Does anyone know a good site for meanings of first names?

Question

I need a site that will give me the meaning, origin and personal traits of names.

Answer 1

Here are the two BEST and most reliable sites for first-name meanings:
http://www.behindthename.com/
http://www.aboutnames.ch/

behindthename is especially good, with a number of added tools, including pages that compile all the names derived from the same root.

Unfortunately, the others folks have listed, like so many name sites and books (esp. for "baby names") are extremely uneven -- they combine material from many sources, some well-researched, some that is very sloppy or complete nonsense. . . and unless you've researched in this area for awhile and are familiar with a number of languages, it's very hard to tell which are reliable and which are not.

(One of my own 'quick tests' on these sites is to work through a list of names that are all derived from the same original name -- if their listings for the various names are inconsistent, I know their sources are... and that they have not worked through the discrepancies.)

By the way, many name books and sites tend to slip into providing flattering sounding meanings and descriptions of traits supposedly associated with the name. These are frequently completely made up by the writers (or sources they used). . . I learned that years ago, starting with mugs, etc. that listed my name with a 'meaning' or personality-description which I knew was complete hooey.

If you want OTHER tools along the same lines, there is what appears to be an EXCELLENT desktop tool with some 8,000 first names in its database, that goes much further than the web sites listed above. It's called Gwendolyn; you can download a demo version here:
http://www.dreamshare.ch/gwendolyn/download.htm

(A small, PDA program of given names is available here: http://www.dreamshare.ch/english/givennames.htm )

And rather than a "baby names" book, try *A Dictionary of First Names* edited by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges (one of the resources used to build the "Gwendolyn" program mentioned above).


If you're interested, here are three very good tools for discovering how popular various first names are/have been. (The first two are based on the Social Security Administration records and the 1990 census. The last allows you to view displays of how names and groups of names have risen and fallen in popularity)
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html
http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names_files.html
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Answer 2

I'm in grad school for library science and I can't understand how people can manage to type a question in Yahoo answers, but they have no clue to search Google or Yahoo with that same questions. I did more than a hundred google searches, posting the same questions as the people in Yahoo answers...and I come up with the answers. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

For you:
http://www.behindthename.com/
(meaning of names from all countries)

http://www.americanbaby.com/babynames/index.jsp?ordersrc=google2babynames_tool&cobrandId=ww5&s_kwcid=names%20meaning|384556102
(Find favorite baby names - and the meanings, origins, personality traits, and baby pictures associated with them!)

http://genealogy.about.com/library/blbabynames.htm
(popular baby names throughout history)

Answer 3

Here's a list for ya...

Answer 4

try this.
http://www.pediatriconcall.com/Forpatients/baby_names/boys_names_n5.asp