Review: 20,001 Names for Baby

20,001 Names For Baby: Revised and Updated20,001 Names For Baby
by Carol McD. Wallace

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

20,001 Names for Baby / 0-380-76227-7

As a writer, I like to buy "baby name" books and browse through them when looking for meaningful names. I really like the orientation and approach of this particular name book. Each name has a given country or language of origin, the meaning of the name (all of which seem very well researched), and notable actors/politicians/literary characters who have shared the name.

This last bit - reminding the reader of notable occurrences of the name - is very useful; you might not remember that "Templeton" is the greasy rat from "Charlotte's Web" without a gentle reminder here. The book also notes how heavily used the name is, and in which region, although this information is is anecdotal, not numerical (i.e., "Usage has tailed off in recent years").

The only thing this book is in need of is a new revision - the version I have is old enough that the entry for "Hermione" notes that the name is almost completely unused!

~ Ana Mardoll

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