I’m just curious; in your guys opinions, or all time favorite when it comes to naming communities? And why?
For me, it’s Nameberry, I feel like for the majority people on here, they’re very welcoming whether your expecting, pet owning, or just someone who isn’t expecting but just love names. And they’re not like rude/mean when it comes to just talking about your favorite names, and sharing their dislike for it.
And I did try Reddit, r/namenerds a few times. And well, for being called namenerds, their very…how do I put it? Very closed off? Like, if you aren’t expecting, then like don’t post any discussions about them? And they’re very judgmental and aren’t afraid to rip your favorite names to shreds. Like, I posted my list and it got ripped. Like there was this one person who switched up the combos, which if you have joined one of my discussions, you know for the most part I don’t care, but they changed the combos without judging them as is, which erks me a bit.
When I first brought my name obsession to the internet, I went to a site called [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Name [name_u]Genie[/name_u]. They let you post anonymous polls but were so rude if you weren’t expecting. I was 13 at the time and when I mentioned that, I had posters accusing me of trying to get pregnant at that age and telling me to get off. They didn’t like names that didn’t rank between #10 and #250 (so not too popular but not too unique), wouldn’t accept alternative spellings ever, and had an odd hatred for [name_u]Riley[/name_u] and [name_u]Avery[/name_u] on girls.
I found Nameberry when I was 14 and I’m so glad I did! On the other site, I had to pretend to be older and pregnant to get any sort of responses that weren’t condescending or sl*t-shame-y but here, I quickly found that everyone was really friendly! There’s even a teenberry community that has lived on even now as I’ve reached my 20s and outgrown it.
I’ve never tried reddit because I’ve never really felt the need to try a new naming site since finding Nameberry!
I love nameberry when I want genuine contributions and people’s suggestions as it’s a very helpful and welcoming community. But when I really want someone to rip apart a name or combo and go super judge mode I love mumsnet for it. They have no mercy (which is very useful when I want super honest opinions)
I like reddit for their general data postings - comparing different countries or showing trends. They are less open to ‘strange’ names or more unusual combos though that’s never affected me since I predominantly like names in their in group. I feel like they are more receptive to people expecting than just browsing but that could just be because of the upvoting system and those posts get the most upvotes.
Saying that, I spend a lot more time on nameberry than I do on r/namenerds specifically - and more time on reddit overall than NB!
I joined Nameberry and another naming site/community at the same time. On the other site I got snark from a regular poster on the first day and decided not to bother with them again. They just seemed like a clique. In contrast Nameberry was a welcoming and vibrant community. It’s not stuffy. People have fun here and serious discussions too. I love Nameberry and the people who make it what it is and it’s become part of my daily life to stop by, even if I don’t always have time to post each day, I am still here reading what people say.
I do feel like Nameberry is very open towards non conventional names whereas the people on Reddit shun unique names and always stick to the overdone vintage choices.
However, Nameberry does need to expand their international baby names section and focus on adding name lists for [name_m]Dutch[/name_m], [name_u]North[/name_u] African, [name_u]South[/name_u] African, Native American and other nationalities/ethnicities, since it’s very sparse in comparison to the amount of American/English names on here.
I’ve never tried any naming site other than NB, so I’m probably not the most qualified to answer this, but I would definitely say NB is one of, if not the, best naming sites. The community is very diverse in naming style and opinions, so it’s pretty much guaranteed there’ll be someone else who likes your obscure crush or agrees with your controversial name opinion. In my experience it’s very welcoming, friendly and easy to navigate (unlike some other sites I’ve heard people talk about on here). I’ve never felt the need to try out anywhere else!
The community on NB is definitely the most welcoming one I’ve come across. Everyone on here is more open to others’ taste in names and don’t criticise unless the poster asks for berries to be as harsh as possible (but even then it’s still fairly nice).
