7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting/Unusual Names, but some incorrect information., October 31, 1998
This review is from: The Parent Soup Baby Name Finder : Real Advice from Real Parents Who Have Named Their Babies and Lived to Tell About It... (Paperback)
I was very excited to receive your book The Parent Soup Baby Name Finder but I find that I have to send it back. My husband and I have found several problems with it.
My husband is a fluent Japanese speaker and he immediately flipped to the Japanese section. He was disturbed to find the name Yemyo listed as a Japanese name. It is not, or if it is then it is archaic or made up.
He looked up several common Japanese names and found that you had Yasuo, Yasutaro, Yojiro, Yoshiaki, Yoshirobu etc. listed as Japanese with "unknown origin". These names are extremely common Japanese names. You could find them in any Japanese baby name book, or even ask a Japanese person what they mean. Yojiro, for example, means "fourth son".
Then he saw that you had listed Yukio as "Hebrew/Japanese" origin. With a definition of "God will nourish". It is very possible that Yukio DOES mean that in Hebrew, (I don't speak it so I don't know) but it does not mean that it Japanese. Japanese and Hebrew have no common denominator. There aren't words in Japanese that mean the same thing in Hebrew. I haven't looked it up in a dictionary, but Yukio possibly means "Brave One". Perhaps a child with a Japanese/Hebrew parent combination named their child Yukio. This does not make the name Japanese/Hebrew.
You have to understand that my husband and I are not holding ourselves up as name experts, or even language experts. If, however, a casual reading of just one section brings up this many (possible) errors it put the rest of the names in question.
My concern is threefold: 1. The authors didn't seem to do much research to find definitions for common names that they didn't know. (Asking a Japanese aquaintance, posting to a Japanese Newsgroup or buying a Japanese baby name book etc.)
2. The authors MIGHT have (it is unclear) said that a name (like Yemyo) is a "Japanese" name because a Japanese parent named their child that. Having someone who is of Japanese (or Italian, or Jewish etc.) heritage make up a name does not make that name Japanese, Italian or Jewish, in my opinion.
3. The authors MIGHT have (it is unclear) not checked up on what a parent said the definition of a name is. If I tell you an unusual name, and then I tell you the definition of it, it is still YOUR responsibility to check the accuracy of the name before you publish a book.
Obviously this is just my opinion. The names are interesting and unusual but I wish that I felt that I could "trust" it more.
Jen
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you Parent Soup!, December 21, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The Parent Soup Baby Name Finder : Real Advice from Real Parents Who Have Named Their Babies and Lived to Tell About It... (Paperback)
Parent Soup - you have done it! What a great "tool" to help with finding the perfect name! The category lists were a marvelous idea - everything from the standard lists (boy or girl names) to unisex names, ethnic names, and even how many syllables a name contains.
My favorite parts of the book were the tips given by parents like me, who have been through it all - from how to handle giving your child a name that has been passed down in the family to which spelling to use for a certain name. These parents offer up their best advice to help you make the big name decision.
We had so much fun with this book as a family! My children really enjoyed looking up the meanings of their names, and even talked about what they might name their own children someday. I got the chance to tell each of my children again why we had chosen their names, giving them a little more insight into who they are.
I am giving a copy to an expecting friend as a shower gift. I think she and her husband will have a great time trying to find just the "right" name for their new baby. Thank you Parent Soup for putting this together with the help of your members!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
many names, questionable categorizations, November 30, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: The Parent Soup Baby Name Finder : Real Advice from Real Parents Who Have Named Their Babies and Lived to Tell About It... (Paperback)
Coming from a swiss/german background I can't but add to the previous reviewer's comments. Apart from the anglo-saxon mainstream the book offers little insight. I've found at least one instance of each of the following errors: 1) names sometimes carry alternate spellings that sound very similar, but are variants of a different name 2) names that are obvious variants of each other are listed separately without cross-reference 3) the ethnic categories, as far as I could tell are often questionable and in some cases plain wrong 4) at least for my ethnic background, the selection of names seems rather odd, and many names only appear in short forms 5) meanings of greek/latin names are often inaccurate Bottomline: If you are looking for some inspiration, the book is ok. It carries a wide ethnic variety of names. However if you're interested in a particular area such as nordic names, you may be disappointed or even worse, misguided.
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