Rating: Summary: Goes waaaaaay beyond traditional baby naming books Review: I came accross this little gem right before I got pregnant with my son. Bored with traditional baby naming books, the title to this one caught my eye, and boy am I glad I found it. I already owned the first edition which is also great, but this one contains new sections such as president's surnames as first names, and regular words as names. I agree that some of the suggestions were silly at best, but some were intriguing as well. Are you a writer? How about Story for a girl? I think that every first time parent should take a look at this book before making that final decision on what to name their baby. I used to work at a daycare where we had three girls named Jordan in the same class. I'm sure that their parents thought that it was a creative name and had never met another little girl with that name before, but a quick look at this book will let you know that it's one of the trendiest names around. A first time parent who's not around children very much most likely doesn't know what's hot and what's not and this book is invaluable. We had been considering Taylor for a girl before we read this because we thought it sounded unique. How wrong we were! Now, I still think it's a beautiful name, but if I ever do decide to use it at least I'll be prepared for the possiblity that she'll have a couple of other girls with the same name in her class. This is THE book to look at if you want to make sure that you pick out a name you'll love. We decided to name our son William Noel (Will) after much deliberation. William, while popular, is a classic name that will never go out of style, and my grandfather's name was William, so it has special meaning to me. Noel, we just thought sounded good with the first name. Before we read this book, we thought that William was just too common, but the book helped us see that there is a difference between trendy and classic, something that you would never get with a traditional naming book. I am forever grateful to Rosenkrantz and Satran for this GREAT book.
Rating: Summary: Beyond.... Review: I did not find this book to be very helpful. It was poorly organized & did not give name meanings. It could have been much better & more useful.
Rating: Summary: The most awesome baby naming book ever!!! Review: I didn't have Beyond J&J, M&M when I was naming my girls and God knows it would have saved a lot of time and worry if I had!!! I ordered it for a couple of expecting friends of mine after searching Amazon and reading its great reviews. Then I thought, why not order one for myself? I can't put it down! I've always had a fascination with baby names and how they define people in the real world. After reading the book, I was so relieved to know that I had chosen the right names for my twins, and relieved that I had not chosen my alternatives. I would order this for any pregnant friend, but I'm afraid now that all of the good names would start being overly used. :)
Rating: Summary: Buy it ONLY if you do NOT have a previous addition. Review: I had a child two years ago and had the previous addition to this book, which I found invaluable. I was thrilled to see a new book for the new millenium, however the ideas for the "next millenium" baby naming is outradgously stupid, telling you to basically "pick words out of the dictionary". The rest of the book is basically the same as the previous addtuion. Buy it ONLY if you do not have a previous addtion and skip the first section (unless you just want a good laugh).
Rating: Summary: More than a baby name book Review: I have a weird name, Jinx... My husband has a weirder name, Croyus.... So you can see the dilema we were posed with in naming our first child... This book was so complete, right down to the meanings of names, names that movie stars have, old 86'ed names, unusual names and much more. I can not tell you how pleased I was with this book.. Even though we have our baby's name chosen now, we still like to pick up this book and read more about names.. This book is more than just lists, its explanations..
Rating: Summary: Overrated and not very useful Review: I have had a difficult time selecting which baby name books to buy as they all seem very similar. I selected "Beyond Jennifer & Jason" because it seemed to stand out from the crowd of Lansky, etc. I was about halfway through when I realized that the author was just listing the same names over and over again. She came up with different types of lists but inserted names she had used for previous lists. This book is a waste of time and money and was not at all helpful to me. I probably would have been better off sorting through a baby name "dictionary" type of book.
Rating: Summary: Very Helpful and Entertaining! Review: I have the original Beyond Jennifer and Jason book, and I'd like to look at this updated one. One of the things that I like is the way they help parents choose names for siblings. I'm having a second child, and this will help me find a name that sounds great with my first child's name. I know I'll be signing the names together on cards, and saying their names in the same sentence all the time, so this will be a big help!
Rating: Summary: Lists Names, Nothing More Review: I love looking through baby name books, and, truth be told, I was running out of names for my Sims, so I picked this one up.
Although lengthy, the book gives you lists of names. Never once did I see a definition or a reason why a certain name is popular. I like unique names, but there are no prenunciation keys or anything helpful.
Just lists.
Famous names, names famous people used for their kids, unique middle names, and, of course, the most popular names. There's a lot of overlapping--the list of most popular names in Canada and the US and the UK are devastatingly similar. Even more disappointing is the part where they start listing popular names in other countries, and I flip the page to find the list of 100 in the US quickly dwindles through France and Ireland to not even five in Middle Eastern countries.
Just when this book starts getting interesting, they ruin it by forgetting the follow-through. I would like to have seen a history on each name, reasons why they are popular, and a pronunciation key to help sound out difficult, unique names. I finally ended up flipping through the index, picking out names for my Sims, then sending it back.
Rating: Summary: a great book for pregnant anthropologists Review: I loved it...I had the 1994 version when I was pregnant with my son, and my husband and I have always been very happy with our choice-- Harry (a name we both liked but had not taken as a serious possibility until BJ&J). While this edition has some redundant parts, it was necessary for me to discern which names are now, five years later, suffering from incipient overuse. And their suggestion about picking names out of a (regular) dictionary helped us to come up with the perfect name for our daughter: Winsome (with Winnie as a nickname in case she's not).
Rating: Summary: Great book; Different from others Review: I loved the way this book organized the baby names. I have several other books that just list names from A-Z and it is SO time consuming to read through every name! In this book, you can pick and choose which list interests you (such as heritage names or popular names). I think it is a great choice.
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