A name chosen, not stumbled upon
The name your baby deserves.
Most couples name their baby by going through lists and saying "I like this one." No framework. No real reason. Just elimination. Namesake starts with what matters to your family — your values, your history, your people — and helps you arrive at a name you can explain, and be proud of, for the rest of your life.
Start the Name WizardFree to begin. Takes about 20 minutes.
Guides
Help while you're choosing
Short reads on timing, trends, and process—grounded in data.
From our research
April 2026
What Makes a Baby Name Go Viral?
A data analysis of 843 cultural events and their impact on baby naming across 145 years of SSA birth records
Read the findings →Discover a name
The old way
Five books. Hours of lists. "Do you like this one?"
That's how most parents name their baby. You sit down with a book — or a website with 50,000 names — and you start going through them. After hours, you haven't found the name. You've just found a shorter list of names you don't hate.
There's no framework for what matters. No way to surface what's actually meaningful to your family. No process for reconciling two people's instincts.
You're not naming a child. You're playing a guessing game.
"A name is a life's first gift and longest companion."
— Anonymous
NAME INTELLIGENCE
Every name. The full picture.
Origin, meaning, pronunciation, 10-year popularity chart, Namesake score, feasibility, DNA tags. Free for every name. No account required.
MORE TO EXPLORE
Everything you can open from the app—right here.
Name Wizard is one path. You can also browse 47,000 names, explore collections, or run a live shower bracket—no need to stumble on these later.
Themed lists with context—Celtic, rare, rising, literary, and more.
OpenMythology, literature, nature, heritage—browse names by what inspires them.
Open
Filter and sort 47,000 names—origins, trends, scores, domains.
Open
Wizard, quick start, or your own shortlist—then bracket and vote.
Open
Live party mode—big-screen bracket, votes from guests’ phones.
OpenThe Namesake way
A name chosen, not stumbled upon.
Share your inspirations
Pick themes and jot notes — heritage, values, figures who inspire you, the natural world. Partners can brainstorm together or separately, then align.
Set how names are scored
Distribute 100 points across originality, sound, meaning, and more, then fine-tune rules. Every generated name is ranked using what you chose.
We build your longlist
Namesake generates a scored longlist from your inspirations and scoring prefs — names that come from what you actually shared.
Your village weighs in
Share a private link. Family and friends vote in a bracket tournament. The final word is always yours.
Ten years from now, your child will ask:
"Why did you name me that?"
You'll have an answer. Not "we liked the sound of it." Not "it was on a list we found." A name with a story. A name that was chosen — not stumbled upon.
Everything you need to choose with intention.
Parallel brainstorm
Both partners answer independently. Your instincts compared, not competed.
Scoring that means something
After you capture inspirations, you set weights and rules. Every name is scored on what you said matters — hard rules eliminate, the right names rise.
The village vote
Private bracket tournament. Family votes. Comments visible. Final word is yours.
Real popularity data
47,000+ names from the Social Security Administration. Know which "unique" names are actually common.
Surprise mode
Not finding out the sex? Namesake reveals the winning name and sex together when you're ready.
Baby shower mode
Live tournament on an iPad at the party. The village decides in real time.
FREE TO EXPLORE
47,000 names. Every one with a story.
Before you start the tournament, spend time with the names. See where they come from, how popular they are, whether they're rising or fading — and whether the .com is available.
NAME INTELLIGENCE
The full picture on any name.
Meaning, origin, pronunciation, 10-year popularity chart, feasibility check. Everything you need before you commit.
Open the dashboard →THEMED COLLECTIONS
Start with what resonates.
Celtic, Norse, Hebrew, Nature, Literary, Rising, Rare — curated lists with context. Find the names that come from somewhere real.
Browse collections →NAME PROFILES
Know before you choose.
Every name has its own page. Popularity since 1880. Feasibility score. Sibling pairings. Names that sound and feel the same.
See an example →All free. No account required.
Every name in the world is in here
Yours is waiting to be found.
Our story
We built this because we were you.
My wife and I are expecting our first child.
When the time came to choose a name, we did what everyone does. We went to Barnes and Noble and bought every baby name book on the shelf. Five books. Thousands of names.
We sat together going through the lists. Hours passed. We weren't closer to a name. We were just overwhelmed.
I wanted to look my daughter in the eyes someday and tell her exactly why her name is hers. Not because it sounded nice. Because it came from something real.
So I built Namesake.
Namesake gives your people a real seat at the table — without losing your voice in the choice.
"A good name is more desirable than great riches."
— Proverbs 22:1
"We are ghosts or we are ancestors in our children's lives. We either lay our mistakes upon them and haunt them, or we assist them in laying those old burdens down and free them. As ancestors, we walk alongside them and assist them in finding their own way and some transcendence."
— Bruce Springsteen
"To name a thing is to give it power."
— Ursula K. Le Guin
"I think of myself as a philosopher only in the sense of being able to set an example."
— Friedrich Nietzsche
"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
— Robert Fulghum
"A careful man I want to be — a little fellow follows me. I do not dare to go astray, for fear he'll go the self-same way. I cannot once escape his eyes. Whatever he sees me do he tries. Like me he says he's going to be — that little chap who follows me."
— Author unknown
"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."
— Albert Schweitzer
"The name we give to something shapes how we think of it."
— Keith Chen
The name is already out there.
Let's find it together.
Start the Name WizardFree to begin. Your village is waiting.