Can An Online ‘Baby Name Generator’ Give Good Results?

Awesome Baby Name is a web app that suggests baby names based on domain availability; presumably so you can secure your offspring’s future blogging career. The site promises to provide the “best” matches for your surname, with additional suggestions available for a price. We decided to test the service by having a phantom pregnancy. The results were…mixed.

[credit provider=”Shutterstock” url=”http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-144260299/stock-photo-sweet-baby-sit-on-wood-floor-and-using-a-laptop.html”]

Awesome Baby Name allows indecisive parents to pick from a list of baby names that are domain-friendly. The user simply types in their surname and then selects whether they want boy names, girl names or “whatever”. The site then presents a list of suggestions pulled from a data base of thousands of names.

All names are guaranteed with available domains, thus giving you or your sprog access to a “firstnamelastname.com” website. You can then register your chosen baby name via a direct link to the US-based domain registrar namecheap, which charges around $12 per year for a .com domain name.

See also: Baby Bogans: What Names Can You Legally Get Away With?

According to the site’s founders, only the very best matches are returned to each user, although in reality the list seems to be completely random. When I typed my surname in, I got completely different results each time, with no consideration given to how the first and last names clashed.

One eyebrow-raising suggestion was “Jade Jager” which either sounds like a superhero’s love interest or a porn star. These are career trajectories I’d prefer my daughter avoided.

Another drawback is the oddly phrased “whatever” option: rather than providing gender-neutral names for parents who don’t know the sex of their child, it simply provides a mix of boy and girl names on the same list. That’s just rubbish.

Awesome Baby Name gives out ten baby name suggestions free of charge. It will send you 100 additional names if you pay $9 (currently this has been discounted to $3). However, as noted above, the site generates different results every time you type in your surname, which makes the paid list kind of a waste of money. Instead, just keep repeating the process until you find a name that takes your fancy.

Users are urged to register their preferred names as soon as possible to avoid someone else beating you to the punch. This goes doubly if you have a common surname like Smith. (Incidentally, boy suggestions for “Smith” included Silas Smith, Hamza Smith, Jayceon Smith, Diego Smith and Hendrix Smith. Take yer pick.)

Parents Can Now Choose Baby Names Based On Domain Availability [Business Insider Australia]


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