Blog instalments have been on a bit of a hiatus of late due primarily to a hectic academic schedule. Apologies for the dry spell. I’m breaking the drought now to say a big, big thanks to everyone who took the time to answer our survey questions on baby naming preferences. The response was truly overwhelming and has been invaluable in helping to guide the development of the Brainstormer: Mach 2 (development of which continues unabated).

In the meantime, I thought I would make available some results from the survey which may have broader public-interest.

Our survey asked, among other things, which of 15 name attributes most influenced preferences in choosing a name. According to readers of this blog, the most influential decision factors are:

• Sounds (68%)
  
• Feelings and associations (53%)
  
• Style (49%)
  
• Popularity / originality (47%); and
  
• Honouring of family members (45%)

The middle ranks are made up of more special interest factors such as meanings (43%), origins (27%) and spellings (39%). Rhythm is also a popular consideration at 43%.

Compatibility with siblings names was a consideration for only 26% of respondents, but this number might be skewed because less than half of the respondents admitted to having had children.

Historical and literary references are favoured by a relatively small minority; while the least important factor for respondents was association with a prominent namesake (only 16%); a result consistent with an earlier survey I ran on the subject: Namesakes where voted least popular feature request in an earlier poll. Okay—I get the message.

Perhaps most interesting of all is how diverse preferences are with regard to these categories. Only two categories received more than 50% of the vote with the remainder fairly equally represented. And perhaps it’s not surprising. You can’t get much more personal than in choosing a name, and these numbers reflect that.

If you’re like most new parents you’ve probably already got a few favourite baby name potentials in mind. Perhaps you know a name or two which is close to, but not quite the name you’re looking for. The Brainstormer is the perfect for these situations because of the way it allows you to visually explore the ‘close neighbours’ of a chosen name by finding associations and similarities within our database of over 12,000 baby names.

The Brainstormer is of course just in its infancy but is developing at a quick pace. Today we’re pleased to announce the addition of literal name-search capability. You can now quickly find names which match or share a prefix with your chosen name by typing it into the search field and pressing the search button. This provides a convenient jumping off point to begin exploring close neighbours of your current name potentials.

If you’ve got a name in mind that’s almost-but-not-quite what you’re looking for, try typing it into the search field and then clicking on the “sounds like” association that shows up for your chosen name.

Use the search field to jump straight to a particular name

Choosing a name for your child is a wonderful opportunity but it can be daunting. That’s why we developed Baby Name Brainstorm: an inspiring and fun way to explore your naming preferences and discover creative and unexpected name possibilities.

Choosing a name for your child is a wonderful opportunity but it can be daunting. That’s why we developed Baby Name Brainstorm: an inspiring and fun way to explore your naming preferences and discover creative and unexpected name possibilities.

Why another baby name site?

Every new parent-to-be wants to find the perfect name for their impeding bundle of joy. Like many new parents, I turned to the internet in search of name ideas. I was first astonished by the number of baby name sites out there, but quickly disappointed in the general monotony I found in them. 

Despite hours spent trawling through long lists of name potentials, few sites proved event remotely effective in actually meeting the task of suggesting names according to my personal preferences.

I decided there must be a better way to do it: That’s why I invented the brainstormer.

In choosing a name for my daughter, I wasn’t so much concerned with the first letter as with the general feel and style of the name: qualities that come from particular sounds, or cultural associations. I wanted to find a name that was fairly unique, had a strong personality, and an interesting or significant meaning.

The Baby Name Brainstorm is the initial fruit of my ruminations on name qualities. It helps you find names with the qualities you like, and suggests others you might never have thought of.

Try it out for yourself, now!

Screen shots

Special thanks to Guy Davis

A very special thanks to Guy Davis for his generous contribution of baby name data to this site. Guy collected of an extensive database of name popularity drawn from the birth records of countries the world over. In addition to Guy’s own Baby Name Map project, this multi-national resource has now become the seed data for the Baby Name Brainstormer. 

Thanks to Guy, our database is currently over 12,000 names strong.

Future plans

Currently the tool draws associations from the phonetic information in name spellings. This is just the beginning. We have a long list of features and insights to roll out over the coming weeks and months and we’re keen to hear you feedback on how to improve the usefulness of this tool.