Table of Contents

THE NAMES PEOPLE GIVE THEIR DEFENSELESS CHILDREN; Choosing Names for Girls; Choosing Names for Boys; Fads and Fancies in Bestowing (or Inflicting) Names; Choosing a Name for Your Baby; THE NAMES WE INHERIT; The Names That Most of Us Answer to; Changing Surnames; Professionals Who Changed Their Names; A Chapter for the Smiths, Johnsons, and Changs; Surnames and Genealogy; Some Jewish Family Names; Names of African-Americans; Names from the British Isles; The National Origins of Some of Our Surnames; Some Other Sources of Surnames; Wonderful People with Strange-Sounding Names; WE NAME ALMOST EVERY PLACE WE KNOW; The Continents and the States; How Places Get Their Names; Whimsy and Humor; Naming in the Wilds; Improper (?) Names; On the Big Apple and Smaller Apples; This Is a Lovely Little Town, Wasn't It?; Changing Times, Changing Names; STILL MORE OF THESE AND A FEW OF THOSE; Still More of These; ....and a Few of Those; Bibliography; Index.