What a baby name consultant costs — and whether you actually need one
If you have got as far as searching this, you have already decided you want help. Good. That is a reasonable thing to want for a decision your child carries for eighty years. What almost nobody tells you is what the different price tiers actually buy, or that most parents who hire a consultant do not have the problem they think they have.
Last updated: August 4, 2026
The short version
- Published consultant pricing clusters into three bands: roughly $100–$400 for a list or a single consultation, $500–$2,000 for multi-round packages, and $10,000–$30,000 for bespoke, months-long engagements.
- What you are really buying at the top end is time and conversation, not better names.
- Hire a human if you want a live back-and-forth, or you have a constraint that needs judgement. Do not hire one if your real problem is that you already have ten good names and cannot choose.
- Ask about revisions and refunds before you pay. It is the question that separates services most and it is rarely answered up front.
What a baby name consultant actually does
The good ones do real work, and it is worth describing fairly before we talk about price.
A typical engagement opens with an intake questionnaire that is longer and stranger than you expect. Not just "do you like classic or modern" but: which names have you already vetoed and why; which name did your partner reject in a way that ended the conversation; what is your surname and how often is it mispronounced; who in the family will have an opinion and how much do you care. A skilled consultant is calibrating your taste from your rejections, which are far more informative than your likes.
Then comes a curated list, usually somewhere between ten and thirty names, each with a short case for why it fits you. Better consultants annotate: the nicknames it will attract, how it sits with an older sibling, whether it travels across the languages your family speaks, where it currently sits in popularity. Then a call, where you react in real time and they adjust. That live adjustment is the thing you are paying a premium for, and it is genuinely valuable — a person can hear the hesitation in your voice when you say a name out loud, and change direction on the spot.
At the highest tiers the work expands: multiple rounds, a professional genealogist tracing family names you did not know you had, availability by message for months, and sometimes a final session after the birth.
What it costs
Prices move and vary widely by practitioner. These are the bands that show up consistently in published pricing and in press coverage of the industry, and you should treat them as a map, not a quote.
| Tier | Typical price | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Single question or tiebreaker | ~$50–$100 | One name suggestion, or an opinion on a short list you already have. Nameberry's published menu has included roughly $50 for a single name suggestion and $100 for tiebreaker analysis. |
| Name list | ~$100–$300 | A personalised list built from your questionnaire. Nameberry has published a 10-name list at around $250. |
| List plus live consultation | ~$250–$400 | The list, reviewed together on a call so you can react and refine. Nameberry has published a session with its resident name expert at around $350. |
| Multi-round package | ~$500–$2,000 | Deeper research, several rounds of revision, a written follow-up report, continued access for a period. |
| Bespoke engagement | ~$10,000–$30,000 | Months of work. Video consultations, genealogical research, unlimited suggestions. Nameberry's nine-month "name concierge" has been published at $10,000; press coverage has reported bespoke services up to around $30,000. |
Figures above are drawn from publicly published menus and from industry coverage in outlets including Entrepreneur, Fox News and Inside Edition. They are not our research and they change. Check current pricing directly with whoever you are considering.
Where the money actually goes
Notice what scales as the price climbs. It is not the quality of the names. A $30,000 engagement does not have access to better names than a $250 list — the pool of human names is public and enormous. What scales is hours of a person's attention: more calls, more rounds, more availability, more research into your specific family. If what you want is a person on the other end of the line for nine months, that is what the top tier sells, and the price is honest for what it is. If what you want is a good decision, you may be paying for a lot of hours you do not need.
Who genuinely should hire a human
There are real cases where a consultant is the right call and a report is not:
- You want a conversation, not a document. Some people think out loud. If you know that you will only find your answer by talking, buy talking. No written product replaces that.
- You have a constraint that needs judgement. A name that has to work in three languages with three different alphabets. A grandmother's name you want to honour without using it outright. A family situation where the "obvious" name is off limits for a reason you would have to explain for ten minutes. Reasoning through a tangle like that is what a human is for.
- You have genuinely run out of ideas. If you have read every list on the internet and nothing has moved you, a skilled curator with a wide personal repertoire may find the door you missed.
- You want to be held through the whole pregnancy. That is a real service and some people want it. Price it honestly against what it is worth to you.
Who probably shouldn't — and what they need instead
Here is the thing we notice most often, and it is the reason this page exists.
Most parents who go looking for a consultant do not have an ideas problem. They have a decision problem. They already have eight or twelve names they genuinely like. They can recite them. The list has not changed in a month. What they cannot do is choose — and, more often than not, the reason they cannot choose is that their partner's ranking is different from theirs and neither of them wants to be the one who gives in.
