A list of 10 of the most interesting personalized gifts for adults (Updated, July 2024)



If you’re still someone who gives your friends generic blue sweaters, let’s be real, you could stand to up your gift-giving game. Personalized gifts for him and personalized gifts for her are a great way to break out of the sweater-perfume-scarf cycle. Personalization used to just mean putting a name on a pen or a notebook, but now there are many more interesting ways to create special gifts. From personalized gifts for adults like custom artwork to books with your name, and even books about your love story with your name and pictures, there are countless unique options. We scoured the internet for some of the more unconventional personalized gifts you could get your loved one.

Here are the top ten we found:

1. Mega Dad Comic Book

Uncommongoods.com

$35 USD


This personalized comic book follows Mega Dad as he goes on many adventures, helps people with his super strength, takes on evil stuffed animals, and saves the day! The Mega Dad personalized comic book makes a great father’s day or birthday gift from your little one to dad. Mega Dad is also great for friends that have become new parents. You can customize the book with three different skin tones, add in a child’s name, and a custom personalized dedication as well. However, you can’t add in Mega Dad’s name - cause, well, he’s Mega Dad! 

 

2. Star Maps

Amazon.com

$44.99 USD


Star Maps custom prints a map of how the stars were aligned on any day you choose. You can customize the style in which the map is printed, as well as the text on the bottom. These custom printed start maps are great for wedding days, birthdays, the day you met your significant other, or when your kid was born. Honestly, this gift works great for any day you consider to be important. 

The star map ships unframed, so you might want to consider shipping it well ahead of time if you’d like to frame it before gifting it. 

 

3. Kid Quotes Custom Wall Art

Uncommongoods.com

$55.00 - $110.00 USD

A great way to immortalize your kid’s or a friend’s kid’s words forever, and a surefire way to embarrass them later in life. These prints are one of the best ways to preserve your kid’s crazy remarks or strangely profound statements on life. These custom prints are a really cute gift and make for a lot of laughs. You can pick from different watercolor backgrounds, choose to add a subheading at the top, and some context at the bottom. You can get these custom prints framed or unframed. 

 

4. Cartoon Portrait

Etsy.com

$53 USD


These custom-drawn cartoon portraits are a fun alternative to printing a picture for a normal picture to put in a photo frame. These portraits are digitally drawn from a photo you provide. The details or background of the portrait can be customized as well. The drawings are delivered in digital PDF format, so you would have to get them printed out yourself.

 

5. The Orangey-Tan: Adult Limited Edition

Manimal Tales

$24.99 USD

 

If your loved one was not particularly a fan of the last president - this might be the best gift you could give them. The Orangey-Tan is a personalized book that features Donald Trump as an orange ape. The beautifully illustrated story follows as Orangey-tan is crowned king of Manimal forest, and proceeds to destroy everything. 

Your customized character comes to the rescue and helps the rest of the animals protest against Orangey and drive him away. You can customize your character from ten different options, add a name, and include a customized personal dedication. A slightly shorter version is also available for kids here. Manimal Tales also donates a portion of the profits to Room to Read, a non-profit organization working for child literacy across the world.

 

6. A 23andme DNA testing kit

23andme

$99 - $199 USD


The ultimate personalized gift - a DNA testing kit. A DNA testing kit can make a great gift for someone trying to find out more about where their family is from, and more about their ethnicity. 23andme reports include in-depth ancestry and health information that could tell you more about your personal story and help you make better health decisions. There are 3 plans to choose from - one with just ancestry results, another with ancestry and health results, and the third is an on-going subscription that provides you with new results and reports as they become available. 

 

7. A formal pet portrait

Crown and Paw

$59.95 USD


For all your crazy pet mom and dad friends - a formal pet portrait could be just the thing they need. Crown and Paw takes a photo you provide of your pet and turns it into an epic portrait that is worthy of a wall all by itself. 

You can choose from over 150 different costumes across different themes like renaissance, jobs, sports, and more. You can also put the same portrait on different products like phone cases, blankets, pillows, and mugs. You can even include up to four pets in the same portrait. 

