Namernewborn, the birth of a crowdsourcing platform for baby names.

                                           “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

                                             by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare

Shakespeare was right perhaps, but when it comes to our babies, we take great stock in the name. Myra, Advit, Aditi, Mekhala… the list goes on and on. What list? The list of Indian baby names.

There is a decided shift in trend for naming babies. Many parents today prefer new and unique names. The key word being many, and not all. In either case the struggle to zero in on a name is real. This how ‘name’R’newborn’ (NAME OUR NEWBORN) took birth!

“When we found out we were going to be parents for a second time, we were elated. With that came the all too familiar stress of choosing a name for our bub. Both the wife and I were in full time demanding jobs and found little time on hand to browse through the endless lists of names on the Internet” says Ratnakar Poduri, the Founder and CEO of name’R’newborn. In the end, what helped them was a consortium of friends and family. This is what got him thinking, to find a way to crowdsource baby names! And this is exactly what they built.

Name ‘R’ newborn, at its very core is a crowdsourcing platform. What it sources, is baby names for expecting parents. And along the way it offers some fun in the form of cash prizes! Yes, you read that right. Here is how it works: there are two categories of users, the parents and the namers. The parents start a contest: they specify rules or guidelines for the name they are looking for. Say for example: they want a girl name starting with V, not more than 8 letters long and so on. The parents pay to have a contest started. Namers can then suggest names to the parents, the name that wins earns the namer a cash prize. Name’R’newborn charges Rs.1500 (in India) and $25 globally to start a contest. The cash prize given away to the winning namer is to the tune of Rs.1200. The site smartly categorises namers as Enterant, Experienced and Expert. Based on the level of the namer, the cash prize and other privileges differ.

Name’R’newborn, promises the parents a solid two hundred to four hundred baby names.The contest runs for a total of two weeks, including ranking and name selection.

The idea promises novelty and is attempting to solve a problem that perhaps not many of us acknowledge. The team has a few ace ideas up its sleeve, launching a freemium model, being one. Name’R’newborn launched a little over a week ago. Ratnakar and the team are looking to hit a decent traction before even thinking of raising money. At the moment name’R’newborn is bootstrapped with the founding team pitching in. In addition to Ratnakar, name’R’newborn has two more founders, based in Hyderabad.

The challenge that name’R’newborn would face is user acquisition – both parents and namers, since the internet is flooded with sites that offer baby names for free. Ratnakar is very sure of what his product provides in comparison to competition. “Most sites offer a finite set of static names that takes a lot of time to filter and browse. Name’R’newborn makes the process fun and gives the parents customised names.”

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