Why we built Vowel

Two kinds of help, and a gap between them

Baby name apps give you thousands of names to swipe through, sometimes with a match between partners. They are quick and cheap, and they stop exactly where it gets hard: when you have thirty names you like and need one.

Naming consultants do the opposite. They ask the right questions, come back with a short list where every name has a reason, check how each one sounds with your surname and help you decide. It works. One public price list puts it between $125 and $2,500, by appointment.

Most parents end up with neither the method nor the time.

What we wanted

An app that works the way a good consultant works, sessions included, for a fraction of the price. It starts from your taste instead of a generic list, says why it suggests each name, checks every name against real birth records, and helps you finish, not just collect.

Real data first

9,495 names, each with its history from official birth records: the SSA in the United States since 1880 and INSEE in France since 1900. When Vowel says a name is rising, or that there is a one-in-eight chance another child in the class shares it, that comes from those records, not from a guess.

Then a second voice

Data can tell you how common a name is. It can’t tell you why you keep coming back to it. That is Aurora’s job: an AI naming consultant who holds three spoken consultations with you, the way a consultant would, suggests names with a reason, answers your questions in writing and writes your Brief. The app tells you she is an AI before you start.

Built for two, and for one

Most names are chosen by two people with different tastes. Vowel lets each of you answer alone, shows only the names you both love and never shows the other’s no’s. If you are choosing on your own, everything works the same way.