The Baby Name Countdown: Popularity and Meanings of Today's Baby Names

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: My husband and I love this book. One of the major criteria for choosing our daughter's name was that the name was not too popular. This book gives a general popularity rating along with regional lists and lists of changing popularity over time. Also this book has the most extensive list of names I have ever seen in a baby name book. We spent hours reading this book even after we had chosen a name!

Rating:
Summary: Baby Name Countdown
Review: This book definitely has a lot of names, but it is overwhelming and hard to use. There is a decent listing of popular names and their meanings (although the details provided regarding origin, alternate spellings, etc. are very sparse), but the section on unusual names is nearly useless. There are thousands of names, printed in very small print, with no information about any of them (origin, meaning, etc.). I regret buying this book because there are much more reasonably priced books that do a much better job of guiding your decision.

Rating:
Summary: Baby Name Countdown
Review: This book was kind of disappointing because it only listed names without giving many descriptions, meanings or alternate spellings. It did however, give popular name lists for different areas of the country as well as ranks for previous decades. It does contain A LOT of names, but they are only in list form with nothing of use to help in deciding if a particular name would be good for you. I would prefer a book with more substance even if this one did have more names than any others I've found.