Customer Reviews

The Perfect Baby Name: Finding the Name that Sounds Just Right

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

 

 

I have several baby name books and found myself frustrated at trying to come up with a short list of names I liked. This book helps you to understand how to match the first, middle, and last names. I almost did not buy this book because at first glance it looked confusing, but something made me take a second look at it and I am glad I did. Whether you prefer a common or unique name, this book will help you choose a name that will flow. Once you spend a few minutes reading the beginning of the book, you will understand the method. The authors have made it simple by breaking everything down into quick and easy to use lists. This book helped me to realize why I did not like any of the names that I was coming up with. I now know it was because I was choosing names that did not go with our surname. Now I am looking at names in an entirely different way!

I really love the concept behind this book -- naming your baby based on the sound of the name, first matched with last, instead of what the name means or its origin. I guess being a writer, I'm drawn to the lyricism of language, so this was, seriously, The Perfect Baby Name book for me. I used its priciples in rhythm and sound to name my daughter and will use it again for my next one! I highly recommend this reading -- the name suggestions really offered such surprising and wonderful considerations that I never would have come up on my own.

I just got this book at the store and have to say it is a welcome addition to the baby-naming category! It's not just a list of names to say outloud to your spouse: It shows you how to make the first and last name sound beautiful together. It helped me realize that the great name we picked out for our daughter to be isn't really the best sounding match for our last name. Better, it showed me an alternative that I love even more. I wondered how someone came up with this perspective on naming your baby and then I looked at the name of one of the authors: Whitney Walker! Now that sounds great. So these guys know what they're talking about.

OK, while this book can start off confusing (you really need to concentrate to get the theme), I actually liked it in the end. It does give the perfect compliment to a last name and I found it very useful. Be prepared to spend some time on it, though...but if you're like me and into "nice-flowing" names...this will certianly be your bible!

I was unable to read this book past her premise- make sure there is alliteration in your baby's name. What? I don't think that alliteration is necessary to make a nice sounding name, Whitney Walker! I guess it is nice to be memorable but frankly, I am more concerned about the cadence of a name (and how it flows with the last name) and the "feel" of a name than alliteration. Scrap this book and try The Baby Name Wizard by Laura Wattenberg first.

With all the on-line resources finding a baby name was soooo overwhelming. This book broke down into simple guidelines what makes a name sound good with your last name -or at least sound better than other names. You don't need an alliteration -Jennifer Aniston was one example. I started going through the guidelines and found that almost all of my friends and family had followed these rules/guidelines without knowing them. It was a great way to help us wade through the tons of names out there!!

Although we didn't end up choosing a name directly from the book, the book helped point out a few things to think about while selecting a name. It gave great lists of names for specific sounds that we might have been going for. I thought it was useful, and we bought it for naming our second child which was definitely harder for us.

Whether or not this book does you any good will depend on the what you're looking for. If you have a specific number of syllables you're looking for and know where you want the accents to go, this would be great for you, since that how teh sections are divided. If, like me, you want to look through long alphabetical lists or through groups of names that fit a certain topic, you're out of luck here.

I found the set-up irritating. If I wanted a girl's name starting with 'S', I had to hunt through pages and scan too many listings. They do include some really nice modern names, I just didn't like find it useful as is.

This book was good...in that I understood her point. Some names just roll off your tongue and others you stumble over. But I found the endless lists hard to follow after a while. I guess I was expecting a more detailed formula and not just sounding out my own last name.

I guess the other people who reviewed this book paid far more attention in English class than I did. I find this book's instructions difficult and time consuming. It seems like you have to do an awful lot of work on the different sounds, syllables and stresses in your last name before you can begin to look for a first name. Then comes trying to find a middle name that fits into the phonetics and poetry rules the book tells you to follow. WAY TO DIFFICULT! Just give me an old fashioned baby name book any day.