Let’s start with an important disclaimer:  Bad Baby Names is not a how-to guide.  While there are a few gems in this volume, for the most part these eye-poppingly odd monikers are best left to history.

History is precisely where co-authors Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback discovered the raw material for their book.  The staff at Ancestry.com couldn’t help but notice that, in the not-so-distant past, Fairy was a common choice.  (Don’t believe me?  Check out the Social Security stats, and you’ll see that it peaked in 1905, when 32 baby girls were named Fairy – as many as Bridget, and more than Diana, Melissa or Annabel.)

Read on for some of my favorites – and some lessons gleaned from this diverting little book.

• Names that are stunningly odd are not a 21st century innovation.  Sherrod and Rayback gleaned these appellations from the archives:  Panties Moberg, Tackle Feigenbutz, Sinner Ogle and Chastity Chestnut.
• A perfectly normal name can become rather awkward if later shared with a fictional character.  Since census data was first collected in 1790, Oliver Twist might’ve been a grown man when Charles Dickens published his novel in 1838.  And Harry Potter, Veronica Mars and Bart Simpson probably went to their rewards ages before they became household names – though their tombstones probably raise a few eyebrows days.
• Even the most classic first name can go wrong when paired with certain surnames.  Emma, Helen and Amanda should have it made, right?  Sure, unless their full names are Emma Royd, Helen Back and Amanda Bury.  Yikes!  And don’t get us started on Ima Hogg, Ima Hooker and Wanna Funk.
• Those outlandish celeb names?  Not as staggeringly original as you might think.  Pilot (son of My Name is Earl’s Jason Lee), Seven (Erykah Badu’s son) and, of course, Apple (Gwyneth Paltrow’s firstborn) all garnered plenty of press when bestowed.  But everyone of them has appeared in census records at least once before.

In some cases, the names might’ve been prompted by family tradition or simply saying “I Do” to James Royd or Samuel Bury.  (Though Panties defies the imagination.)  And while the Census records are reasonably accurate, they are also handwritten and subject to human error.  In an era before every adult carried a driver’s license and possibly a passport, names were a bit more fluid.  (My own grandmother was born Maria Rosa in New York City during the Great Depression – but died Rose Marie in New Jersey eighty-some years later.)

But overall, this is a lovely edition to any namenik’s library – and reassurance aplenty that naming your daughter Cordelia or son Archer isn’t really so different after all.