Baby name consulting service - your opinions?

[Melissa29]

Hi all,

I've always been fascinated by baby names. Recently, I've discovered there is such a thing as a baby name consultant - someone you pay to come up with a name for your newborn. There don't seem to be any in the UK, more a US thing. I'm tempted to start an email service myself whereby after a client fills in a detailed questionnaire on name preferences, I spend time researching and coming up with a list of suggested names suited to their preferences and charging a fee of around £50 (MUCH more reasonable than consultants abroad.) Obviously nothing qualifies any 'name consultant' to do the job, but for me its an enjoyable hobby and something I though I could sell as a service. I'm not doing it for money, I have a stable job as a doctor, but obviously to make some extra cash from something I enjoy researching and discovering would be a bonus. And if its a service that helps someone out and they're willing and able to pay, I figure what harm could it do?
But I'd like to hear anyone's honest thoughts on this idea, have you heard of name consultants and would you consider using one?

I saw something recently about a teenager who'd set up a service to give Chinese babies English language names. Apparently it's common for Chinese people to have a traditional name and an English name, but there is a lack of cultural understanding around connotations of certain names, so they were using random names from popular culture, e.g. Hagrid, Barbie etc. thinking they were considered average names in the western world, then their children were embarrassed upon dealing with westerners. There was a lot of money made and a lot of happy customers, it was lovely.

So if they pay you £50
Presumably you are higher rate taxpayer so will lose 40% in tax, so £30 left
I know you said you are doing it for interest and the money is a bonus, but thinking how many hours you might need to put in to prepare a list, and then deal with any follow up queries, it seems a lot of time for £30?
And of course on top you have the time spent setting up the company, advertising, chasing invoices, tax return, so your hourly rate would actually be v low.
If you plan to expand the business to be busy then maybe you could make it work, but if working full time as doctor I'm imagining you might do two clients a month, so to me seems not worth it?
What stage are you at in doctoring? Would be more lucrative to do a locum a month then spend the other days indulging your hobby for fun!

To be honest I can’t see people paying £50 for a list of names when they can just ask on a name forum like this and get suggestions for free.

I think it's a great idea. I actually know people with no sense and too much money who would be happy to pay for this too.

I live in a very ‘throw money at the problem’ sort of area, but I’ve never ever heard of anyone lamenting at the lack of this service. So I wonder who your market would be

And it’s relatively common around here to use consultants to pick a school for your kids, or to do a Phil-and-Kirsty house hunt for you, or to be a ‘nursery concierge’ to help you chose stuff before your baby is born, so people really are prepared to outsource stuff

Am shaking my head in disbelief at this.

I think I might be the wrong demograph

I found browsing a few baby name books for inspiration did the job perfectly.

No way would I pay for a service like this. Sorry.

I can understand the Chinese service being successful but I honestly can't see it taking off over here. Surely all the parents need to do is to search baby names, come up with a list and choose a name on which they are both agreed. It's not rocket science is it and I think £80 for creating a list is a bit steep.

Sorry OP, I can't see it being a goer.

No way would I pay for such a service!

I enjoy picking names. And you may have a very different taste to me!

Oh behave

I think Dave Gorman did a show about this. Seems bonkers to me, but people will pay for anything. You need to charge more to make it worth your while, though.

I'm from the US and never heard of this in my life. I'm also fascinated with names, dream job!!
Can't imagine anyone paying for it, but I'd be very interested in hearing more

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/

The lady who runs this site does it for free! You can request help with siblings names etc. It's a lovely site.

I'm not going to lie, it sounds ridiculous. I would never dream of paying someone to help name my child. So odd.