Baby name gurus are here to help

A new crop of TikTok creators have amassed large followings discussing baby names.

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A new crop of TikTok creators have amassed large followings discussing baby names — and many now have consulting businesses where they guide parents-to-be through the name selection process. If this trend indicates anything, it could be the pressure to choose a name that reflects the parents’ personal brand — on top of the desire to give children names that reflect their individuality.

Why would anyone pay someone else to name their baby?
This trend has apparently picked up steam because of our cultural fascination with uniqueness.

  • Colleen Slagen, the nurse practitioner behind the TikTok account @NamingBebe, estimates that she’s done 100 consultations via three packages: a video consultation with 16 options for $99, an eight-name package with analysis for $175, and a 16-name package with analysis for $250.
  • Taylor A. Humphrey, who has been name consulting since 2018, works with influencers, bringing in anywhere from $350 for a handful of suggestions to $30,000 for “baby name branding.”

“You’re not just naming a baby, you’re naming a future adult”
Baby name consultants (whose DMs and emails are overflowing with requests) say that people are thinking about naming kids in the way that companies think about naming products: a person needs attention to succeed.

Kait Cunniff

Kait is a Chicago-raised, LA-based writer and NYU film grad. She created an anthology TV series for Refinery29 and worked as a development executive for John Wells Productions, Jon M. Chu, and Paramount Pictures. Her favorite color is orange.

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