It’s hard to remember names. Despite your best efforts, strategies, and even apps, you’re going to forget. Gretchen Rubin, writing for Psychology Today, has a good suggestion for avoiding the awkwardness that follows your lack of memory: use a compliment. More »
iOS: Need a little help cementing your new acquaintance’s name in your brain so you won’t need to embarrass yourself next time you meet? iPhone application Namerick uses tried-and-true techniques to help you remember the name of a person you’ve just met, creating memory mnemonics, sending you followup reminders, and more. More »
People with uncommon names don’t expect perfect pronunciation the first time they meet someone, but they’re probably impressed when they encounter it. Get a jump on your next business meeting or speaking opportunity with HearNames.com, along with another pronunciation resource. More »
Search engine Pronounce Names—perhaps unsurprisingly—contains a database of names complete with proper pronunciation, saving you from embarrassment next time you face a challenging name. More »
We’ve all been there. You look at a list of names for a meeting or at a new business card and you have absolutely no idea there was a last name with that many vowels. HowToSayThatName.com is a web site devoted to cataloguing both first and last names, spoken by native speakers. No idea how to pronounce last names like “Nyugen” or “Dokht”? Look the name up and play the embedded audio file to hear it. While a mispronounced name here and there is unavoidable, saying someone’s name correctly when they are accustomed to it being butchered goes a long way whether in a boardroom or at a barbecue. How to Say that Name [via Ian's Messy Desk]
What a Lovely Name is a tag-based search engine for baby names. Rather than take the traditional approach of searching for a name and then reading what traits are associated with that name, with What a Lovely Name you select a handful of traits you value and the gender of the child and the site suggests names. The name suggestions are refreshingly multicultural; in testing various trait combinations I wasn’t stuck with a laundry list of Anglo-Saxon names. Interestingly when I chose the two traits I find most endearing in my own daughter, elegance and strength, her name appeared in the list of suggestions. The tags aren’t limited to just personality traits, although it’s certainly the strongest draw of the site, you can also use cultural tags to see names by country and region or celebrity tags to see what names are popular amongst athletes, actors, musicians and so on. For another fascinating look into baby naming conventions, check out the NameVoyager to see the popularity of names over time and The Baby Name Map to see the most currently popular names in your region.
What a Lovely Name [via TechCrunch]Find out what countries your family name is most common in with Public Profiler’s World Names search and map. Enter your last name and you’ll get back a world map with the countries where your name is most common coloured in. Unsurprisingly, my last name has the highest frequency per million people in Italy, Argentina (where there are many Italians), then the U.S. Public Profiler will also list top regions (for my name, Vermont first, then New York) and most common forenames (for my name, Lucia, then Paola, then James). For a more local take on first names, check out previously mentioned Baby Names Explorer. World Names Profiler [via Waxy]
