Top Three Baby Naming Websites

After deciding to have a baby, choosing a baby name is one of the most important decisions you'll make in the first stages of new life. Here are some tools to help you discover and decide on your new baby's perfect name.

1. The ParentsConnect Advanced Baby Name Search is great if you know what you are (or aren't) looking for, from name length, letter preference, and number of syllables to the country or language of origin, category, and meaning. You can tailor your results to include the most popular names from the past five years or to exclude variants or names containing certain letters.

Altogether, this baby-naming tool is great for parents-to-be with a lot of requirements to gather great ideas from a huge bank of 27,000 names. In other words, if you're looking for a Basque name starting with an E but not ending in a B, and you want your baby's name meaning to tell the world she's sweet as honey, this tool will tell you that Erlea or Esti would meet all those requirements.

2. Maybe you don't believe in Social Security, but the SSA website has the down-low on the top 1000 most popular names in America, from vintage and historical times to the present.

This is a great resource especially for the vintage aficionados among parents-to-be. Lydia has a lyrical tone and was the 75th most popular girls' name in 1882. And while Lorin and Deidre have a decidedly postmodern feel, they were actually low in the top 1000 most popular baby names in 1954.

For browsing, research, and idea-gathering, the records of the Social Security Administration are invaluable. And you just might find a perfect jewel of a name in the annals of time.

3. Nymbler.com is an amazing, intuitive new tool for parents-to-be. Are there names that you love for one reason or another but would hesitate to put on a birth certificate? Nymbler keeps track of your favorites and inspirations, offering suggestions for new names to consider as you search. If you see a name you absolutely hate, just block it, and it won't show up again.

Go through a gallery of names, choosing which ones you love and which don't inspire you. Nymbler will use your feedback to generate a new selection of names that target your preferences.

This is a good resource for those who know the feel or the "neighborhood" they like but just haven't settled on the perfect name yet.

Good luck in researching and choosing your precious new baby's perfect name!