Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Baby Names: The Most Names (100,001+), Most Unique Names, Most Idea-Generating Lists (600+) and the Most Help to Find the Perfect Name

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

We picked the book up as an impulse item while starting our baby registry at one of the big box stores.

The up front information on things to think about is valuable. But the bulk of the book seems to be a data dump of any possible word that could be used as a name. As another person observed - too much filler. Some of the top ten lists were pretty weak - top gangster names, top zodiac names etc.... There are little side notes (symbols) next to many names, but we couldn't find the key to let us know what the symbols meant.

Kind of a fun book for conversations, but far too many nonsensical offerings to sift through. And somehow in the 100,001 names such as Hemp or Turbo she missed Lars? Odd.

This is an amazing resource book with lots of lists, the meanings of all the names and really good introductory materials (that were very helpful). 100,001 names is a lot of names, so having some ways to think about them is very helpful. So were the lists of most popular names in categories such as country, ethnicity and religion. And I really liked the attributes of a perfect name (considerations such as sound, family names, nicknames, meaning, stereotypes, putting together first and last names, etc.). A tremendously useful book for naming babies (and even pets or characters in novels.) And fantastic shower gift.

Ever thought of naming your baby Oder? What about Pekar? If so, then this book is for you. If not, you will have to wade through tens of thousands of unusable names that are there just as filler.

While I agree with several other reviewers that this book isn't so useful for naming human babies, it is exceptional for naming small, furry animals like rats. While a name like "Bronty" might not suite your little one, its just great for a gerbil. And who wouldn't want a fluffy moues named Agamemnon or Padgett? In fact, this book is a treasure-trove of gem like rodent names. Got a pesky little female hamster with an attitude? Avalbane might suite it perfectly. How about Machiko or Juancho? Ideal for a pair of loving ferrets.

There are literally thousands of awesome rodents names in this book. Not since TOO MANY DAVES found in The Sneetches and Other Stories by Dr. Zeus has such a useful collection of curious monikers been assembled. Just don't name your Chinchilla Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate, they'll take it personally.

For Baby names, I'd instead suggest The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby. Any time you can use magic to solve a I problem I'm all for it.

This book is not what it says. There are not 100,001 different baby names to review; there are names repeated several times with no definitions for these names. The only names in the book that explain the meaning and where the name comes from are some of the most ridiculous names I've ever heard. There's a definition for the names Pacific and Cadillac but not Sarah or Johnathan - not what I expected! If you want a combination of odd and traditional names I suggest you skip this book.

We ordered three baby name books and this is our least favorite. Their claim to the "most unique names" includes such gems as "Jezebel, Ova and Pansy" and hoards of other useless names. The definitions are poorly done and some are blatantly misleading. ie. Many names are assigned "Indian" origin or "American" origin and given definitions that have nothing to do with Indian Sanskrit, Tamil or Hindi (or the other 23 Indian languages) or the American English language and are assigned definitions based on ???

Here are a couple of gems to illustrate my point;
-"Passion" is listed as an "American" girl's name and is defined as "a sensual woman" and we are offered the alternate spellings of " Pashon, Pashun, Pasyon, and Passyun".... Just lovely!
-"Photina (American) A stylish woman. Photeena, Photeana, Photiena, Photeina, Photyna" (I will assume this is from the root word "photo" which means "light" but is somehow transmorphed into meaning "stylish"?? Where are they getting these ridiculous meanings?!!
-"Pleun (American) One who is good with words"
-"Poetry (American) A romantic woman."
-Portia (Latin) Piglike woman; an offering" (Nowhere will you find "piglike woman" associated with the name "Portia" other than this book!

...and so it goes...

If you decide to use one of the more unusual names from this book, it would be a good idea to double check the meaning before you commit, but I would not recommend this book to begin with.

A complete waste of money, IMO. No alphabetical listing for "Charlotte", but if you're looking for something unique like Nut, Celery, or Panda then maybe this IS the book for you. This may be useful for people looking for ethnic names, I'm not able to judge on that. I would have preferred a listing of nicknames under each name, not just spelling/ethnic variations.

I agree with other reviewers that more is not always better. It seems they didn't proofread (names seen twice under the same list). And more "common" names aren't lsited, but names you can get from going to the zoo or spending time in your kitchen are. Kudos to the reviewer who said this should be called 100,001 Mostly Useless Names.

Terrible baby names book.

Celery? Broccoli? As a child's name?

What a joke. This book has a ton of words in it that I wouldn't even consider names, even keeping an open mind. I am trying to wade through this monstrosity and completely regret not reading the reviews first. I had a better baby names book 10 years, with "only" 10,000 names in it.

I recommend this book for anyone searching for a name for a new baby, or even for a story they are writing. The lists (of popular names, according to categories) are especially helpful in narrowing down to the right name.

I draw, write and play plenty of games with character creation, so I've been looking for a name book.

I'm quite happy with it. The lists at the front are quite handy and while I'm not having a baby, I think they gave some good advice at the start of the book.

After that, the names are kind of jumbled. Besides the lists (each with ten names for each gender), the names are either under boy or girl. I wish they had been organized by country.