Customer Reviews

Names through the Ages

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was really pretty good for authors looking to name their historical fiction characters. It's not so good for parents, because it has no pronounciation key. But it is pretty extensive, divided first by geography and then by chronology. Includes meanings and origins for loads of names, as well as a short bit about the culture of the time -- especially as it relates to names. Mostly first names but sometimes last names as well. Very good. Includes American, English, Irish, Welsh, and French.

True, there is no pronunciation key, but that hardly seems to matter to most people. If you find something you like, you can certainly go online to verify how to say it.
I had no desire to have a laptop in the hospital with me - we decided to name our kids after they were born - and so I had printed out sheets of names, and this book to help us. You might think us inveterate and incorrigible procrastinators, but no! We just like to meet the product before deciding on an appropriate name. Although, if I had known then what I know now, I would have found a name to mean "screams his head off at every opportunity" for our younger child. Because even now, at the age of 5, he still indulges in this.... *sigh*
And as I'm also a writer, it still lives on my reference shelf, because I like it. Somewhere in this digital age, it's nice not to have to print our a bunch of stuff - and I also like to highlight, and dogear, and generally manhandle my reference books. Call me old fashioned, but not even a kindle will reform me.

For a writer this is a great name book with history and culture behind the names in this book. This is a wonderful name book but not for parents looking for baby names.