 

8. Cameo Video Message

Cameo

$50 - $1500 USD


Cameo lets you ask your loved one’s favorite celebrity to record a video message for them! The website has an extremely long list of celebrities to choose from, including actors, musicians, athletes, TV personalities, and more. Some noteworthy names include Floyd Mayweather, Mia Hamm, Alice Cooper, Tomi Lahren, Ernie Hudson, Ice Cube, and so many more. Some stars also donate a portion or all of the proceeds to a charity or non-profit organization. These video messages will definitely be a fantastic surprise for a star-obsessed friend. 

 

9. LitFriends Saint Selfie Custom Prayer Candle

Etsy.com

$20 USD

Have a friend that is the complete opposite of a saint? Or one that is holier-than-thou but has a great sense of humor? This might be the perfect gag gift for them. You can customize this prayer candle with a picture of your friend, a custom “Saint” name, as well as a custom prayer on the back of the candle. You can also choose the color of the wax from a few options or exclude the custom prayer on the back. 

 

10. Our Love Story

Manimal Tales

Create a beautiful book that captures the greatest moments from your relationship with Our Love Story. This personalized book allows you to add your photos, making it even more picture-perfect and a keepsake you both will treasure forever. Enter your relationship details to make this truly your love story, with these details printed on various pages throughout the book. Add a personalized message to your loved one for an extra-personal touch that gets printed into the book.

Our Love Story *PhotoStory*

Our Love Story is all about your love story. It captures all the key details about your relationship, creating a unique and heartfelt narrative. This special gift is the perfect way to say "I love you" to the most important person in your life, and it's a memento they will treasure for years to come!

Have you come across any unique personalized gifts we’ve missed here? Let us know in the comments!

General Questions

Manimal Tales is a publisher of beautifully illustrated personalized books. We have personalized books for children and adults. From birthday books to new baby tales, and from bedtime stories to ABC books, we have custom books for all occasions!

We even offer PhotoStories, our personalized picture books with photos.

At Manimal Tales, we fervently believe every child should be the hero of their own story!

Personalized books (or custom books as they are sometimes referred to) allow the reader to become the hero of the story - literally.

The main character in the story is the reader / receiver of the book, and is represented by an avatar that looks like them. There are usually lots of additional personalized details printed in the stories, including the receiver's name, age, family members and more.

Our PhotoStories offer a whole new level of personalization by allowing you to add your own photos into the story and have them printed out with the book.

Browse through our collection of custom books to see which ones work for your loved ones!

It's super easy to personalize your own book!

Browse through our collection of personalized stories and select the titles you want. On the product page, add the details required to personalize the book (name, age, family members, photos etc.). You can then preview the entire book before you buy, so you know exactly what you're going to get!

Once you're satisfied, add the book to your cart, enter your payment details and your unique, one-of-a-kind personalized book will arrive on your doorstep in 6 to 9 days!

The short answer is that it depends on the personalized book title in question!

All books will have your loved one as the main protagonist and their name will be printed on the book cover as well as in the story.

In some of our books like Dreamland and What Will I Be? the (the An ABC Story) your loved one's name is printed on every page.

In our Manimal Tales series, in addition to your child's name, you can select an avatar that looks like your child.

In our custom baby tales, Your Baby's Story and Your Baby's Story (Sibling version), you have to enter names and select avatars for the parents and the siblings as well.

And for our PhotoStories, you can further customize the books by uploading and adding your own photos directly into the book. The stories have been written to incorporate the photos as part of the story itself.

Whichever personalized book you do choose, we guarantee your loved one's will love our custom tales just as much as we do!

We have books for all ages and occasions! On the menu bar at the top of the page you can filter through our collections of personalized books by a variety of different criteria.

We have personalized books for:

- Birthdays

- New babies / baby showers

- Bedtime books

- Back To School / ABC books

- Seek & Find books

We also offer custom books with engaging stories about:

- Friendship and bravery

- Standing up for your beliefs

- Animal rights and adventure

We have personalized books across all ages:

- 0 to 3 years

- 3 to 6 years

- 6 years and above

- Adult stories

Lastly we have our PhotoStories, which allow users to upload photos and have them become part of the story!

- Happy Birthday Personalized PhotoStory

- Your Baby's Personalized PhotoStory

Nothing beats getting a book with your name on it!

Personalized books are treasured and loved by all, and make great keepsakes.

We offer custom books for all occasions, ensuring you will always find a book to meet your needs.

You can always reach us by filling out our Contact Form.

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