“Professional baby namer” Taylor A. Humphrey is a San Francisco-based consultant who’s helped hundreds of couples choose a name for their little one, and some are spending tens of thousands for her services.
She’s a trained doula with a background in branding and marketing, and a self-described “name nerd,” who’s put her skills and passion to use. With new clients, Humphrey uses naming questionnaires to get an idea of the parents’ personalities, interests, and likes and dislikes for names.
- Moms-and-dads-to-be who just want a basic email with some personalized name recommendations - which include the meanings, origins, spelling variations, popularity history and “vibes” of each name - will pay at least $200.
- But the “VIP treatment” starts at $10-thousand. That includes services like “identifying a unique name aesthetic,” “baby name branding,” getting a genealogist to come up with a list of names from parts of their family tree, or even hiring a think tank to brainstorm name options.
- Humphrey says her clients ask for names that are “uncommon but not weird, simple but not basic, and on-trend, but not too trendy.”
- The naming pro has a range of people who hire her, from high-profile celebs to the non-famous rich, and she’s had a backlog of clients since the “New Yorker” profiled her in 2021, and her business blew up.
Despite bringing in the big bucks, Humphrey still gets mocked online, but she handles it pretty well. “It’s a little embarrassing when you get made fun of on the Internet,” she said. “But at the same time, I’m like, ‘Well, it is silly.’ I come up with baby names for a living.”
Source: NY Post⠀