We built it to name our own child.
Before this was a website, it was two parents, a growing pile of names, and a little program built to help us hear what we actually thought.
A shortlist was easy. Knowing what we loved was harder.
Like a lot of expecting parents, we started with names everywhere: scraps of paper, notes on our phones, passing ideas, and combinations we were certain about for roughly three days. We could make a list. What we could not do was look at it without influencing each other.
So I built a small program for us. Each week it emailed us a fresh set of names from our shortlist and asked us to vote. Neither of us knew what the other person had picked. There was no debate to win and no need to defend a favorite in the moment. We could just react honestly.
The useful part was not forcing a decision. It was giving our opinions enough room to become clear.
We forgot our votes. We changed our minds. That was the point.
Honestly, we sometimes forgot what we had voted for the week before. Names moved up and down. A favorite could lose its shine; a name we had barely noticed could keep returning. Because the votes were private, neither of us had to stay loyal to an old opinion just because we had said it out loud.
Over time, the signal got stronger. We could see where our instincts overlapped and where they did not. The process felt less like a single high-pressure conversation and more like discovering the answer together. That is how we named our child.
A private process can make a shared decision calmer.
Our Baby Name grew from that little weekly voting program. The product still follows the same ideas: start with a low-pressure shortlist, make room for each person's honest reaction, keep votes private while opinions are forming, and invite family only when you actually want their input.
You do not need to know immediately. You are allowed to forget, revisit, and change your mind. The right process should make that easier, not make you feel behind.