How nametree works
We have the matching engine, and we have the data to prove it.
Every family already has a naming style. You can hear it when the names are said together, even if nobody ever planned it. nametree's whole job is to read that style from the names you give it, show it back to you, and grow a tree of names that genuinely belong. Names live in families, not in lists. Everything below follows from that one idea.
The free app, step by step
The app has three front doors. Grow tree is the heart of it: plant your family's names and grow a tree that fits them (the steps below). Search names answers "tell me about Amara": any name's story, meaning, and century of popularity. Browse is the playground: slide, blend, or dial your way through all 8,500+ names until ones you'd never think to type surface themselves.
Two homes for a name, two different jobs. Tapping ＋ add to tree tells nametree "this is us": the name joins your family's style and every suggestion regrows around it. Tapping ♡ save puts the name on your list, your shortlist: nothing shifts, it just waits for the decision with your notes, and it stays with you across every tree you keep. A simple rule of thumb: browse with the tree, decide with the list.
What makes the matching different
Most name sites show everyone the same popularity lists, or ask you a hundred quiz questions about yourself. nametree reads something better: the names you already chose. They carry more truth about your taste than any quiz, because they're real decisions your family already made.
- It reads your family, not a chart. Suggestions are matched to your names' shared roots, style, era, rhythm, and signatures, not to what's trending this year.
- No black box. Every single suggestion comes with its reasons, in words. If we can't explain why a name fits, it doesn't get suggested. You should never have to trust us; you can just read the why.
- Honest data. Popularity comes from more than a century of real records, drawn as real curves. Meanings are researched and honestly hedged: when a meaning is disputed, we say "traditionally"; when it's unknown, we say so. No invented meanings, ever.
- Real traditions, with respect. Collections are curated as living naming cultures, from Nikkei-Brazilian to Korean-American, not keyword grab-bags. If a name belongs to a tradition, we can tell you why.
The Family Name Report
The free app is the whole journey: it reads your family, grows the tree, and takes you from "no idea" all the way to a name you love. Nothing about deciding sits behind a paywall. The report is for families who want depth. When your tree is down to a few finalists, it is everything our matching engine and its data have read in your family, written out at full length: a designed, keepsake-grade analysis of your actual shortlist. Think of it as the letter a wise friend who's known your family for years would write about your final names:
- Your family's naming signature: the style your names already share, read back to you in plain words.
- Each finalist in depth: its real story and meaning across cultures, its popularity told as a story, how it sounds with your last name, and exactly why it fits your family.
- The names side by side, scored on the things that matter, so "three names we love" can finally become a decision.
- What we noticed, quietly: not a verdict, but the observation that helps you land.
What goes into it, exactly: three things, and all three are yours. The finalists you chose yourself (every name you hearted and every candidate you planted on your tree), the notes you wrote along the way ("after Grandpa Sebastián" makes it into the letter), and our proprietary matching engine's full reading of your family: its origins, rhythms, eras, and sounds. We never pick your shortlist for you. And because every page is computed from your family's own names, the same shortlist reads differently for a different family. The report goes deep on up to 12 finalists; the best ones come from lists you have already narrowed hard.
A small one-time purchase ($2.99), made from your own list at the moment you need it. No subscription, no account. The report link arrives by email, at the address you use at checkout. You can also gift a report to another family: they redeem it whenever their own shortlist is ready. Everything about the report →
Getting the most out of nametree
- Plant at least three names. The more seeds, the sharper the reading. Mixing generations (kids + grandparents) gives the richest portrait.
- Add your last name. It unlocks the sound checks: flow, rhythm, and the ones to say out loud first.
- Use the refine controls. Girl, boy, or both; popular or rare; short or long; lean into a heritage. The tree re-fits instantly.
- Tap any blossom for the story behind a suggested name. Prune the ones that aren't you; the tree learns its shape from what you keep.
- Play the Browse tab. Slide between popular and hidden gems, blend heritages with the donut, or turn the dials, and watch the ranking answer in real time. It's the fastest way to meet names outside your usual orbit.
- Test your own candidates. Type any name you're already considering and see how it reads against your family, honestly.
- Leave notes on your favorites. "Grandma's middle name," "the one we both said out loud." Notes keep your reasons attached to your list, and they are woven into your Family Name Report.
- Keep multiple trees. One for each scenario. Switching is instant and nothing is lost.
- Share early. A shared tree is the easiest way to get a partner or grandparent genuinely involved, and their additions make your tree smarter.
- Go deep on any name. Every name links to its own page: meaning, history, popularity curve, similar names, and the traditions it belongs to.
And the promise underneath all of it: nametree is free, with no ads and no account. Nothing is sold, and the tree you grow is yours.