Rating: 
Summary: King of the jungle of baby name books
Review: Before becoming a dad (well, I will be one in October), if you paid to me I would have never guessed I'd be reading a book on this topic today, but you see: here I am, browsing through a handful of books off of the shelves looking for ideas. Here's our case: my wife and I wanted to name our baby with a beautiful name (how original, huh?) that is not repeated anywhere near (family and close friends) and that plays well both ways, in English AND Spanish without anyone needing to twist their mouths to pronounce it.I had a chance to check out this book by Teresa Norman, and found it to be the best among books of baby names. What I liked most about it was the classificacion by geographic origin (American, French, Arabic, etc.) which opened up a whole new window into names we would have normally not considered that actually were not invented by the author, or derived from brands (like I saw in some other book that I prefer to refrain from quoting). Beside that, each name is explained in detail so you can learn more about its origin, meaning, etc. Also worth considering is "From Aaron to Zoe".
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Summary: Wonderful For Writers
Review: I bought another baby name book, 10001 Baby Names, and hardly use it. My old standby, the New Age Baby Name Book, used to name my now teenager, is alpha girl section boy section. This one is far more useful because of the division by ethnicity. For my purposes, I'm often making up character names and use an ethnic group as a basis sometimes, and name my characters from Earth out of this book. It's easy to use, and I can use the meanings as whatever purpose in the story, too. I haven't found any outright errors in what names I'm using, although I've noticed that some of the meanings are different between New Age Baby Name Book and this one, but I only have a little knowledge of how to pronounce German [4 quarters in college long ago] so I can't say how accurate her research is. I can say that she writes very interesting copy and I often enjoy just looking at the background notes. Apparently someone at Perigee Books listens; older reviews complain of the lack of an index and there is an extensive one in the edition I bought 3 months ago. Teresa Norman's bibliography looks good, and she cites some works from university presses. I saw complaints from other reviewers and would like to mention that any published author has no control over proofreaders who think they know more about how to spell than the author. No author proofreads her own book. What we see in published form is a team effort, so maybe Perigee should hear from you with the knowledge of particular spelling errors etc. Teresa Norman herself might thank you! I have never been published, but know several authors [not Teresa Norman!] and a movie producer...
Rating:
Summary: Best Name Book I've Used
Review: I found this book to be the best available. It provides alternate spellings, pronunciation, origins, meanings, connotations, histories, tailored to a particular culture where appropriate (a name may have certain connotations in one culture, others in another). I enjoyed seeing the names broken down by culture as well as girl/boy, though an index would seem essential in a future printing. As well I appreciated the detail, rather than one-word, often misleading meanings given for names in other titles. The only baby name book I've ever purchased.
Rating:
Summary: LOVE this book!!
Review: I have this book checked out from the library and I know I HAVE to buy it. I have always loved to read name books and this is the neatest one I've ever seen! I love the vast variety of names and especially love how it tells the pronunciation of each name! I don't care if many of them are slightly incorrect - I don't expect the author to know all the languages exactly. There are few other name books that have pronunciation guides and I really appreciate it:)
Rating: 
Summary: Another inaccurate and poorly researched book!
Review: I just borrowed this book from the library today. I caught a few typos from the Vietnamese names, the Southeast Asian section. I felt insulted by the author because she mangled some of the Vietnamese baby names. What makes the Vietnamese language unique compared to other Asian languages is that it uses the Roman alphabet. Moreover, the words carry a completely different meaning when one changes from one diacritical mark to another. Norman not only mispelled, misinterpreted but also gave incorrect phonetics on a majority of the Vietnamese names in the Southeast Asian section. A Vietnamese first name usually represents a person economic or family educational background; for example, muoi is rather a word than a common Vietnamese name; One may see this name from the countryside person or from someone with a lower economic background. The same applies to the word 'cai'. As for the girl names, 'mieu' doesn't mean 'salt', 'mieu' means 'shrine'; 'muoi' on the other hand means either 'salt' or 'ten' because it depends on where the diacritical mark lands on the vowels. As for the boy names, she mispelled 'Vang' as 'Dan'. Nghia doesn't mean forever, it depends on whatever the second word comes after it. Like Ellefson, Norman seriously lacks genuine authorship in introducing another culture, especially Vietnamese. She is plainly inaccurate and culturally illiterate. She is very bold for charging buyer for this junk. It is a minor of offense to copy the word from a dictionary; however, it is a serious offense when one misinterprets the language and mangles the the meaning of a word. If she is wrong when it comes to Vietnames names, I have questions about her knowledge of other cultures' names. I would give her "0" stars if I had the choice. Don't waste your money buying this ...
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but too many mistakes.
Review: I really like this book, having bought two copies of it. (I lost the first.) But I have a lot of problems with it, too. First off, I speak German fluently, so I can tell that a lot of the names in that section she does not provide the correct pronunciation of. It has to make you wonder about the names in the other sections. Also, she cops out, often, saying only that a name is "of uncertain etymology", without even saying what it is thought (or even popularly held) to mean. Lastly, I tend to evaluate the comprehensiveness of baby name books by whether or not they have my name (Sabra). This one didn't!
Rating:
Summary: if you're don't have any ideas, this book will confuse you.
Review: I spent nearly $15 for this book. I would exxpect to get more information from it. There is really nothing original in this book. Alot of the names sound the same. If you have no idea what you're looking for you will be confused.
Rating: 
Summary: Good resource but no index
Review: I was thrilled to find a name book that had my name, which is one that is common among Arabic-speaking peoples, but somehow manages to elude most dictionaries of baby names. I use baby-name books primarily to research interesting names for characters in stories. Unfortunately, the book has no index. Unless you know the origin of the name for which you are looking, or are just browsing by country/culture, there is no way to look up the meaning of a particular name. Sometimes an entry will say, "See (similar name)" but not indicate at all where to look in particular. I hope that a subsequent edition will correct this unfortunate omission.
Rating:
Summary: helpful for multicultural families
Review: My husband and I have very different cultural backgrounds, this book proved to be a tremendous help to decide on our daughter's name. It is true (as mentionned in previous reviews) that sometimes the author did not include the most preferred/usual spelling and chose to use less common versions instead. Granted there are a few mistakes in the pronunciation of some names, however, it was a great tool for my husband and I since we were looking for a bilingual name that would be easy to pronounce both in French and English.
The index makes it easy to cross reference a name within the various ethnicities it is associated with. The variety of names presented is very appealing as well and makes for an inspiring and useful tool while looking for the perfect name.
Overall, I will definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a bilingual name. This is by far the book we referred to the most often before making our decision for our daughter's name.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Set up first by origin then male alpha followed by female alpha for each section. Tells the stories of names that come with stories to tell instead of just glossing over and assuming you know them already. The only thing of any annoyance with this book is that you need the origin to find the name or else you waste time flipping through looking for it in every country. A list in the back or front of the names and origins (only) would be appreciated if this is reprinted. On the plus side? Of course it would be the joy upon finding the name with pronounciation, historic meaning, nicknames and alternate spellings as well as those wonderful stories.
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