Recently, with great excitement, my wife and I found out we are having our first child. Now for most people, the first thought is probably fear or terror. I, on the other hand, immediately thought, “What are we going to name the baby?” 

No matter how many parenting books I could read, I knew in my mind the name tells the whole story. [My wife does not belief this at all, so I am still reading on how to be a good father.] After going to the local book store and being overwhelmed by the rows and rows of parenting books, I turned to what I know best – the internet.

After doing some searching about name origins, names with good nicknames, and the popularity of names, I came across the Baby Name Wizard.  The Name Voyager lets you type in a name and see a graph of its popularity over the past century. But there’s a twist: as you type, the visualization shows, letter-by-letter, the overall popularity of the letters you’ve entered so far. Because names with similar sounds often have similar trends, its easy to spot waves of name fashion.

Once you have focused in on a group of names you can leverage the websites other great tools such as:

• Namipedia: Get the full picture with baby name meanings and origins, popularity, graphs, surveys, siblings and more!
• NameMapper: Explore name by state.

Curious about where all the name data comes from and how or who determines what a good sibling’s name would be, I did some further research. I purchased Laura Wattenberg’s book, The Baby Name Wizard. Much to my surprise, I found out how much she relies on databases, business rules  and knowledge management to determine almost everything that is presented on the website and in her book. 

The Baby Name Wizard is the result of my years of research into name trends. The databases and computer models behind it incorporate everything from soap opera cast lists to Ivy League alumni rosters. You’ll see some of this research in the book’s trademark popularity graphs, and even more in the “sibling name” suggestions, a key feature of my original buyer’s guide dream. The goal of the Wizard is to guarantee that you’ll never feel stuck for a name. Just start with one name you like, and the book will guide you to more and more ideas that fit your personal taste and style.

As I sat all day Sunday and went through what seemed to be thousands of names using this site, I realized data and visualizations can truly help you make better and more informed decision. That said, this was one decision that needs more input than just a computer.  As our due date approaches, I am sure, like most parents, we will change the babies name numerous times, but I am glad I found a resource to aid me narrowing down this choice.

The tools provided by this website bring over a hundred years of Social Security Census Data into easily used visualizations. Laura’s techniques allow users to easily search data and make decision quickly on previously disparate data. My opinion on this is that without Laura’s tools there would be many names I would have never considered, but technically, her value-add is consolidating the data sources and exposing them through an interactive visualization. She also has some interesting business logic to determine siblings’ names from family names. I would love to see those business rules.

Related Posts on Simple Complexity:

• Baby Name Brainstorm – Interactive Visualization, February 2, 2009
• The Baby Name Wizard: Name Voyager, May 16, 2007

Today’s post was written by Geremy Gersh. Geremy is a senior staff member at Innovatech, Inc. He has eleven years experience with data warehousing in all phases of the System Development Life Cycle, including defining and gathering business requirements, design, development, testing and deployment. Geremy is also the owner & founder of ezauctioning, Inc. ezAuctioning, Inc. is a scalable and efficient consignment service where individuals, businesses and community organizations can drop-off higher value items for sale on eBay by experienced, knowledgeable staff at a fair price.

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