A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford Paperback Reference)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in A Dictionary of First Names (Oxford Paperback Reference) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
I have returned to this dictionary again and again for sheer pleasure. Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times full of anecdotal material as well as historical facts Glasgow Herald
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Glasgow Herald
"full of anecdotal material as well as historical facts"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
60 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I own about 20 books of names in four languages, not because I am having a baby, but because I am writing a novel. This is the first book of names that I enjoyed reading. The commentaries are fascinating and facilitate coining unique character names. I was especially impressed by the inclusion of Basque names. The book includes a small selection of Arab and Indian names, but lacks names from Japan, China and the rest of East Asia.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the Daddy of name books, which all others should tremble before.
Your average name book will give you the name, assign it an often arbitrary nationality, and give it a one word "meaning". Not the Oxford. Here you get the etymology, origin and history of each name, and information on its usage. It also tells you the international forms and nicknames. They have clearly put in the research; I have never spotted a factual error in it.
It's organised alphabetically, without splitting into 'girls' names' and 'boys' names'; instead, it puts either a male symbol, a female symbol or both next to the name, explaining the changing usage patterns of a "unisex" name such as Shirley or Taylor. It's British but tells you whether a name is particularly popular in, say, America or Australia.
It also includes appendices of names from lots of other languages, including for example Welsh, Arabic, Spanish and Scandinavian, although the information in the appendices is less detailed and of course, fewer names are included as there would hardly be room for every name in every country. It often cross-references from the main dictionary to an appendix, e.g. Declan will send you to Deaglan in the Irish section.
As if all that wasn't enough! It also includes lists of the most popular names circa 2004 in most English speaking countries, and an overview of what names have been popular in previous decades.
Informative guide for parents and also very readable for those interested in names to flick through or use as a reference guide.
And extra props for not having a picture of a baby on the front, or indeed the word 'baby' - not everybody interested in names is pregnant!
Your average name book will give you the name, assign it an often arbitrary nationality, and give it a one word "meaning". Not the Oxford. Here you get the etymology, origin and history of each name, and information on its usage. It also tells you the international forms and nicknames. They have clearly put in the research; I have never spotted a factual error in it.
It's organised alphabetically, without splitting into 'girls' names' and 'boys' names'; instead, it puts either a male symbol, a female symbol or both next to the name, explaining the changing usage patterns of a "unisex" name such as Shirley or Taylor. It's British but tells you whether a name is particularly popular in, say, America or Australia.
It also includes appendices of names from lots of other languages, including for example Welsh, Arabic, Spanish and Scandinavian, although the information in the appendices is less detailed and of course, fewer names are included as there would hardly be room for every name in every country. It often cross-references from the main dictionary to an appendix, e.g. Declan will send you to Deaglan in the Irish section.
As if all that wasn't enough! It also includes lists of the most popular names circa 2004 in most English speaking countries, and an overview of what names have been popular in previous decades.
Informative guide for parents and also very readable for those interested in names to flick through or use as a reference guide.
And extra props for not having a picture of a baby on the front, or indeed the word 'baby' - not everybody interested in names is pregnant!
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have to disagree with the people who say this book is not suitable for choosing baby names, as that's exactly why I bought it and it has been much more useful than the actual "baby name books". Of course there are plenty of names in it that I wouldn't choose, but that's purely down to personal taste and is the case with any name book. The advantages of this one, as far as I'm concerned, are (1) that it gives you a more detailed account of the name's meaning and history, rather than just a one-word meaning; (2) that because of this, and because it's from a reputable publisher, I feel that the accounts it gives are more likely to be accurate; and (3) that it cross-references related names for both sexes. The only downside for me was that I'd have liked a list of Cornish names along with the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, etc.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sara
I got this for my book I am writing and I must say the names are fantastic and some I had never heard of. It has the symbols to say if it is a mans name or a womans name
Published 15 months ago by animals
Good for Baby Naming and Names Geeks alike
Like one of the other reviewers, I need names books for writing and naming characters appropriately, but I confess to being a fully paid-up, card-holding names geek before, and... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lucinda
Okay but could be better
I also bought this because of rave reviews but turned out disappointed. Not good for naming babies but just for the history of old fancy names you only read in books. Read more
Published on 8 July 2008 by Boudica P. Nuit
Not very useful, old fashioned and limited
I bought this book after reading all the good reviews and comments and ignoring the one negative review. Well, I wish I hadn't. Read more
Published on 22 May 2008 by Bocasdeltorro
Baby names
I found this book very helpful. It lists boys and girls names together (using the male/female symbol to differentiate between the two) and includes a discription about the origin... Read more
Published on 31 July 2007 by Shona
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
