Which lens for portraits on a nikon d60?

I want a nice lens for portraits of my girls. I have a Nikon D60 and am trying to decide on the Nikon 40mm f/2.8G AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR Lens or the Nikon 50mm f/1.8G AF-S NIKKOR Lens or if i'm even looking at the right ones: D Thank you

Depending on the size of Optical Sensor in that model, you want what would be the equivalent of a 135mm fl in a 35mm film camera.

I would look more at the 50mm f1.8 or even the 60mm AF-s Micro. 40mm is a bit wide. And a tiny bit short for nervous macro subjects.

The 50 1.8 is actually excellent here from my experience. It's like a 75mm lens 35mm film wise.
Has a wide aperture for background blurring/bokeh, is Nikons sharpest lens and has 7 aperture blades for nice aperture.

So many like to recommend particular lenses because of their personal preference and that's fine.
Me, I say that if you know how to operate your camera and lens, any lens will work… Well not any, but you get the idea. Any lens with a wide bottom like 18 or 28 will work but you've got to know lighting and composition as it relates to your camera as well.

I concur with paul's answer

on a cropped frame camera, for head and shoulder portraits, a 50mm lens is the favorite. 40mm is beginning to become too wide. The 60mm lens is fine, especially if you want to have a dual-purpose lens (macro and portraits)

still, as said, the 50mm is a favorite.

While many like a 50mm for portraiture, the 85mm or even 100mm focal lengths will result in shallower Depth-of-Field that it usually desired for portraiture.

But for the two lenses you are looking at, I would go for the 50mm as it is a longer focal length.