Look on parenting sites and name forums, and one of the most common complaints is, We can’t come up with any good names for boys. People even Google, Help – I have no boys names!, to reach this blog.

Enter this handy little e-book. There are nearly 20 000 boys names on the Nameberry database, and Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran have selected 600 that they consider the most appealing and usable – the best of boys names.

There are classic names like Henry and Thomas, modern classics like Liam and Benjamin, fashionable names like Cade and Jagger, hip names like Rufus and Barnaby, traditional names like Edmund and Solomon, and less common names, like Abraxas and Poe – not to mention plenty of names from non-Anglophone countries, like Stellan and Alonzo, and vocabulary names like Justice and Wolf.

That’s a pretty wide of selection of names – this isn’t one of those books which says there’s only one kind of name that’s good to choose for your son. I would say the majority of names are ones which are not popular, but not unusual either; but if you want popular or unusual, there’s plenty to choose from.

Entries give the meaning of the name, and note famous people with the name, as well as fictional namesakes. They also describes the style of the name, and how it fits in with current trends.

The book does mention how popular each name is internationally, but the trends are from a US perspective, and sometimes they don’t gel with what is fashionable or interesting here. However, most of the information would be helpful to Australian parents.

Each name is hyperlinked to the Nameberry database, and by clicking on the heading for that name, you will be taken to the Nameberry website, to receive more information about the name, and see if the name has been covered in blog entries or forum posts.

This e-book is available from the Nameberry store in several different formats, and if you would like a print version, it can be obtained from Amazon.