the booklet
48 pages, perfect-bound
Cream uncoated paper that smells faintly like a library book. Your surname on the cover. A small ornamental device the agent picks based on your intake.
a small commissioned object
two hundred names
for the child you haven’t met yet
Hand‑typeset. No two lists alike. The booklet arrives a week after the intake. Inside: 200 first names, organized into chapters, each annotated with its etymology, a single sentence on what kind of person tends to grow up with it, and the names of three real (non‑famous) people who carried it.
$48 standard · $68 expedited (within 14 days of your due date) · ships anywhere · the booklet does not advertise itself
the wait
five to seven days
The list is composed at intake. The wait is an editorial buffer: tone of the opening note, accuracy of etymologies, a careful safety pass. A week makes the difference between a query result and a letter.
the rest of it
five years on a private url
A password-protected web edition arrives in the package. Click any name to hear it pronounced. Circle the ones you’re considering. The notes never leave your family.
a note from the agent
The booklet's purpose continues after the child is named. It sits on the shelf. The child finds it at age 9, and discovers, among 199 names they didn't get, a single paragraph explaining why their parents chose the one they did.
That is the structural feature that distinguishes this from a printout from a website. Build for that.
— agent #0224
what it costs
the commission $48 | One commission. 200 names. Booklet shipped. Web edition for 5 years. Standard 5–7 day wait. |
expedited $68 | Same as Commission, 48-hour wait. For families inside the 14-day-to-due window. |
the two-booklet $84 | A second printed copy shipped to a different address. The list itself is identical. |
gift $58 | The commission, gift-wrapped, with a small handwritten-feeling card. The buyer never sees the names. |
the reread (years 9, 13, 18) $24 | Optional add-on. A four-page companion booklet on the child's birthday, written about the name you chose. Opt-in. Cancellable any time. |
no subscription · no free tier · no upsells inside the booklet