Baby Names Made Easy: The Complete Reverse-Dictionary of Baby Names

by Amanda Elizabeth Barden

Looking for a name that means something special to you?

Given the dizzying array of choices available, picking the right name for your baby can be daunting. Why waste hours looking through one long alphabetical list of names just to burn out even before you’ve run through A, B, and C? In this creative twist on the traditional name book, Baby Names Made Easy offers selections organized into categories of meaning, making it easier than ever to choose a name that is significant to you.

Traditional or trendy, American in origin or from all over the globe, the names here cover an array of topics. For example, look

-Animals & Insects (and find “Naia”—Hawaiian for “dolphin”)

-Victory (and find “Vincent”—Latin for “conquerer”)

-Love & Affection (and find “Mia”—Italian for “mine”)

-Religion & Faith (and find “Dev”—Sanskrit for “God”)

The book's handy alphabetical index makes cross-referencing easy, so you can find the perfect name in no time. Baby Names Made Easy is a practical and one-of-a-kind reference for anyone searching for the most important gift they can give their child.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 2009

About the author

Hello! I’m so glad you stopped by my page. I talk about names mostly – baby name recommendations, my thoughts about the names in the books I'm reading, name trivia, quotes about names… if it’s name related, you'll find it here. I'd love to hear what you think about the names in the books you're reading.

Happy naming ♥ Amanda

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Reviews

[Lesli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite baby name books I checked out from the library. She arranges them by topic, ie nature, religion, etc. Which was great because meaning of names is a big thing for me. My son's means, "God is my salvation" and my daughter's name reverences religion and the month she was born. It was great because it had a glossary to look up names, which was useful, because the were arranged by topic then alphabetical order.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best baby names book that I've ever seen! So much more original and interesting than the standard methods of organizing names. It goes by meaning (my preferred way of finding a name) rather than alphabetical order. It's great!

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really well organized with name suggestions listed by type of meaning (animals, royalty, nature, astronomy, etc). Our baby still doesn't have a name but I enjoyed reading this anyway.

[Jennifer Cassidy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing and colorful book of names galore.
I just love looking up the meanings of words and
unique names.

[Pickle Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am actually obsessed with baby names.

[Peter Wolfley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the approach to this one and the author did a great job collecting names under very meaningful themes. I love when names are given because of their meanings and not just on how they sound. Names can be a great source of inspiration.

[Zoey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was specifically looking for a name book organized by meaning, and this fit the bill. It has a clean layout and is easy to navigate. As with many name books, the author's affinity for her subject is charming, and this collection seems to have been a labor of love. I appreciate the way that multiple spellings and origins are given. Also, the author takes care to ensure that names with more than one meaning appear in multiple sections. Armed with my own short list of possible first names, I used this book to hunt for meaningful middle names.
The one critique I have is that (probably for the sake of brevity and clarity) the author neglects to include connotations of certain names that might actually overshadow their literal meanings. For instance, Bathsheba is defined as "seventh daughter; daughter of the oath," but there is no mention of the Biblical Bathsheba who is linked to King David. Similarly, the name "Ganesa" is defined as Hindi for "fortunate," but while I imagine that this is due to the word being derived from the name of the Hindu god, Ganesha, this salient detail is not mentioned. Many of the names listed in a section called "No Meaning" would actually carry powerful significance in my mind due to the famous places and people (London, Poseidon, Perseus, Socrates) that initially bore these names! As a result, this book is quite helpful if you're looking for a name with a specific meaning, but I would certainly look elsewhere as well in order to get a full sense of the name's history and origin. If literal meaning matters to you, these relevant details may as well!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

So Dan doesn't like my choice in names so far so I actually read a baby name book. (OK so I really just read the girls names and glanced occasionally at the boy names.) The format of grouping the names by meaning/subject was fun and the alphabetical index was nice. But I don't really pick my babies' names by meaning so that didn't matter to much. I made a list of possibilities but we'll see what happens.

[Emily Righter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since meaning is more important to us than, say, first letter when we're naming a kid, I really liked that this had the reverse look-up layout. And yes, I read every word. Naming a kid is a big responsibility, and also a fun hobby. :)

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a little redundant, but if you want one organized by meaning rather than alphabetical, this is great! Fairly easy to skim if you are looking for a name from a particular language or culture.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

This baby names book was fine, but not quite good enough to hold my attention, and I didn't like the book's organization.