Baby name books

[Frida9]

Does anyone have recommendations of a good baby name book? We like traditional names but there are so many books out there and on Amazon every one of them has reviews saying "obvious names missed" or "not good for those looking for traditional names".

Just use the Internet...the world's biggest book of baby names

@CatBed22

Just use the Internet...the world's biggest book of baby names

I think I'm just finding online a bit overwhelming and if I see them written in a book I'm lees likely to miss something

Wouldn't it be the opposite?

@CatBed22

Wouldn't it be the opposite?

Not for me. Going through 12 different websites and having thousands of names on each and then forgetting which websites I was on is overwhelming for me. Seeing them written in a book and being able to make notes in said book would be easier for me.

I would also recommend the internet and then asking people about it here when you are unsure about meanings and backgrounds.

Many baby name books are full with wrong pronunciations and meanings. Especially meanings.

If I had to get one get the Oxford Dictionary of First Names. At least they won't be lying about meanings.

The reason why so many baby name books lie is because people are more likely to buy when they look up their own name and it says something nice. They will put nice meanings for names that have no meanings or bad ones.

Thanks @Snowbell99, am I odd in that I don't really care about name meanings? Like I appreciate the significance of family names etc but I'm not choosing my child's name based on what it supposedly means. I'd rather have a name that I just liked and that sounded right.

No, it's fine. Just choose something you love! I like interesting meanings and stories. But everyone is different.

Maybe see if your local library has a couple to borrow?

@Frida9

Does anyone have recommendations of a good baby name book? We like traditional names but there are so many books out there and on Amazon every one of them has reviews saying "obvious names missed" or "not good for those looking for traditional names".

The reason that all the books on Amazon have people saying that there are names missed is because it's impossible for a book to list every single name!! On the Internet that is possible. All books will naturally have this problem, So, you need to decide if you want a couple of imperfect books or to find a good website you like. The library is a good shout.

I found mine in a charity shop. It was ace. Far more information than online.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Maybe see if your local library has a couple to borrow?

I was just going to suggest this.

Personally I found websites quite limited. They tend to have a lot of currently popular names - so you just get a lot of names that all the other kids will be called, and rubbishy names like Dove, Moon, Bambi.

The only name books I really like are those aimed at a specific audience. E.g. I have a book that's specifically about French names, and another that's specifically about Spanish names. They include a lot of cultural information about the names rather they just meanings. I don't own any books that are about traditional English names but there might be some out there.

Those books that have titles like "100,000 Cool Names for Your Baby!!" are basically an assortment of entirely random names from all over the world with some dubious meanings attached and aren't worth reading in my experience.

Ps the only internet sources I really used were the ONS baby names top 1000 lists. That covers a lot of names but yeah I guess not very very niche ones

Some one recommends watching end credits for name ideas

This book is very scholarly (Oxford University Press) and is available in concise form online for free:
www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198610601.001.0001/acref-9780198610601
You can often find cheap second-hand copies, as well.

Most babyname websites are full of mistakes and all kinds of made-up rubbish..

These websites are the most accurate :

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/ Really interesting.

www.behindthename.com/ The main entries are pretty reliable; the contributions added by readers less so (but they are clearly identified as such, with a warning that they've not been checked by the website's editors).

This website is based on government (ONS) statistics for England and Wales and gives accurate popularity figures and also naming trends since the 1990s (fascinating).
names.darkgreener.com/

Sorry, Snowbell, I had not seen that you'd already mentioned the Oxford book. Did not wish to duplicate your good advice.

Not a problem!

And I agree about behindthename. It has really good lists.