The Penguin Book of Baby Names Paperback – January 1, 2009

I love this book! It's simple and elegant. I had a couple more other baby name books previous to this one and I was getting tired of dumb names i.e. Apple, Cinnamon, Cal-El, Inkabauau (really?!) and so on. I was looking for a somewhat unique name but c'mon! I felt like my husband and I were seeing only the silly names than good, potential names. In the beginning it's funny, but it gets old quick, frustrating and exhausting (esp. when you're pregnant!)The thing about this book is that it's short, sweet, and yes, there are some unique but not outrageous names. We found a name we loved (I found two I wanted in just the D's!) and we went with it, thanks to this book. We get great comments about our son's name and how we decided on it. This book basically cuts the bs from the other name books and focuses on names we'd actually be happy with and use. With a PhD in linguistics, he definitely knows his origins and meanings.I also downloaded it on my Kindle and it was so easy to read and go through.

Overall, not a bad little baby name book. It is pretty obvious from the beginning that it is UK-centric (e.g. lots of Welsh and Irish and Indian names). If that is about right for you, then this is a great choice. If you want something more broad, then I would choose a different book.The names are not consistent in providing etymology, pronunciation, and meaning, but that didn't bother me. I mostly wanted a hard copy that I could dog ear.

This Is a good book to buy I found quite a bit of names I like. This is a shorter book than most baby names books because they leave out all those extremely weird, hard to say names, that would never be used here in America. They keep it simple and still include a lot of unique names that are usable.

In the last week I have bought 5 books on naming your baby and this one by far the best. Well organised, in an alphabetical order and all variations of the name in the same place or with a link to look up.

really nice reference. thorough descriptions. extremely wide selection - this was just what i was looking for. i highly recommend it!

I found the names to be typical names - I didn't find one name that I liked.

My friend is obsessed with penquins and she just found out she is pregnant. This was perfect.

Good for giving ideas when expecting our baby…. However our chosen name (Everly) wasn’t even in the book and I believe it’s a growing name in popularity!

Plenty of names to choose from

The Penguin Book of Baby Names has two purposes: one as a dictionary and one as a baby name book. The good news is that both function equally well, as this book can simultaneously offer parents advice on naming a child while also giving helpful information and meanings for each name. The entries are reasonable - the reason it has fewer entries than similar books is because the names are picked well, so readers don't have to worry about names that nobody would ever consider.The only con is the book's habit of listing nicknames/derivations with no text or meaning beyond a redirect - about a quarter of the names on each page fall into this habit.However, the pros very much outshadow the cons, and I personally think that this book is a success.

I liked Germantrude the Mrs liked Albert. Hmmmm is the child going to be a boy or a girl? Charlie, now that name can go either way. I personally think Benjamina has a ring for a future world Dominatrix... So the book may.... or may not??? Help you.

I don't think it has lots of names but it had enough for us to choose one. I am not sure if the descriptions are necessary as you can find a more extended in wikipedia.