with that name. In case you're interested, the girls list is a bit shorter than the boys list. I looked through some of the names, and I've decided it would be better to just rely on my own impressions. I don't agree with a lot of the images that the book says the names call to mind. Some of them are fun to read, and it's nice to browse your name and the names of friends and family for a laugh, but I don't think it's as helpful as it wants to be.

I love The Baby Name Survey Book. I have read it cover to cover and shared it with my friends and family. It is amazing how much I agreed with the survey results in regards to the perceptions of the names. It REALLY made me think again about what I thought that a good name would be for my child. My husband and I changed our minds a few times because of what we read in this book. However, I have to say that it is already outdated. There are some popular names that we thought of that aren't listed. Also, it references names of famous people, and there are many well-known people that aren't mentioned. I recommend buying a used copy and reading another more current baby name book in addition. If anything, you'll get some good laughs when you read this one.

There are only 3 books needed for choosing the perfect baby name and this is one of them.

This book is based upon one of the largest studies ever done on people's opinion of names. I've noticed that some say that this book is outdated, but I would beg to differ. Even now [2005] opinions seem to be very similar as they were in 1998 when I first used this book.

My suggestion to any parent looking for the best name for their baby is this book, a baby name definition book, and a name popularity book. By having the three so-named books, any parent can make an informed decision for naming their baby.

My suggestions are as follows:
1) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671023853T/mommyguidec01-20">The Baby Name Survey Book</a>
2) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767917529/mommyguidec01-20">The Baby Name Wizard</a>
3) <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0734402279/mommyguidec01-20">75,000+ Baby Names for the 21st Century</a>

Good luck choosing your baby's name!
(...)

I used this book as a reference in fiction writing and found the opinions expressed to be very useful. Although no reference book will agree with my opinions completely, having a third parties view was helpful in naming my characters. I would recommend this book to another writer looking for names that reflect specific characteristics or to avoid obvious stereotypical names. Judging from my recent experiences at a K-12 school parents would do well to take a look at this book before they stick their beloved children with some of the monikers I have seen.

Yeah, this book is fun...at first, but then it gets boring. The "cute," "popular" or "trendy" names are the most favored. A name like Ariana is viewed as positive and beautiful, while something like Fern (which I think is cool) is seen as old-fashioned and ugly. There's also not enough names listed. If you're about to have a baby and you're looking for a name, this book isn't the way to go. It's very limited in the options, because for the most part it uses well-known and well-used names, or it goes the other extreme and uses names that you probably wouldn't ever consider. For example, I think names like Adolph and Henrietta are in here. There's no middle ground. In retrospect, I wasn't too thrilled with it.

I loved this book! I bought it for my son and daughter-in-law who were expecting. We had a great time looking up names they liked, as well as our own names. Not every name in the world is listed, but that's not the point. It tells how a name is perceived by people, and that is extremely helpful. I was very relieved when they looked up Zeke, which they were considering, and found "dirty, smelly, hillbilly"!

I found this book to be very informative. Not only does it give a brief description of the origin, but it gives a variety of impressions from thousands of adults. Of course, it would have been helpful to have a larger volume of names to peruse, but it was useful as a supplemental resource.

I love this book. I had an older version and used it extensively in my work--fiction writing. When I saw the update, I snapped it up and am buying it for my writer friends. Even non-writers are fascinated by the survey results. Everytime I show the book to people, they don't seem to want to give it back.