Naming your baby is hands-down one of the most simultaneously exciting and nerve-wracking tasks you’ll face as an expectant parent. Luckily, in a world where your phone does everything from monitoring your home security to making hilarious fart noises, there’s definitely an app for that.
Since technology has taken over practically every aspect of pregnancy — from making sure the time is right to conceive all the way up to tracking your baby’s growth in the womb — it should come as no surprise that baby naming has found a nice little niche in the world of apps. A quick warning, though: Fiddling around on these can become a little bit addictive as you’re working to create a short list of the best possible names for baby.
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1. Baby Names Genius by Health and Parenting Ltd. (Free, Google Play)
This pretty little app has a “genius” feature that learns what your favorites are and offers suggestions based on a number of parameters, including what you’ve liked in the past, parent name similarity and how you set up your profile. There’s even a community voting feature, but forewarned is fore-armed: People can get reallyweird when it comes to baby names.
2. Baby Names by Nametrix ($2, iTunes/Google Play)
Name nerds rejoice! This app is well worth the two bucks you’ll fork over for it, because it is by far the coolest little widget you could hope to have in your arsenal when you’re looking for names. It is more thorough than any other naming app by a mile or two, even compiling data on what names are most popular among doctors — and strippers — so you can search by something as random as possible future career or even political affiliation if the inclination grabs you. And it will.
3. Baby Names by Winkpass Creations (Free, iTunes)
Good old Winkpass has always been there for you with their pregnancy and period apps, so why not give their baby name app for iPhone a try? It’s a pretty simple-to-use app that doesn’t spam you with too many obtrusive ads, which makes it easy for name noobs to get started on the task.
4. Baby Names!! by Sevenlogics (Free, iTunes/Google Play)
This baby name app has a neat feature called the Genie that guesses which names go best with mom and dad’s name, and it also has an interactive quality to it: You can add your own names if you don’t see them and allow them to be ranked and favorited by others.
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5. Baby Names by Schatzisoft (Free, iTunes)
This app has a massive aggregation of names that is fairly easy to sift through, which is probably why it’s had its share of turns at the top of the most popular baby-naming apps list. It even lists last names, which is fun to fool around with and also makes it easy to pair up favorite monikers to see how they look together.
6. Baby Names and Meanings by Mobile Mom/Rebellion Media (Free, iTunes/Google Play)
Consider this app your standard baby book, with a searchable database of names that include meanings, popularity, origin, preferred initials and separate lists for “popular” and “unique” names to let you find the perfect baby name.
7. Numerology Name Finder by Bliss by Numbers ($4, iTunes)
Looking for something a little more mystical? If you’re interested in name numerology, which uses an alphanumeric system to assign and predict character traits and “life path” information in a name, this might be the app you’re looking for. It even has a reverse search function that allows you to start with what you hope the outcome will be and generates names from there.
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8. Baby Name Generator by AppHouse Software ($1, Google Play)
Don’t know where to start? Put your baby to work! What’s cute about this app is that it allows you to place the phone on your belly and let the baby pound on the screen, randomly generating a name. Obviously, you have final veto power, but it’s an interesting alternative to scrolling through hundreds of names.
9. 50,000 Baby Names by Pregniful Solutions Ltd. (Free, iTunes)
This one has tons of names to choose from (hence the name) and their tagline is “If you can’t find the perfect name with Baby Names it doesn’t exist!” You can search through tons of names by origin and keyword and get similar names if you need some extra inspiration, plus you can view name data by popularity and meaning. It is free, but there are a number of restrictions, including the number of names you can view or favorite per day. Those restrictions can be lifted with a “pay what you want” in-app purchase, though.
10. Baby Names U.S. by Niels Van Hove (Free, Google Play)
Looking for something a little more commonplace? This app is perfect. It has a simple UI and a simple premise: It sorts data from the U.S. Social Security Administration to give you the 3,000 most popular names, ensuring no future trouble on your child’s resume.
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