5 unusual places to look for baby name ideas (plus 2 ways to narrow them down)

If you’ve exhausted the name books, name websites, and multiple family trees, here are five more ideas for places to look for baby name ideas.

1. Go look up or keep a running list of the names of authors of books or articles you read recently.
2. Check out the options listed in the credits for your favorite movies.
3. Page through directories from your workplace or place of worship.
4. Pick your favorite decade and look at the top names in a particular country during that decade (for the US, try the SSA website here).
5. Read the dictionary. Find words that sound beautiful to you, and then search the web for names that have those same sounds.

BONUS: once you find names, how do you narrow them down? If you are looking for a certain level of popularity or rarity, check out this website, which will tell you how likely a child with that name is to meet someone else with that name.
SECOND BONUS: wondering how other people view a particular name? Check out this website that will give you spelling variations, gender perceptions, and popularity trends.

This post is the fifth part of a six-part series on naming. Check out the other articles here.