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> Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. Too right. When we had to name a child, I took all th

> Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. Too right. When we had to name a child, I took all the CSV files of every child names in Scotland for last 15 years (Scottish Government provides all the raw statistics for every name) and loaded the data set into elasticsearch where I was then able to construct visualisations and trends of candidate names and get ideas etc. It is quite a burden to think of a name for a child.

Freak_NL 7y ago
That… is certainly an interesting approach. Did you look for particular characteristics? My wife and I had a son this year, and took care to give him a name that would work well in any situation. He has two given names (we do too), so he has a backup name in case the first one doesn't suit him later on (my wife uses her second name, because her parents figured it suited her better after a year). We didn't use any technology beyond the publicly availalbe Dutch database for given names in use, but we did look for a pair of names that would look good on a resume as well as work well in daily conversation. They are old names that should hold up well regardless of what is en vogue at the moment. I hope he likes them.
- kaybe 7y ago
  Here's an interesting visualisation for names and ages: https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html
- JetSetWilly 7y ago
  Mainly was interesting to consider if a candidate name was popular in the past and not now, or in steep decline or steep ascent. Old fashioned names are fine but I didn't want to choose a name that had just been popular 10 years ago and curse child with a faintly aunty-ish name for rest of her life, and didn't want to choose a name that might be about to become hugely popular either. At the same time didn't want a "unique flower" kind of name. A name with 10-50 children being named that each year and not wildly ascending or descending was in the sweet spot.

Freak_NL 7y ago

That… is certainly an interesting approach. Did you look for particular characteristics? My wife and I had a son this year, and took care to give him a name that would work well in any situation. He has two given names (we do too), so he has a backup name in case the first one doesn't suit him later on (my wife uses her second name, because her parents figured it suited her better after a year). We didn't use any technology beyond the publicly availalbe Dutch database for given names in use, but we did look for a pair of names that would look good on a resume as well as work well in daily conversation. They are old names that should hold up well regardless of what is en vogue at the moment. I hope he likes them.

kaybe 7y ago
Here's an interesting visualisation for names and ages: https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html
JetSetWilly 7y ago
Mainly was interesting to consider if a candidate name was popular in the past and not now, or in steep decline or steep ascent. Old fashioned names are fine but I didn't want to choose a name that had just been popular 10 years ago and curse child with a faintly aunty-ish name for rest of her life, and didn't want to choose a name that might be about to become hugely popular either. At the same time didn't want a "unique flower" kind of name. A name with 10-50 children being named that each year and not wildly ascending or descending was in the sweet spot.