How We Built a Baby Name Database with 500+ Names from 17 Cultures

Building a baby name website sounds simple — until you try to do it right . After months of research for BabyNamePick.com , here's what I learned about creating a culturally respectful, SEO-friendly name database. The Challenge: Authenticity at Scale Most baby name sites scrape data from other baby name sites. The result? The same 200 names recycled everywhere, with meanings that are often simplified or wrong. We wanted something different: a curated collection where every name is verified against its cultural source, every meaning is accurate, and every origin is specific (not just "European" or "Asian"). Our Data Model Each name entry includes: { "name" : "Amara" , "meaning" : "Grace, eternal beauty" , "gender" : "girl" , "origin" : "african" , "style" : [ "modern" , "unique" ], "popularity" : "rising" , "startLetter" : "A" } The style field was the hardest to design. We settled on these categories: classic — names with 100+ years of consistent use modern — names that emerged or resu