How we verify every name

Every name MyEnglishNameIs recommends is a real, documented English name — one that real people have carried and that can be traced through public records, scholarly dictionaries, or literary history. We never invent names, and we never fabricate citations.

Our data foundation

We are building a curated name dataset that will ground every recommendation — each entry records the name’s origin, meaning, and documented usage. Today, recommendations are generated by an AI model under strict rules (real, documented names only; verifiable sources), and the dataset is the verification layer we are connecting behind it. We are honest about the current state of that work: each entry is drafted with AI (Artificial Intelligence — software that can reason and generate text) assistance and marked ai-drafted until a human editor has reviewed and confirmed it. We track that status per entry and will publish it once the review is complete.

Popularity figures — where cited — come from the United States Social Security Administration (SSA — US government agency that maintains public name-frequency records) public baby-name records, which cover name counts by year going back to 1880. These are the same records used by academic researchers and major name reference sites.

Pronunciation guides

Where pronunciation is shown, we use IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet — a standardised system of symbols that represents the sounds of any language precisely, so there is no ambiguity). IPA notations follow the conventions used in Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries.

Cultural background citations

The “Cultural background” section on each name card cites specific, verifiable sources — a published dictionary entry, a dated historical record, or a named literary work. We follow the principle that if the origin of a name is genuinely debated among scholars, we say so: “the origin is debated; the strongest documented account is…” reads more honest and more premium than false certainty. We do not paper over gaps with invented detail.

What we never do

• Invent names. Every name we recommend exists in documented usage by real people. We do not coin new names or combine sounds for aesthetic reasons alone.
• Fabricate citations. If a source cannot be independently verified, it does not appear in our output.
• Mention astrology in results. Zodiac signs are used internally as a personality signal only — they never appear in the names we recommend or in the explanations we show you, because astrology is not a documented source for English name origins.
• Claim certainty where there is none. Etymology (the study of where words and names come from) is a historical discipline — records are incomplete. We flag uncertainty rather than hide it.

How recommendations work

When you complete the personality quiz, we pass your profile to an AI language model that selects from documented English names matching your style, energy, and stated traits. The model is instructed to pull only from real, verifiable names and to cite its sources. A trustworthy English name generator is only as good as the constraints it operates under — ours are strict, and we publish them here.

Corrections and feedback

Found an error in a name’s origin, meaning, or citation? We treat corrections as data, not criticism. Email dengdan01@gmail.com with the name and the issue. We will review and update the record.

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• 真实存在：我们推荐的每个英文名都是真实存在、有文献记录的名字，绝不自行创造。
• 数据来源：我们正在建设一个精选名字数据库作为核验层（目前的推荐由 AI 在严格规则下生成：只允许真实、有文献记录的名字）。数据库的每条条目均由 AI 初稿撰写，并标注「ai-drafted（AI 草稿）」状态，直到人工编辑完成核实后方可更新。我们会公开这一审核进度。
• 流行度数据：引用流行度数据时，来源为美国社会保障局（SSA）公开的婴儿名字记录，涵盖 1880 年至今。
• 发音标注：使用 IPA（国际音标）标注，与韦氏词典、牛津词典保持一致。
• 我们绝不做的事：不捏造名字、不伪造引用、不在结果中提及星座、不以虚假确定性掩盖历史争议。
• 纠错反馈：如发现任何名字的来源、释义或引用有误，欢迎发邮件至 dengdan01@gmail.com 告知，我们会核实并更新。