Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book To Purchase If Looking For A Ton of Names
Review: 35,000 Baby Names is a very nice collection of names, their meanings, and origins. I have found however that Mr. Lansky's book is lacking when it comes to names from the Far East and traditional names (Jewish, Eskimo, ....) and the African names are not abundant. For an American or Western European I would highly recommend this book. To one who is from a specific ethnic background I would have to point them somewhere else.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, But Second-Rate
Review: Having read in the above hype about Mr. Lansky as being the "the #1 name in baby-names", I was expecting a good deal more than what I found upon actually reading this book.While having more entries than many other baby-name books, "35,000+ Baby Names" is lacking and occasional inaccurate in the details of its etymologies. For example, as a speaker of Japanese, I noticed that the name Hachi is defined as "8,000", whereas it actually means only "8". In Japanese, "8,000" is HASSEN, not HACHI. Further, many names were listed simply as "American Indian". Given that there are even now several hundred different indigenous languages spoken in the Americas, representing historically a large variety of cultures, this is like narrowing the place of origin of the name "Edgar" down to, say . . ., Eurasia! To its advantage, though, the book does include apparently useful advice and "Guidelines" to help parents decide on the best names for their children. "The Where in the World" section, which gives an idea of where the various languages from which many modern names originate are spoken is also interesting, though there are inaccuracies here as well. (Ashanti, an African language, is listed under the Native American heading.) Overall, I was much more positively impressed with the scholarly quality of the book "The New American Dictionary of Baby Names". I do not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Source for Naming Characters in Stories
Review: I enjoy writing stories and since most of them are set in either fantasy worlds and worlds that are like ours, no magic, but still made up, I need a book of names that lists names besides the normal everyday names and this book provides that. The spellings may be creative but they have given me plenty of ideas for having characters with names that are similar to the normal names of today but still different enough to sound otherwordly. I have no idea as to the accuracy of the meanings of the names since all my baby name books contradict each other for the more unusual ones anyway. This may not be the best book for parents wanting to name their child, though I have found several names I would love to use for my children when I have them. Normal sounding but unusual enough not to have twenty other children running around with the same name in the park. All in all I loved this book. It may have its flaws but whenever I need a name for a character I turn to it more often than any of my other ten name books since it is the one of the ones with the unusual names and different spellings.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of mistakes and out of touch
Review: I have to echo the earlier reviewer about this book's treatment of names from different cultures. The author proudly proclaims that he's broadened his cultural reach with this book, with new suggestions for Spanish names -- Sierra and Nevada!! -- and French names -- Brie and Chardonnay!!! It seems that his cultural research didn't extend past the contents of his refrigerator.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the info coming from?
Review: I'm not sure what qualifications Lansky has to write baby name books, but etymologist and onomastician isn't one of them. No one can be an expert on the naming practices of so many cultures, a point that Lansky beautifully demonstrates. His Arabic and Asian sections are way off. Indeed, he must have culled his information from video games, novels and popular misconceptions. For instance he lists Joss as a Chinese name when Joss in fact comes from the Portuguese word for god, "deos". This combination of sounds does not even occur in Chinese! Another is Raiden in the Japanese section, a video game character and not a name the Japanese would give to a person--sort of like naming a baby "Pac-Man". What'll be in the next revision? Pokemon? Additionally, Chinese and Arabic names are simply everyday words used as names, so that there isn't a special pool of names to pick from. The rest of the sections are equally sloppy and suspect. If you really want a name from a specific ethnicity I would suggest getting a book concentrating on just that culture instead.
Rating:
Summary: OUR BABY NAMES
Review: NAMES BEGINING WITH ALPHA "K" & "S"
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it
Review: Not comprehensive. Full of weird, out there names.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it
Review: Not comprehensive. Full of weird, out there names.
Rating:
Summary: This book is dreadful
Review: The names are bizarre and the tally is ridiculous. They consider "Ceejay" a name, short for C.J. Enough said.
Rating:
Summary: Great, but there are holes
Review: This book was interesting in its diversity of names. However, upon cross-checking some of the meanings, I found that many of them are inaccurate. This book is great if you just want a large list of names. However, I would suggest double-checking the meaning of the names you chose, especially if they are not "common" names.
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