How can you choose the perfect baby name? With so much information out there, it can seem like an impossible task. But with a little research and a good dose of inspiration, choosing the right baby name can be one of the fun parts of pregnancy!

Baby name books
Baby name books are a great read: you can curl up for a rest and mull over a thousand different possibilities. They're excellent for short bursts of baby name investigation. Keep one in the kitchen, another by your chair and one by your bed. Enter a world where syllables, initials, rhymes, trends, meanings and warnings blend together in a wave of advice about the best kind of baby name to choose.

Baby names online
On the Web, baby name sites offer tens of thousands of names. Some enable you to search for names with certain letters or a set number of syllables; there are surveys, lists, opinions, and forums. Exotic international baby names mingle with popular favorites, while high ranking kings and queens topping the baby name rankings look down on names that have suddenly become less cool. In the baby names arena, the Internet has come into its own: we can browse a huge collection of names, select a certain type of baby name to investigate or search for one particular name that interests us - it's so flexible!

Friends and family
Asking relatives and friends for ideas can be fruitful - but be careful not to take all their advice to heart! Don't forget that it's your decision - be open to ideas and suggestions, then go away and think about it all again. Taking a look at your family history can be useful, too; do you have an ancestor with an interesting name?

Finding just the right name for your baby is a huge task, but your baby will have a name. It's just a matter... of finding it!

Claire Kolarova loves words, names, and babies! She is webmaster of How to Choose Baby Names - a step by step baby names guide.