First of all, we want to thank all of you who took the time to reply to our survey and for your thoughtful responses. We were gratified by the results in many ways, not least in demonstrating the widespread reach of nameberry—we heard not only from such primarily English-speaking countries as Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, but also from readers from as far afield as Mexico, Brazil, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Norway, Israel, Bulgaria, United Arab Emirates, and Korea.
One thing that was especially gratifying to us was the number of people who answered the question “What else would you like to see on nameberry?” with phrases like ”Nothing–just keep doing what you’re doing” and “It’s perfect as it is” and “Nameberry is by far the best baby-name site out there!” Thanks!
Also heartwarming to us was the fact that the greatest percentage of people checked the option ‘It’s more original and more wide-ranging than any other site” and that the feature rated number one was the blogs. But to those who asked for more of them–as in seven days a week–all we can say is ay-yi-yi!–we’re pedaling as fast as we can as it is!
As for the rest of the suggestions for the site, we’re parsing them carefully with an eye to their feasibility, especially those on the tech side. As might be expected, there were a few contradictory requests –more authors’ opinions vs more strictly objective information, more attention to celebrity babies vs. less, etc. We’ve already begun to add more ethnic names–with pronunciations–to the data base, as per several requests, and taken note of the fact that some felt boys’ names weren’t getting their fair share of attention. For the rest, we’ll continue to sift and sort and accommodate as much as we can. You had tons of good ideas.
A couple of requests we’re afraid we can’t fulfill, however–those from the people who requested “free beer” and “virtual chocolate.” Welll…maybe we can manage the virtual chocolate.
First of all it’s the nickname names, which right now seem to be even more prevalent in Scotland than in England, for both girls and boys, with a plethora of Ellies and Evies, Alfies and Archies. Here is a list of recent ones, with some of the middle names attached to them (separated by slashes):
