Bookshelf: Cool Names for Babies, Revised & Updated

If you’re a namenik, you may well recall what baby name books looked like before Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz hit the scene: plodding lists in alphabetical order, with descriptions, origins, nicknames and possibly a note about a famous bearer or two. But for the most part, Abelia and Amanda were treated equally.

Then came the baby naming world’s dynamic duo, and their book Beyond Jennifer & Jason changed everything. They re-defined cool and listed names by categories; gave advice on naming styles and suggested interesting alternatives to the overexposed names we all grew up with. Plus they called a number of important trends: place names, throwback names, noun names.

So if you’re seeking a baby name and a book to thumb through, check out their newest offering: Cool Names for Babies, Revised & Updated.

Rather not spend the $9.95? Just hang out a playground for the next decade or so, and I guarantee you, you’ll hear some of their picks.