A is for Atticus, aka How to Sound Smarter Than You Actually Are

If you're shopping baby names (or just browsing), you have to check out Lorilee Craker's A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books which give you far more erudite options than naming your child for the latest celeb du jour. Or worse,…

A is for Atticus, aka How to Sound Smarter Than You Actually Are
If you're shopping baby names (or just browsing), you have to check out Lorilee Craker's A is for Atticus: Baby Names from Great Books which give you far more erudite options than naming your child for the latest celeb du jour. Or worse, the latest celeb du jour's kid. Do future teachers really need to have Zuma Nesta R and Zuma Nesta D in their classrooms?

I love the concise descriptions of major works of literature interspersed with cheeky commentary from Craker on names from Atticus (Finch) to Zelda (Fitzgerald). You won't find every name in between, but you might just find your response when someone asks you why you named your kid Henrietta. Or Rita

As for us, when people ask me where we got my daughter's name, I usually don't tell them I first considered it in 1997 when I saw it on a bar sign in Chicago. Somehow, my story doesn't have the same ring as I named her after a Greek goddess. In other words,  A is for Atticus not only gives you ideas, it might also give you justification.  -Rita

More in LivingView all picks →

Hate sharpening your knives? OK, don't!

Hate sharpening your knives? OK, don't!

A sharp knife makes cooking easier. But as busy parents, we don't always have time to sit and sharpen our kitchen knives when kids and work and pets and everything else is pulling at us. So when Ninja says its NeverDull knife system is d…

ICYMI: Ninja's new NeverQuit Ceramic Cookware has dropped...and it's fantastic

ICYMI: Ninja's new NeverQuit Ceramic Cookware has dropped...and it's fantastic

If your cookware has seen better days—or you’re simply ready for an upgrade that can keep up with real life— Ninja’s new NeverQuit Ceramic Cookware is worth a look. This is not the delicate ceramic cookware that requires a special drawer…

The luxury sleep upgrade we're coveting right now

The luxury sleep upgrade we're coveting right now

If you’ve ever kicked off the covers at 2 a.m. because you’re too hot, only to pull them back on twenty minutes later because you’re freezing, Eight Sleep has a very high-tech solution to a very low-tech problem: getting comfortable in y…