Searching for baby names

A secret yet favourite pastime of 17 million people around the globe

Is it weird that I am browsing baby names even though I am not having a baby? Yes! We are talking about "Baby Names". I had a baby a few months back; at the time, my mother, my wife (the unborn child's mother), and I were frequenting baby names websites on a regular basis.

And then, I finally stumbled upon an article that showed that baby names search/baby names browsing is not an activity done by a select few, but millions around the globe.

A quick research on social media and niche baby names websites (such as babycenter.com, mama names.com, and nameberry.com) will help one understand that an extremely private activity as "finding baby names" is no more a private activity and is getting an engagement from several millions of users of all age groups. My research and surveys show that 3 in every 10 ladies (above 17 years old) have engaged with baby names browsing or baby names ideas discussion in the past month.

We have several providing baby names recommendation as an "additional" service and very few have created portals for just baby names. If anyone is thinking about a baby name or simply name browsing, here's how you can do. For our case, I am navigating one of the most advanced baby names portals, mamanames.com, as it helps people of all religions - Christian, Hindu, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Agnostic - browse/explore and short list baby names.

So yeah, assuming 1 out of 100 of you reading this are already baby name browsers, here are some smart ways to find baby names online:

Similar Name Search: People are looking for baby name ideas but from childhood, some of us already are in love with a few names. You could very well find wonderful variations of the names for your baby or book. For example, if I like Krishna as a name, I could type in "Krishna" and find plenty of other names sounding/ meaning the same.

Advanced Alphabetical Name Search: Go berserk and do your advanced search by gender, religion, alphabets, syllables, keywords, a names' starting characters, and a names' ending characters.

Curated Unique Baby Names Lists: And finally, some people just love baby names lists that go like "Unique Boy Baby Names" or "Baby Names Meaning Beautiful", or "Traditional Baby Names". You get all that via Contextual (manually curated) and handpicked baby names lists on the websites.

It is fascinating to see how the most unlikely of places we find such humongous engagement. Who would've thought that baby names was even under the radar when it came to "favourite pastime", especially (in this day and age) when we have a million ways to pass/kill our time. Also, when I come to think of it, why do these web portals call themselves baby names website; they are simply "Names" websites. These names can be used by babies and even by directors for their movie/drama /skit/play.

By: Girish Mahadevan