Missing entries and a site navigation suggestion

I can’t find a more relevant thread, but I was looking at the entry for [name]Naomi[/name], and some of the variations have links to their own entry - when I clicked on the French variation, No”mie, there is nothing that matches the search criteria, that’s the message I get.

[name]Noemie[/name], without the accent, does have an entry. It doesn’t say very much (just Gender: F) and doesn’t refer back to [name]Naomi[/name]. This brings up a navigation issue that I think would help people searching for names.

I would like to suggest a search form where possible names could come up. Like, if you misspell a name or try to spell it in some unlisted variant or invent a name entirely, a list of links to separate entries should come up.

--------------------------The Example Portion-------------
For a test, I searched the name Kayyla. It doesn’t exist. I searched for [name]Karon[/name], it at least referred me to the entry for [name]Karen[/name]. Maybe I meant [name]Karol[/name]. I think it would be good if the search form, when you search on a particular name, the search function would try to guess what you might mean (like [name]Kayla[/name] for Kayyla) without bringing you directly to one entry or failing to recognize a bunch of letters one off from a valid entry -

like [name]Karon[/name]'s entry:
this is a variation on [name]Karen[/name] (linked).

Additionally:
Perhaps you were looking for [name]Karol[/name] (linked).

  • would be awesome.

[name]Karol[/name] turns out to be a Boy/Girl entry with the boy’s variant of 3 related names, [name]Carl[/name], [name]Karl[/name], and [name]Charles[/name]; the female [name]Karol[/name] just says Gender: F and appears on a list, so the list is linked, “K versions of C Names,” it does not link to [name]Carol[/name] or [name]Caroline[/name]. [name]Karolyn[/name], from that list, however, does.

In the same way, the entry for [name]Charles[/name] does not offer a feminized variant for someone who wanted this name, only for a girl; [name]Charlene[/name] (random choice!) varies from [name]Caroline[/name] and [name]Charlotte[/name] - [name]Caroline[/name] refers to the masculine [name]Charles[/name], but neither [name]Charlotte[/name] nor [name]Charlene[/name] relate any such information (if it’s not obvious or typical, and some names aren’t so much).

Point Being:
I think even if you start with a boy’s name and it is feminized, the boy’s name entry might point you there. Girl’s names that are feminizations, if they are not in a Boy/Girl entry already, tend to link back to the source of the name, which is nice, but when naming children, you might need to discover any feminizations from a boy’s name as well, if that makes sense.

It might make the message boards less lively with suggestions, but not everyone wishes to interact and come forward with their choices to be raked over.

More inter-linking would lead people to more names that are similar to what they were considering, so if they weren’t thinking of [name]Karol[/name], or never heard of [name]Karol[/name], they might consider it or have some interest piqued to what other names link from it, then, arriving at [name]Carla[/name] or [name]Caroline[/name] or [name]Charlotte[/name], diverging from forms of [name]Katherine[/name], which [name]Karen[/name] eventually funnels to, allowing people to crawl all over the site in small amounts rather than interacting if they don’t want to, or consulting theme lists, and finding feminine variations of boys names and vice versa from the entries themselves.

Hot lists like the Coolator or Exoticizer, or “If you love [name]Emily[/name], you might like…” kind of lists kind of serve that function, but not on a continuum I’d like to work with. I love the lists too, that makes what you do so unique to other baby name books and sites, but I’d like the linking functionality as I described as an alternate. I noticed in your blog that a name can occur in a sentence as it is being used just as a word, then it is linked as well. I know my suggestion sounds like a lot of work - no idea how many entries there are to cross-reference and fill out, but I know how I would like to discover them.

Thanks for a very compelling website, nonetheless. I really liked your books from way back, and the way you’ve revolutionized the subject of names and naming, it’s definitely made a difference.