Baby Names

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

With over a dozen “baby names” books readily available, ranging in price from 69¢ to $6.00, from the handy Dell purse book to the New Age Baby Name Book of exotic names, the arrival of yet another book is surprising — especially when the new book has little to recommend itself.

Baby Names lists approximately 1,800 girls’ names in its own sequence and about the same number of boys’ names. Nicknames, variations, and various spellings of names are main entries in the alphabetical sequence and do not appear with the usual form of the name. For example, “Bill” is under B and “William” under W, but there is no cross reference between William and Bill. An expectant parent wondering what nicknames son William may endure is thus left uninformed, unless he or she reads the whole sequence of names and takes notes. Short forms of names are also included as main entries; for example, “Bev short for Beverly.” Considerably fewer than 3,600 usable names are therefore included in the book, making this one of the shortest books of baby names on the market.

French, Italian, Spanish, and other non-English forms of a few names are included. The jacket announces that the names are “currently popular,” but have the ‘80s produced any Baptists, Canutes, or Lesbias? The names are printed in black, bold, blinding print (for new parents with failing eyesight), followed by a brief note of each name’s origin and meaning, although in some instances this information has been omitted for no apparent reason: for example, “Liam. An Irish name.” Inclusion of short forms and nicknames seems to have been a hasty afterthought: the information is sketchy and suspect. “Bet” is a nickname for Elizabeth, “Bette” is a nickname for Elizabeth, but “Betty” is a variation of Elizabeth. “Hi” is short for Hilary in the girls’ names, but Hilary appears only under boys’ names, where “Hi” is short for Hiram not Hilary. Pollard states that “Chris” is short for Christian but notes that “Christie,” not “Chris,” is short for Christopher.

With these inconsistencies and failings, Baby Names is considerably less useful than any other of the baby names books available.