The Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names (Paperback)

by Marcia Layton Turner (Author), Robbi Hess (Author) "Your child is, in many ways, a reflection of you-your hopes and dreams, your likes and dislikes, your personality, your quirks..." (more)
Key Phrases: gleaning unknown, meaning unknown, feminine version, Native American, Old English, Girl Names (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Finding that perfect name …

Rather than simply provide readers with an alphabetized name list for each gender (which, by the way, it also does), this jam-packed book dedicates approximately half of its pages to various lists, helping parents zero in on the perfect name for their baby and adding some fun to the baby- naming process. In addition, this book contains a two-color alphabetized name section, colorful name histories, and helpful information on choosing the perfect name. Over 150 lists in all.

About the Author
Marcia Layton Turner is a contributing editor at ePregnancy magazine, where she has written about a wide range of pregnancy-related challenges. She is also the bestselling author of more than 12 books, and her work has appeared on such websites as iVillage.com, and in such magazines as Woman’s Day and Business 2.0, among others.
Robbi Hess is a journalist and newspaper editor with more than 20 years of experience. She also writes business and medical articles for Business Strategies and For the Record magazines and has published fiction in The Writer’s Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (February 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592574556
• ISBN-13: 978-1592574551
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,105,957 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful resource for writers, roleplayers, and of course, parents-to-be!, May 23, 2006

By	H. Grove "owling6683" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a very focussed book, containing baby names and nothing but baby names. If that's what you're looking for, you've seriously come to the right place. It has a couple of aspects to it that I really love and that put it head and shoulders above the other naming books I've looked at. For one, it doesn't just take names from cultures--it has lists of names of celebrities, sports heroes, award-winners of various types, and so on. It provides a much wider array of lists to keep you interested and give you something to think about when naming your child. You could name your child after a Nobel Prize winner, an Olympic gymnast, the CEO of a famous company, an opera singer, an activist, or a mythological figure.

The one negative here is that some of these lists seem rather short and arbitrary (lists of actors and actresses, for example, seem to pick a rather arbitrary small subset of the possibilities), however, simply by pointing out the types of names you might look at the book gives you a place to start looking for more if you don't quite like the specific options it presents.

I like the fact that last names are included in some of these lists, which isn't the case with any other baby name resource I've found. You can use these last names as middle names, or, if you're a writer or roleplayer looking for inspiration, you can mix-and-match first and last names that you like.

All in all I think this is the most fun, interesting, and useful naming book I've seen so far. However, it does have a couple of problems. In one section the book promises to include a list of "no-nos"--names you should avoid giving your child--yet I couldn't find this section at all. Some of the sources get pretty silly, such as superhero secret identity names and brand names--I just can't imagine naming my kid after yogurt, thanks. And a few suggestions would get your child into so many fights at school that I can't even believe the authors included them (Uranus as a boy's name, anyone? *Shudder*). Exercise a little restraint and maybe run your ideas past your neighbor's 10-year-old to make sure he doesn't start laughing too quickly or find an obvious crude joke in the name.

5.0 out of 5 stars 30,000 Baby names, January 6, 2009

By	Kelly H. Coches - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a neat book. It has lists of names- everything from movie stars to nobel prize winners, in addition to the compilation of name suggestions.