Find a name
that fits.
Filter by origin, gender, starting letter, and length. Every result comes with where it's from and what it means — the kind of context that turns a long list into a real shortlist.
Filters
About this generator
Picking a baby name is the most consequential decision most parents make before the kid arrives, and the worst-supported one online. The big baby-name sites are SEO farms — pages of "Top 100 names that mean strong" with no etymology, no origin tags, and aggressive ad takeovers. The data is everywhere; the surfacing is terrible.
This tool takes the opposite approach. Hand-curated names with origins and meanings, no sponsored placements, no popularity rankings (which mostly just tell you what's trending in one country last year), and filters that actually combine. You can ask for a Hebrew girl's name starting with "M" that's medium length, and we'll only return matches that pass all four constraints. Most baby-name sites silently drop filters they can't satisfy.
The pool spans English, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Japanese, Indian, Arabic, French, Italian, Irish, and Slavic origins, with neutral names tagged where they actually float between (Avery, Robin, Sasha). We curate for usability — every name listed is one a real person has carried in living memory, not an algorithm-generated combination of letters. Where a meaning is genuinely uncertain we leave it blank rather than invent a folk etymology, which is what most sites do when they fill in "meaning: noble" for any name without a source.
What this tool is good for: shortlisting. Generate eight at a time, screenshot the ones you like, send them to your partner, repeat until two or three keep coming back. What it's not good for: telling you what's "popular" — popularity is regional, fluctuates by year, and isn't the basis for a good name anyway. If you want to mix this with surnames, the Name Generator handles full names. For honoring family with naming traditions tied to letters or initials, set the starting-letter filter and run a few batches.
What people use it for
Past parents, ahead of the queue.
Expectant parents shortlisting
The classic. Couples set their filter (often by origin or honored relative's initial), generate batches over weeks, and triangulate toward a name they both like saying out loud.
Fiction writers naming characters
A novel's cast needs names that don't all start with the same letter and aren't all from the same era. Filter by origin to set period, by length to vary rhythm — done.
Meaningful name search
Looking for a name that means "light," "brave," or "joy"? Pick the origin you want, generate, scan meanings — surfaces options you wouldn't find by searching common keywords.
Family tree filling
Genealogists working on fictional or hypothetical ancestors need period-appropriate names. Use origin filters to match the family's lineage and you get plausible historical fits.
Name-day celebrations
Catholic and Orthodox traditions celebrate name-days. If you're inventing a custom for your family or honoring a saint, browse origins and meanings to pick something with weight.
Pet-naming with intent
The dog deserves better than "Buddy." Filter for short names with strong meanings — Kai (sea), Leo (lion), Mia (mine) — names that sound great called across a park.
How it works
The picking
We start with the full curated list and apply your filters in series — gender, origin, starting letter, length. Whatever passes goes into a candidate pool. From there we pick using crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling, so every passing name has an exactly equal chance of being shown. A naïve random % N would slightly favor lower indices when N doesn't divide evenly into 2³². We discard out-of-range draws.
No duplicates per batch
Within a single Generate click we use a Fisher-Yates partial shuffle to draw your N names without replacement, so no name appears twice in one batch. Across batches, names can recur — the picker has no memory between clicks because each batch should feel like a fresh draw.
State & sharing
Filters live in the URL query string and mirror to localStorage. Loading the URL anywhere recreates the exact filter set. Recent name batches are kept locally for the last 10 generations — useful for "wait, what was the Hebrew one we saw last Tuesday?"
Common questions
How big is the name database?
Around 800 names spanning English, Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Japanese, Indian, Arabic, French, Italian, Irish, and Slavic origins, with a meaning attached to most. We curate for usability — every name listed has been used by real people in living memory.
We add names every few months. Email [email protected] if a name you expected isn't there.
What does the gender filter actually do?
Names are tagged girl, boy, or neutral based on their most common modern usage. Many names slide between (Avery, Sasha, Robin) and we tag those neutral. The filter narrows results — leaving it on "any" returns the full pool.
If you want a name that started boy and is now mostly girl (or vice versa), neutral is your filter.
Why do some names not have meanings?
Some names are honest "origin uncertain" cases — etymology that cooled into legend. Rather than make something up (which most baby-name sites do), we leave the meaning blank. The origin tag still tells you where it took root.
Can I filter by starting letter?
Yes. Pick any letter A–Z to only see names starting there. Useful for matching a sibling's initial, family tradition, or just narrowing down a long-listing exercise. Combine with origin and length for very specific results.
What counts as short, medium, long?
Short is 3–4 letters (Ava, Leo, Mia). Medium is 5–7 (Olivia, Ethan, Maria). Long is 8 or more (Alexander, Penelope, Maximilian). Choose based on how the name will pair with the surname; long firsts struggle with long lasts.
Does it pick the same names twice?
Within a single batch, no — duplicates are filtered out. Across batches, names can repeat because the pool is finite and the picker is genuinely random. If you want a no-repeat session, set the count to 20 and review one batch at a time.
Can I share my filter with a partner?
Yes. The page URL captures all your filters. Send the link, the other person lands on the same setup and can hit Generate to see fresh suggestions in the same style. Neither side overwrites the other's list.
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