Full-time baby name consultants are raking in $350 an hour

What’s in a name? A few hundred bucks, if you’re an increasingly in-demand baby name consultant.

Couples are no longer naming their precious offspring after loved ones, or casually flipping through books for inspiration.

Instead, moms and dads who want to give their children any edge they can in an increasingly competitive world are paying experts like Colleen Slagen, 34, and Morgan Timm, 29, hundreds of dollars to give their kiddos the perfect name.

Slagen had always been fascinated with baby names but didn’t consider the possibility of a full-time gig in the field until her friends expressed how helpful her commentary had been when they chose names for their children.

“I think a lot of people have a pretty good feeling about what they want, but want a third-party opinion,” the designation discoverer told The Post.

“They’re wanting validation or a gut check on the name that they are leaning towards,” she explained.

The Bostonian first advertised her services with her company, Naming Bebe, on local Facebook groups. She began posting TikTok videos of her work in 2023.

Slagen said she found so much interest that she quit her job as a nurse practitioner and began helping parents choose baby names full-time.

The title titan takes on about 15 clients a month charging $350 each — earning her a cool $63,000 a year.

What sounds like easy work can be a challenge — the names must typically fit extremely specific qualifications. Some requests she’s gotten in the past are that the name was only used 25 times the previous year or have specific sounds.

Slagen’s slots open at the beginning of the month and typically fill up within an hour.

As for Slagen, she prefers to keep her three children’s names private but said she chose their monikers using Celtic classics or family staples.

Meanwhile, Midwesterner Timm said she registers about 25 customers a month charging $125 to make around $37,500 a year. She hasn’t had her own child yet but will have the perfect name ready when she does.

“There’s wide interest,” she confirmed to The Post. “A lot of people are looking for that unique, one-of-a-kind, but still not weird or strange name.”

The pros both begin their processes by providing clients with questionnaires they use to guide their deep dives.

They ask them to list what names they’re considering, what names are off-limits and why and even how many syllables they want the name to have.

In the end, Slagen supplies parents with a PDF that’s usually about six pages long and Timm types up about 15 pages, both listing what names they recommend and why.

“People realize now that names are a form of self-expression that we’re choosing for another person,” Slagen explained.

After all, thanks to social media, everyone has a personal brand to some extent nowadays — not just celebrities.

“[The name] is sort of like a glimpse into your values, your priorities and your style, so I think it puts a little more pressure on what you choose and how other people are going to interpret that and what assumptions people are going to make about you,” she said.

Slagen shared that along with people placing more importance on picking the perfect name, there are two main reasons why people seek her services.

“A lot of couples are coming to me because they just can’t agree on a name. They have different styles,” Slagen shared.

Or, “they’re naming a second or third child, they’ve already used favorite names and they’re having a hard time finding a name that matches with the siblings, and that they love as much as the name they picked for their first or second child.”

The experts added that the paradox of choice has led people to seemingly never-ending lists of names.

Meanwhile, the expansion of our social circles online has made people believe that certain names are taken or more popular than they actually are.

For example, Olivia was the most common baby name in 2023 but only about one in every 100 baby girls of the 3.58 million babies born last year was given the name.

Some clients have very personal reasons for turning to a baby name consultant.

Timm revealed that she once had a customer who had “a very nickname-y name” (she gave Lulu as an example) that she believed “held her back in life” and didn’t want the same thing to happen to her child.

“Her entire life, she felt like people wouldn’t take her seriously because of her name. So she really wanted a name that was going to exude confidence and capability for her son,” Timm shared.

And while the whole process is very detailed and personalized, the experts have noted some similarities.

“I would say the most common request I get is classic, but not overdone. Names that feel like they’re going to be timeless, but they’re not in the top ten right now,” Slagen shared.

To find this, Slagen pores over baby name forums, books, Social Security Administration data and other sources to come up with names that fit the family’s criteria and style.

But other requests can be very specific. She’s been asked for names with particular forms of figurative language incorporated into the first and last name and been given three Excel spreadsheets of names categorized by what each partner thought of the name, whether it was a contender and names they couldn’t use.

Yet, those weren’t even the hardest assignments she’s received.

“The harder assignments I get are people who want to change their child’s name. That’s the hardest to work with because it involves a lot of emotions,” Slagen admitted.

She explained that some people name their children without much thought — often because they don’t know the gender or think a name will come to them when it’s time — and quickly realize that it doesn’t feel right.

Others decide to pick a new name after getting negative reactions to a unique moniker they chose.

That’s why many seem to find consultants helpful.

“I have a lot of people who are like, I want a whimsical, unique name that’s not going to get me roasted,” Timm said.