Rating: 
Summary: A Fun Read
Review: Beyond Jennier and Jason and Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby is a good name book and has interesting catagories and ideas but some of the names they say are outdated and too old fashioned actually seem to be making comebacks. Other then that it's a fun book to read.Only other complaint I really have is that they give some very interesting names but don't give the pronunciations but I did like this book and I recommend it, but just be aware that it's not your typical name book where the boy and girl names are seperate and listed alpabetically and is really rather random.
Rating:
Summary: Go beyond simply naming your kids!
Review: Despite the fact that I already have two children-with names-and I don't anticipate having any more, I routinely make use of this handy little book. Several months ago, a stray cat appeared on our front porch-in urgent need of an appropriate name. We found just the right one: "Kitty," which is listed four separate times on pages 36, 131, 201, and 220. "Kitty" was described as a "homestyle" name. And since this delightful cat was living a life of rural simplicity in its new home, it seemed only fitting. Perhaps I should also tell you about how the book helped us when it came time to name our dogs. I realize that this is somewhat of a digression, but I think it helps illustrate both some of the book's strong points as well as weak points. When we bought our first dog, a chocolate Labrador retriever, we named him Harley. (Most people think that we named the dog after the motorcycle, but we didn't-we used this book). "Harley" is listed on page 174 with forty-seven other "macho" names. When I searched the Internet, however, "Harley" appears both as a boy's name and girl's name, derived from Old English. My one editorial comment to the authors would be to reclassify "Harley" as an "ambisexual" name, and list it between "Jordan" and "Kai" on page 191. Our own dog, however, was anything but ambisexual, as he proved to us when he escaped one day and impregnated the neighbor's dog. We were happy to welcome a new puppy into our home several months later, and when the time came to pick a name, I pulled the book off the shelf, and began yet another search for just the right moniker. We settled on the name Jack, which is listed sixteen separate times in the book. A popular name, you might suspect, and rightly so. Jack is described as one of the "Volvo" names-a classic. (I assumed it didn't mean that the name had airbags or would hold up well in a crash). Beyond the book's usefulness in naming children and pets, I find it extraordinarily helpful when I'm writing a new story, and need to find appropriate names for all the characters. The index at the back of the book is one of its most helpful features. So, if you're expecting a child, buying a canary, or just hatching a story on your computer, get this book. It's well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Jennifer and Jason: Entertaining and Informative
Review: I found this book very interesting and amusing at times, and since reading it, I have developed an obsession with names. I was impressed with their idea to separate the book into four categories, and I especially liked Image. I believe that these two talented writers are truly experts on the subject. I found that they knew exactly which names fell under what categories. Congratulations on a great book, and here's hoping that another edition will be published in later years.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!!!!!!
Review: I loved every minute of reading this book. I have read it cover to cover at least 3 times. I keep it by my bed and reread parts of it when I can't sleep. This book is incredibly helpful. I have let friends borrow it and have even purchased an extra copy for one of my good friends. I highly reccommend this book to everyone. I love it and I'm not even pregnant!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: lots of food for thought
Review: I think of this as kind of a "companion" book for people researching names - I don't know that it would really fill the bill to be the one and only source a couple uses to make their final decision, but it really motivates you to put some effort into coming up with the most permanent gift you will ever give your child. Whether or not one agrees with the highly subjective evaluations the authors give names on many levels, the book provides food for thought on aspects I certainly wouldn't have thought about. Plus: it reads amazingly easily - as opposed to 99% of other books I ploughed through, which became a chore. One weakness: names from other cultural backgrounds. While these are included - and not just as politically correct oddities, but as valid and even "hip" choices - I question where they were drawn from or how chosen for inclusion. As a native German speaker, I was very interested to see the German list. Given that it was, as can be expected, small (for more extensive lists I would logically look elsewhere than this type of book)I was surprised at how many names were inlcluded that I had never heard of before - much less known anyone of that name. If the German list was so skewed, I would assume that other language groups were as well.
Rating:
Summary: lots of food for thought
Review: I think of this as kind of a "companion" book for people researching names - I don't know that it would really fill the bill to be the one and only source a couple uses to make their final decision, but it really motivates you to put some effort into coming up with the most permanent gift you will ever give your child. Whether or not one agrees with the highly subjective evaluations the authors give names on many levels, the book provides food for thought on aspects I certainly wouldn't have thought about. Plus: it reads amazingly easily - as opposed to 99% of other books I ploughed through, which became a chore. One weakness: names from other cultural backgrounds. While these are included - and not just as politically correct oddities, but as valid and even "hip" choices - I question where they were drawn from or how chosen for inclusion. As a native German speaker, I was very interested to see the German list. Given that it was, as can be expected, small (for more extensive lists I would logically look elsewhere than this type of book)I was surprised at how many names were inlcluded that I had never heard of before - much less known anyone of that name. If the German list was so skewed, I would assume that other language groups were as well.
Rating:
Summary: Go beyond naming your kids!
Review: I'll be honest with you. I have two children already, and I used this book to help select names for both of them. I even wrote margin notes, and devised complicated mathematical formulas to help determine the best fit for the baby. First, the initials could not spell any horrendous words like: BAD, or SAP. Secondly, the name had to be simple and easy to spell. It's no good challenging a kindergarten student to write her name out as Rebeckka, when the teacher would be over her shoulder in an instant telling her to write it correctly. How about just Becky. Not Bekki, or Becci, or Bahki. Keep it simple. This book will show you how. If you?re wondering why I still keep this book dog-eared on my desk I will tell you now. If you?re not interested, just skip to the end, and vote. This little book is a treasure trove of names for the scores of characters that appear in my short fiction and poems who all need unique names. The Internet has plenty of baby name sites, but this book is a lot easier than scrolling through page after page on a cranky web site that flashes annoying ads the whole time. Get this book if you're thinking of having kids, or perhaps need some help picking a nice name for that delightful mother-in-law character in your first novel. The book also comes in handy for naming pets. We have a cat named Ben, and a dog named Jack. If we ever get a fish tank, I?ll flip to the index, and start naming away.
Rating:
Summary: More useful than lists of names and their meanings
Review: Innovative and interesting. Useful for those of us who want more than a list of names and their meanings. I particularly liked the analysis of naming trends and the connotations that names have.
Rating: 
Summary: We're as obsessive about names as parents are!
Review: Linda and I have both always had a passion for names, and the idea for this book sprang from the difficulty I had finding the perfect name for my first child. We set out to write a book that talked about names the same way parents-to-be talk about them -- in real life, down to earth terms. Does Emma sound pretty? Substantial enough? We love it, but will there be a million other Emmas? What are some other names that have that classic yet stylish feel? Those are the kinds of important questions we help parents grapple with. After 12 years and five name books, we know we help parents find names they love almost as much as their children, and that they'll feel great about forever after.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for brainstorming, but...
Review: My wife Jennifer and I (Jason, believe it or not) received this book as a sort of gag gift. Initially, we found it useful for naming our baby. However, as other reviewers have mentioned, the book does not include much in the way or origins or meanings, if that is important to you. Also, the book seems to spend as much time detailing "bad" and "old" names as it does suggesting new, fresh ones. We also found quite a bit of repetition between the authors' various categories. Overall, we found the book useful and amusing at first, but I'm not sure it helped us to finalize our baby's name. If you are looking for a "traditional" or "conservative" name, this may not be the book for you. But if you want to go off the beaten path, I would think that this would be a good place to start...
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