The Baby Name Wizard: Book Review

As we all know, I'm having some trouble deciding on a baby name for our little boy (arriving in October). I do have several picked out though, so I think I'm good to go. When I see the baby, I have a feeling I will know the name. But during my name search, I found the book The Baby Name Wizard by Laura Wattenberg to be very helpful. It's written differently than most baby name books. Usually when you buy a baby book it has 10,000 names in a list format. This one definitely has fewer names, but it also comes with name suggestions. For example, if you like the name Oscar then you will probably like the names Julius, Max, Edgar, Victor, Lucy, Amelia and so on. These are actually labeled, "brother and sister" names because they go well together. So if you look up your current child's name, then you can branch off from there.

I wouldn't buy this as my one and only baby book though, unless I intended to use websites as well such as babynames.com. It doesn't have a ton of names, so it does limit you a bit. It's a trade off. You lose names, but it gives you ideas that lead to more names. If you are looking for a country/religion specific name, then this may not be the best book. It does have a lot of European and Biblical names, but if you flip to the Muslim or African names, it's almost non-existent.

To sum it up, while other baby books are just mindless lists, this one actually gives you suggestions and makes the search a little more interesting (and addictive even). I would recommend this book to anyone, but I would suggest buying another book with it or using the web.

Names I've researched thanks to this book:

1. Emmett (in first place)
2. Adam
3. Eliot
4. Theo

Just to name a few.

Do you have any great baby name resources to share?

I've also noticed that several people name their children after a relative. Is this something you did or plan to do? I did this with my first child, but I'm not so concerned with my second child. Any thoughts on this?