We used this book to pick the boys' names (and girls, had they turned out to be as such.)

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Product Description

Yes, your baby’s perfect name is out there.
The trick is finding it.

The perfect baby name will speak to your heart, give your child a great start in life—and maybe even satisfy your relatives.  But you can't expect to just stumble on a name like that in an A to Z dictionary or on a trendy list.

That’s why you need The Baby Name Wizard. Created by a name-searching mom, it uses groundbreaking research and computer generated models to pinpoint each name’s image, examine its usage and popularity over the last 100 years, and suggest other promising ideas. A perfect guide to the modern world of names, The Baby Name Wizard will engage you from the first name you look up and keep you enchanted through your journey to the just-right name for your baby.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8425 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-08
• Released on: 2005-02-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780767917520
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From the Inside Flap

Why are there four little Olivias on your block? What kind of names would sound good with a brother named Dylan? Is George too old-fashioned? Is Dakota too weird? And why is Brianna now a more popular name for girls than Mary, Karen, and Margaret—combined?

The Baby Name Wizard is the first expert guide to helping you understand every aspect of a baby's name, from its image and history to nicknames and variants, as well as popularity and usage trends. The book's unique structure lets you start with one name you like and end up with a list of ideas tailored to your tastes. Each name has an entertaining buyer's guide–style entry to answer the questions:

• How popular is it? Each name is accompanied by a popularity graph so you can see where the name ranks among all boys' or girls' names and track its use over the last century.
•What else might I like? Look up any name and get a list of others with a matching style, including suggestions for boys and girls—ideal for sibling naming.
• How do people use it? Explore promising nicknames, international variations, and alternate spellings for each name.
•Where does it fit in? Learn about a name's distinctive style, from "Antique Charm" and "Old Testament" to "Brisk and Breezy" and "Nickname-Proof."
• How about even more ideas? To find out more about a name's image, turn to a full styles section and get longer lists of suggestions to spark your imagination.

Fun to browse and full of surprises, yet fact-filled and well organized, The Baby Name Wizard is destined to enchant.

About the Author

LAURA WATTENBERG is a writer, researcher, and software designer who developed the name analysis software after becoming frustrated in her search for names for her two daughters. She lives in Winchester, Massachusetts.

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Customer Reviews

Best Baby Name Book Ever
This book is a jewel of a find. It's not exhaustive lists of names that make you cross-eyed after 5 minutes. I hated going through other baby name books. This one gives a graph of the name's evolving popularity over time, classifies the name in groupings, gives suggestions of brother and sister names for baby etc. It has much more features that you'll have to read. My husband and I named our second child from the suggestions for, say example, Mia. There were names that sound like they belong to the same family like Zoe, Lilly, Ava etc. And if you like lists, there's that too!

On the fence about this one...
Okay, so there are a MILLION baby name books out there. I went with this one because I thought it might give cool first/middle name combos or something. But really, it just gave a somewhat limited list of names along with their current popularity status and historical usage via graph. Then the book shows this list recycled by name-type categories (like "Timeless", or "Guys and Dolls", or "Greek"). So the variety i was hoping for wasn't really there. That was kind of dissapointing. On the up side, this book showed me that a name is not unique just because it comes into my mind during an "ah-HA" moment-a lot of names are being used to death due to this kind of thinking. Just look at Madison or Chase! So I did obtain a guideline of what not to name my baby unless I want him/her to be one of 6 kids with the same name in his/her kindergarten class. I found that to be useful information. If you are looking to make sure you don't choose something over-used, OR if you are trying to pick something overused so your kid can blame their credit on the other 6.19 million Brittany's, this really will help you make a great pick. But if you are looking for varied name ideas, you might want to go for one of those 75,000+ BABY NAMES books out there. Just my two cents.

Sister loved this Book
I just purchased this book about a week ago for my sister who is going to have a new baby anyday now and she just loved it. Ive bought her baby name books in the past but this one is the best she says. It contains everything you can imagine and has history of the name and what the name means. Its unique among all other baby name books. Its the perfect gift for the expecting new mother. Highly Recomended. Enjoy.