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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Baby-Name Book I've Yet Come Across, 1 Nov 1998
By A Customer
This book would have been more accurately titled "A Survey of Personal Names Used in English-Speaking Countries".Other than in its being misnamed, though, I found this book to be quite impressive. Attesting to the scholarly integrity of the compilers/authors, the book is a collection of names actually attested as used in English speaking countries, including those of non-English-language origin. (Some books seem to list an assortment of names from exotic languages as "suggestions" for what parents COULD name their children, while this book simply and honestly notes what English-speaking parents actually DO name their children). While not including as many entries as some other notable baby-name books, this book seems to contain a large number of names used in countries throughout the English-speaking world throughout recorded history (as long as those historically-used names are still considered current). Of course, as in many other such books, for many of the names are listed famous bearers of and common impressions associated with those names, as well as variant spellings and "pet" forms. But I found this book especially impressive in the detail and apparent accuracy of its etymologies, as well as the notes on historical usage and popularity. Other than the inaccuracy of the title, I noticed only two (minor) flaws in the book. The first, in common with other books of the kind, is a lack of an unambiguous guide to the pronunciation of the foreign words from which so many modern English names stem. The other is an exceptionally large number of typographical errors, such as m-o-d-e-m for m-o-d-e-r-n and t-b-e for t-h-e. I recommend this book.
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