The Baby Name Wizard by LAURA WATTENBERG (2005, Paperback)

This is a great book. I loved the fresh information on each name. My whole family enjoyed looking through it while we waited for our baby. The older kids made lists of names they liked, and I was able to revise the list based on my own criteria (specifically NOT a top 100 name). The appendixes sort and resort the names into various categories. It is fun and very helpful. When I was done with it, I loved to pass it on to someone else who could use it.

I bought htis book because I am expecting my second child and was at a loss for name ideas. If you are looking for a name, GET THIS BOOK! It's fun and interesting, describing the history of each name, as well as "brother and sister" names that have a similar feel. It's organized very well. This would make a fun baby shower gift.

Most baby name books pride themselves on how many thousands of names are listed within. We found, though, that "20,000 Names" meant, for us, "19,990 Horrible Choices and 10 OK ones." It's not enough to know the Old English root of a name--parents today want to know whether there will be 4 other girls in her kindergarten class by the same moniker, or whether people think the name sounds like a criminal or not.

Pregnant with our second child, we were at a loss to come up with names. We visited friends, who loaned us this book and, one long car trip later, we had working choices for both a girl AND a boy--no small feat for a couple of picky teachers. We liked it so much that we bought another copy for ourselves and have recommended it to everyone we know who is expecting or considering a child.

The best features of The Baby Name Wizard are the graphs showing current and former popularity and the name categories. Somehow Wattenberg has managed to make name choosing seem fun, non-judgemental, and brutally honest, all at the same time. Reading the book, with its well-written explanations, humor, and interesting notes about trends and categories, is like having your smartest friend help you name your baby. After all, it's one of the only parenting choices that will last for a lifetime.

A nice break from the typical "baby name/origin/meaning" books out there. A fun book to read with interesting insights into names and what people may feel towards them through out life. With each name listed with a noted catagory or genre, numbered ranking of popularity and graph, pairing ideas for sibling names, nicknames and some colorful opinions of each name. As far as strange, nothing too out there or unusual to my standard just unused but very usable. All in all i would recommend it as a entertaining, well researched & informative book that you have a very good chance of finding several perfect names from. I myself am torn between Bishop, Tristan & Sebastian. Good luck and congratulations on your new addition!

This book is a must have for anyone looking to name their baby! If you are looking for a book with tradiotional/trendy names, without to many off the wall names, this is your book!! I heard about this book from a friend who also loves it!

A friend of ours has this book and we spent a few hours looking through it. It made us decide to purchase it and we are not sorry! This is the best book to use when choosing a name for your baby! We love it!

Very happy with this book. Unlike the books that fill up pages with thousands of put together letters they call "names", all the name choices in this book are realistic and fun to review. If your looking for unique or not, this book will give you many great ideas on what to name your baby. Good Luck