US-based baby-name consultant Taylor Humphrey offers packages ranging from £275 to £23,500 (converted from $350 and $30,000) to help parents find the perfect name. Her company, What’s in a Baby Name, founded in 2015, has assisted high-profile clients including celebrities, influencers and athletes, though their identities remain confidential. Humphrey also provides a £275 option for a list of 15 names or feedback, with a £118 discount for clients willing to share their experience on social media.
Humphrey’s top-tier service includes market research, brand-strategy development, focus groups, genealogy reports and a video or storybook explaining the naming story. She has gained 70,100 followers on TikTok, where she shares advice and solves naming dilemmas, such as suggesting Daphne or Arthur as siblings for Florence. Her rise reflects a broader trend of ‘baby-name influencers’ on social media, including UK-based SJ Strum, who offers free consultancy via her podcast Baby Name Envy, and Canada’s Heidi Prunkl, whose bespoke services start at around £47.
The trend towards unconventional names is not limited to celebrities. In the UK, BabyCentre’s 2023 Top 100 list shows traditional names like Oliver and Olivia remain popular, but newer entries such as Aurora (up 22 places to 30th), Violet (up 19 to 37th), Ophelia (90th), Sebastian (38th), Mateo (63rd) and Axel (76th) are surging. Influencer Imogen Horton recently invented the name Oriavella for her second daughter, following her first child Renaelia—a practice that echoes how the name Imogen itself originated from a misspelling in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline.
One mother, who named her son Fabian John Cosimo in 2021, acknowledged the influence of social media on her choice. While Fabian was inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the name’s meaning ‘broad-bean grower’, she noted that seeing names like Balthazar on Instagram made her feel ‘liberated to make a brave choice’. She added that her son is now learning to say his own name, a decision nudged by online trends.
