10,000 - 25,000 - 25,001 - 30,000 - 100,000!!!

While in Westwood Village the other day I stopped at Barnes and Noble to look for a baby name book. While their selection did not look formidable at first, there were about ten books to choose from, reading the titles of the books nearly sent me over the edge.

When I made a search on-line and read through over 3,000 names I thought that was a bit much but a book with 10,000 names? That seems a bit much. But no! There was another book with 25,000 names. And don't forget the new, revised version of the same book with 25,000 names. Or to hopefully get an extra reader or two there was the book with 25,001 baby names. Does that one extra name make it more desirable than the book with a paltry 25,000 names?

Then there was a peculiar thing, the next book contained 30,000 names and after that it went straight to 100,000!

Really? 100,000 names? What's wrong with 50,000 or 75,000 names that they had to skip them altogether. It seems there is a market for some more baby name books. You know, for the person who isn't satisfied with 30,000 choices but is overwhelmed with the thought of reading 100,000.

There were some funky names in the 100,000 names book. Do I really want to name my child Kamalapurakalanucha after an Indian deity? (I totally made that up)... but really. Where are they getting this great multitude of names? And furthermore, who is buying it?

Barnes and Noble didn't get my business. Instead I went to Target where I knew their baby name book selection would be more manageable. And it was. I picked up Baby Name Wizard and nowhere on the cover does it say it has more names than you have time to read before your child arrives.