Meta Taggger for image files

Is anybody aware of a meta tagging tool for image files? I have a couple of thousand of photos that I want to metatag so I can pull up the ones I want to look at by my metatag categories (instead of having to search through multiple directories). I probably could solve it with a database like Filemaker Pro that holds the meta tags and the image file, then do SQL searches based on the metatags. But, why reinvent the wheel if someone else has done this. And besides, there may be an easier way than the one I mentioned. Thanks. Dick K.