If you’re shopping baby names (or just browsing), you have to check out Lorilee Craker’s A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books which give you far more erudite options than naming your child for the latest celeb du jour. Or worse, the latest celeb du jour’s kid. Do future teachers really need to have Zuma Nesta R and Zuma Nesta D in their classrooms?
I love the concise descriptions of major works of literature interspersed with cheeky commentary from Craker on names from Atticus (Finch) to Zelda (Fitzgerald). You won’t find every name in between, but you might just find your
response when someone asks you why you named your kid Henrietta. Or Rita
As for us, when people ask me where we got my daughter’s name, I usually don’t tell them I first considered it in 1997 when I saw it on a bar sign in Chicago. Somehow, my story doesn’t have the same ring as I named her after a Greek goddess. In other words, A is for Atticus not only gives you ideas, it might also give you justification. –Rita
