The good news is that my wife is expecting our second child and we are thrilled! The bad news is that, if it's a boy, he may never have a name. The girl name was easy, deciding on a boy name is proving harder than cleaning up after our three-year-old gets into the LEGOs.
Which brings us to the subject of today's post: baby name books. There are a lot out there, including one that touts 100,000+ names. This is a subject where you shouldn't necessarily go for quantity. Often they are counting multiple spelling variations of the same name. [Full disclosure: I have not looked at the book with 100,000+ names, so I'm not referring specifically to that one. It may be a great book.]
We've really enjoyed looking through A is for Atticus, which is a collection of names from great works of literature. I think you can all guess why that was a must-have baby-naming book for me. The book that has been hands-down the most helpful is The Baby Name Wizard. It's not just a list of names and meanings. Each name includes a list of other names that would make good choices for brothers and sisters. We've already looked up our son's name and our prospective girl name is included in the list of sister possibilities! Also, names are categorized into things like "Timeless" or "Nickname-Proof," so if you find a name you like, you can check the list of categories to find other names with similar traits. It's all of this cross-referencing that makes this book so much fun and so helpful.
So, for the 5%* of you who are expecting or who know someone who is, this is absolutely THE best baby name book! Plus, they also have a website for even more research.
*yes, I made up that percentage.
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