Hi everyone – Someone called to interview me on this topic, and I wonder if and how you all are consulting AI to name a baby or research some other topic around names? We’ve been building features and tools designed to do things AI can’t do: predict future name popularity, for instance, or invite your whole friend group to help you name your baby. In fact, we asked AI what we could do that it couldn’t, and then we did that. As horrible as chatbots have been for web publishers like Nameberry, we recognize that they do things we can’t too. So please tell me your experiences with AI so I can talk with knowledge, and also let me know what Nameberry offers you that a chatbot can’t. If you prefer, you can DM me or email me at [email protected]. Thanks
Having never used [name_m]Chat[/name_m] GPT before, during my last pregnancy I tried asking it things like “names similar to….”, “names with a similar vibe as….”, “names to go with brothers …. and ……”.
I maybe got a couple of new ideas from it. But for the most part it seemed like it would just recommend whatever names I had been jotting in my notes app recently. 
Maybe that’s user error and I just didn’t know how to get what I wanted from it, but it mostly felt like it was just reading things I’d already written.
I like that on Nameberry you can hear about personal associations different people have with a particular name and what impression the name gives them (do they imagine someone kid, shy, artistic, etc). And it is interesting to hear how those answer vary based on different geographical locations amongst users .
Personally, I don’t use any AI for names (or for anything else), I just don’t agree with it from an ethical perspective based on how it was trained, the energy and water it uses, etc. Of course there are some uses of AI which I don’t oppose (in healthcare to detect cancer earlier, for example), but for personal/conversational use I’m pretty opposed to it. I’ve even switched search engines to avoid Google’s AI answers.
As far as what I get from Nameberry that I wouldn’t get from AI - real thoughts from real people, human creativity instead of answers scraped from the web, and the joy of discussing something with people who are equally passionate about it!
I’ve used it to ask clarification on meanings. [name_m]Like[/name_m] what does “piercing the valley” mean? Which meaning of “bright” is the name referring to? Why can [name_f]Isolde[/name_f] mean ice ruler but [name_f]Swanhilda[/name_f] can’t mean swan ruler? Technically human naming etymology experts could answer these but it seemed easier and faster to ask ai than hoping that the right person stumble upon my post.
I’ve also asked it for Chinese names from literature. I know a lot of basic characters but not the more literary and poetic ones that are trending for names right now. And again, if there are names that have similar meanings, then I ask it for clarification on the differences since it’s not my first language and there’s not many native Chinese speakers on this site to ask. At some point, I’ll go seek out actual native speakers once I’m actually expecting to ask for feedback to make sure there’s not some negative connotation with them, what the general perceived impression is for the names, other name ideas they can come up with, and any other advice
I feel like I’m pretty settled for the English names I like at this point so don’t need ai, people, nor websites for this at the moment. It’s just fun and games right now. When I get to naming an actual child, I do plan to poll and ask for feedback from berries tho
I despise AI, so no. I have no plans to do so.
I don’t use AI for anything because of ethical concerns. Besides, I know that anything AI knows about baby names, it got from Nameberry, or Behind [name_m]The[/name_m] [name_f]Name[/name_f], or some other website run by real people who actually care about accuracy. I love being able to use the lists and the database, and I love the sense of community I get from the forums. I don’t think a chatbot can really offer anything that Nameberry can’t, and hopefully more people will recognise that as anti-AI sentiment grows.
I’ve used AI to ask name suggestions in the style of, names popular during certain periods of history etc etc as well as generic “does X fit this sibset” or “what connotations does the name Y have”. I have found it to be wildly inaccurate if you ask it for the popularity ranking of a name though!
I asked it for sibling name suggestions to go with my current children’s names. While it for a good job suggesting names I liked, they were all pretty popular. It doesn’t really dig deep for rarer names.
Yes, I have used AI (chat gpt to be specific, I have to use other AIs at work but in my personal life I have only used chat GPT). I have used my chat GPT account to curate aesthetics for my home/wardrobe/life in general and since it knew all of those very specific preferences of mine I asked it to come up with baby names that go with my very specific aesthetic/lifestyle. It was pretty spot on but I agree with above posters that it doesn’t really dig deep past more common names. Forums like this I feel are better to get a broader perspective and more uncommon/unusual name suggestions. I also feel like trend prediction here is far and above better than what AI can do.
I would never ever use AI to find names, first because I think it is unethical and second because I find names to be something that is inherently human and personal. To me AI is the complete opposite of humanity, so it would never be able to give meaningful or even accurate suggestions. AI does the bare minimum and I avoid it at all costs, especially for names
So interesting, thank you!
Thank you so much! I think more people feel that about AI.
That is a great point.
thank you. that’s interesting re the aesthetics. It is good at synthesizing and categorizing a lot of information.
Yes, it goes to the middle ground.
How does it do in your opinion on connotations? It’s scraped everything on Nameberry including the forums and on every other name site too along with Reddit and social media, so it’s gleaned a lot of information on name relationships and associations. [name_m]The[/name_m] popularity thing is funny – I was interviewed by a journalist in DC and I wanted to know which names were disproportionately popular in DC. It was saying all this wildly inaccurate stuff with great authority and quoting statistics I knew were wrong and it turned out it was quoting an old list on Nameberry!
thank you for this insight. I can imagine it’s useful for that. I went to [name_f]China[/name_f] once researching Chinese naming practices and it was fascinating, the consultation with astrologers and choosing a name whose characters balance out the elements in a child’s birth chart.
No, I don’t consult AI.
It takes away everything I enjoy about the process of researching names; I like discovering things for myself and learning more – I like the slower process.
I think what Nameberry gives me is the ability to connect with other people who also enjoy names rather than with an AI chat bot; there’s a whole range of life experience, creativity, nuance, and joy that would be missing from any AI answer. I like that users can point out when there are errors or missing info in entries – bringing different or knowledge to the site.
I hate what AI is doing to smaller websites and publishers and the impact it has on creative industries and the environment so I also just (perhaps stubbornly) refuse to use and engage with it as much as possible – I’d rather do something the long way or seek advice from others on forums than go to AI.
I do not consult AI, period. 
My thoughts are largely in alignment with those of Margaux and Grace:
As a side note (this is in no way a personal attack—I am simply confused over what I perceive to be a contradiction), I have always found the integration of AI-generated entries on the main website to be distasteful. I am aware of the explanation you (@pam) have provided—that traffic suffered as a result of empty entries—however, I am of the opinion that a slower but human-driven combing would have been infinitely more pleasant for readers, as well as more logical considering your own disapproval of AI.
I have used it while searching for names that fit a specific niche or asking questions like “what would the connotations of X name be in Y culture/language.” It’s been moderately helpful when I didn’t want to repeatedly post to forums here. It’s also been helpful at creating a table comparing one name to another in terms of multiple factors (it made a table comparing two names across variables like possible pronunciation challenges with multilingual family members, meaning being positive or neutral, and fit with sibling names). I’ve found it to be very repetitive and uninspired when suggesting new names (for example, when it sees one of my kids names is a surname for a girl, it recommends [name_f]Sloane[/name_f] [name_f]Hadley[/name_f] and Sutton… always haha, every time, even though my daughter’s surname name is much rarer). It seems to be very circular in that way, and also not able to really comb through true ranking data to find ultra-rare names or more abstractly linked names.