Although, I also use Behind The Name to look up or find names as they have a much bigger range of names, especially from African, [name_f]Asian[/name_f], Arabic and other minority or ancient cultures.
I’ve never been on Reddit, but before it died, I used to LIVE on Yahoo Answers [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Names. It was so active and new and the “best answer” feature low key made it such a game to me. I was #3 on the Top Contributors board until it started to phase out. People there were also mean, but nothing compared to [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Name [name_u]Genie[/name_u]. Those people will literally drag you for filth. The arguments on those polls were unmatched (definitely still run polls there every once in a while when I feel like I’m being way too annoying and present here hahahaha).
I feel like my coming to Nameberry is recent? Maybe like 2 years? So grateful for this community – where rarely there’s any drama and everyone is so friendly & open. I’m literally so sensitive, so the NB forums are like a dream come true. [name_m]Just[/name_m] happy to have a creative Names outlet with so many people that love names like I do
Nameberry all the way! I’ve never posted on other sites but I’ve looked at their posts sometimes if they come up in a google search. I don’t like how rude people are on other sites.
I used to be active on the mums2be forum and was the admin on there in my teens. It was actually a lot like nameberry!
Nameberry! I love how welcoming and supportive everybody is. I’ve never really used another baby naming site, although I occasionally use features on behindthename.com, I’ve never used their forums or anything like that.
Nameberry by far is the best, most inclusive, and friendliest name site. I have been a namenerd well before the days of Nameberry, back when Behindthenames and YahooQuestions baby names were just about it. Behindthenames is still awesome if you want to know about the etymology of a name, but it has no open forums or real way to open a dialogue about names outside of the comments section for each individual name (very much like Nameberry’s). Yahoo’s baby name nook was also very judgemental and critical without being helpful at all. There was a lot of trolling and namecalling and if the names weren’t “popular” you would get dragged. There were several others I frequented over the years (mostly just looking for names, like Magicbabynames, Babynamegenie, Babynamewizard, Ohbabynames, Nymbler, and several others that aren’t even around anymore) but when I found Nameberry around 2010 (and for years I only followed along with the blog posts and lurked on the Forums, I didn’t make an account until 2012 and then because I never used it outside of commenting on the blogs and making name lists I made this one a couple of years after that) and the rest as they say is history. Nameberry has the blog, name searches out the wazoo, comments for names as well as suggestions of similar names, it gives some insight to the meaning and etymology of a name (though Behindthename does do that better), it has a way to put in people, fictional and real, who have that name, you can like names and make lists of names, and it has a forum full of people who are always so genuinely kind and helpful (even when they disagree about your favourites). Bullying and trolling is almost nonexistent here (but it has had its moments over the years) and the variety of names loved on here is so expansive and wonderful. I feel like this is a real home for namenerds. I am really bummed about the change of the forums setups, because the old way was so easily laid out and I feel like it just worked a lot better, but the new layout of the forums has only partially diminished my love and usage of Nameberry. I really do think its the best by far.
I totally agree with you. Before I found Nameberry I was searching on some other sites, though I never posted, and the people on there were super mean and rude. They would make jokes about the name and just were so unwelcoming. I felt bad for the parents/namenerds who posted on there.
Then I found Nameberry are everyone is so kind and gets alone. Even if someone doesn’t like a name, they’re very kind and respectful. I love the community here and that you don’t have to be expecting to post. At first I was afraid to post so I just stalked and read up on my favorite names, collecting. I was scared to post bc I saw on other websites that people were so mean and judgmental. Then I noticed that no one was like that on here, so I made an account and I’ve never been able to stop posting (except the occasional break for school or vacation). Glad a found a community of like minded people
I used Reddit NameNerds also, but Nameberry is better and much more open to uniqueness as others have said. NameNerds literally think every name not in the top 500 is too out there and will be teased relentlessly. It gets boring and repetitive, and is just overly judgmental. Plus, there’s no actual name database to look up names.
