All those wonderful names

Celebrates American names of every stripe, color and variety, highlighting the most amusing, fascinating and arcane. It features popular first names, common surnames (by national origin) and gossip on celebrities who've changed their names. The strangest, funniest, most descriptive or imaginative names parents have given their children are included plus realistic guidelines for naming your newborn. An entire chapter is devoted to placenames--towns, counties and cities in the U.S.--with the most common, strangest, and difficult to pronounce as well as local legends about town names. You'll also find information on names of tropical storms, shortest and longest movie titles, song titles, pet names, how authors name their characters and much more.