ok.. time for some balance..

freightdawg and Cluin offer good solid information and sound advice..

if you are giving your husband a surpirse present,
and have sufficient time available,
then it would be better if you could ask a rock guitarist aquaintance to help you choose.

It would be even better though if your husband made his own informed choice,
and tried out as many guitars in shops as necessary..
because as you can see from replies here and in other threads..
choice of guitar is a very individual thing..

like choice of car, toothbrush , underpants, etc..
all the usual stuff most guys need to choose for their own needs
and preferences.

so just to clarify/further confuse the issue !!??

i'll present a few positive reasons why an electric guitar
can be a better beginners guitar than an acoustic.

..the necks are slimmer and string tension usually lighter,
which means its easier for a beginners hands to confidently hold down notes and chords in the early stages of learning.
later on, most everything learnt on an electric guitar can be transferred to an acoustic guitar,with ease and confidence
once the hands have adjusted to the more substantial neck and higher
string tension.

..a reasonable quality solid body electric guitar does not always need to be plugged into an amplifier for playing;
even played unplugged, they produce enough volume for private playing practice.
this is very useful later at night when evenan acoustic guitar would be too loud and disturbing.
Playing solid body guitars unplugged is also a great way for developing strong playing technique.
Anyway, most small practice amplifiers are fitted with headphone sockets so players can confine the noise to their ears only
[obviously, at sensible health and safety headphone volume levels].
and rock'n'roll on to their hearts content without bothering family or neighbours.

..Not all electric guitars are solid bodys.
Here is where many can get confused between 'semi-acoustic'
and 'electro acoustic' guitars.

As described above by various contributers, 'electro acoustics'
are basicly acoustic guitars fitted with a sound pick up system
which can be plugged into an amplifier when louder volume is required
in public..
In most cases the pickup is an internal 'piezo' pickup.
they are intended to generate as closely as possible
a louder simulation of the natural acoustic guitar sound.
they were never intended to produce the raw powerful distorted sound
associated with ROCK,
piezo pickups played through distorted rock amps
are virtually guaranteed to sound thin, weedy, and crap
and a more like fingernails scraping blackboards;
Electric guitars have 'magnetic pickups'[more on these in a moment].

'semi-acoustic' guitars [eg, think of the big old 50's rock'n'roll guitars]
are basically hollow electric guitars.
they can be played unplugged, and produce a louder acoustic sound
than unplugged solid bodys,
but not as loud or full toned as 'real' acoustic guitars.
these, like solid body electric guitars, have 'magnetic' pickups
under the strings.

these magnetic pickups are designed to be played through
amplifiers to produce the charicteristic rock sound that you
believe is what your husband wants.

so i hope this helps you just a little bit..