Handing that couple another twenty names does not help. It makes the list longer and the decision harder. If you recognise yourself here, read what to do when you and your partner can't agree before you spend anything at all. What you need is a way to compare privately and reconcile fairly, not more raw material.
Start with one name, free
If there is a name already circling in your head, run it through a free Name Check. You get an in-depth read on that single name: its honest meaning and origin, its real U.S. popularity rank and trend, how it flows with your surname, the initials it produces, the nicknames it invites, and how it sits beside a sibling's name. No card, no obligation.
The Name Check is an analysis of one name, not a name generator.
What to ask before you hire anyone
Whoever you are considering, including us, these are the questions worth asking first. A service that answers all of them clearly is probably worth your money. A service that dodges two of them is not.
- Where does your popularity data come from, and from which year? "This name is rising" is meaningless without a source and a date. In the United States the answer should involve the Social Security Administration's published dataset, which goes back to 1880. If someone cannot tell you the data year, they are telling you a feeling.
- Exactly what do I receive, and in what format? A number of names. A written document or a call or both. Whether you keep anything afterwards.
- How many revisions are included, and what counts as one? This is the question that matters most and gets answered least.
- What is your refund policy if we hate the list? Ask for it in writing before you pay.
- Will you tell me when a name's meaning is disputed? A great many popular "meanings" are folk etymology dressed up prettily. Honest sources flag uncertainty instead of inventing a nicer story.
- Do you work with both parents, or only the one who booked? If only one of you is in the room, the other one will feel handed a verdict. That is how a good list produces a bad outcome.
- What do you do if we still cannot decide at the end? Listen carefully to this answer. It reveals whether the service is built to generate names or to finish a decision.
The middle option: a data-grounded report at a fixed price
Full disclosure about what we are, because you should not have to guess. Names Done Right is not a consultant and we do not claim to be one. We do not sell hours, and we cannot sit on a call and hear your voice change. That is a real advantage a human consultant has over us, and if it is what you want you should buy it.
What we sell is a structured way to finish the decision, at a price you see before you start. The Report is $149, one time: a guided intake of about ten minutes, then a personalised shortlist of roughly fifteen to eighteen names, each carrying its real U.S. popularity rank and trend, its honestly-stated meaning and origin with disputes flagged rather than smoothed over, its nickname options, its surname-flow and initials check, its fit alongside a sibling's name, and a specific note on why it fits your family. Then the part that matters most: you and your partner each privately rank the shortlist on your own link, neither seeing the other's order until you have both submitted, and we reconcile the two into the names you already agree on plus the bridge names worth a real conversation. We never declare a winner.
The numbers are computed in code from official public data before any writing happens, and re-checked automatically against that data before the report is sent — so a rank cannot be invented on the way to your inbox. You can read exactly how that pipeline works, or read a complete sample report end to end before you decide anything.
| A ~$250–$400 consultation | The Report, $149 | |
|---|---|---|
| Live human conversation | Yes — the main thing you are buying | No, except on the $597 Heirloom tier, which includes a live 15–30 minute call |
| Curated shortlist | Typically ~10 names | ~15–18 names, built from your intake |
| Verifiable popularity data on every name | Varies by practitioner — ask | Yes, computed from official U.S. SSA data plus international sources, pinned to its data year |
| Both partners handled | Usually whoever is on the call | Yes — private independent ranking, then reconciliation |
| Price known before you start | Sometimes; bespoke work is quoted | Yes, fixed, one time |
| Try before you pay | Rare | Yes — a free in-depth check on one name |
If a name is already on your mind, the cheapest sensible next step is not to hire anybody. Run it through a free Name Check and see what a real read on a single name looks like — try it on something you are considering, whether that is Maya, Elias, or something less expected like Noor. If the depth is not what you wanted, you have lost nothing but four minutes.
When you want the whole decision handled
The Report is $149, one time — a personalised shortlist with real data behind every name, the surname and sibling checks, and a private partner tiebreaker, delivered as a keepsake you will actually want to keep. If you want a printed book, or a live naming call and a hardcover edition, there are two deeper tiers. No subscription, no card kept on file, no upsells hidden at checkout.
Free Name Check first · one free revision · 14-day money-back · one-time payment, no subscription · secure Stripe checkout
Common questions
How much does a baby name consultant cost?
Published pricing generally falls into three bands. A personalised name list or a single consultation usually runs about $100 to $400. Deeper packages with several rounds of revision and continued access run roughly $500 to $2,000. Bespoke, months-long engagements with video calls and genealogical research have been reported at $10,000 to $30,000. Nameberry's published consulting menu has ranged from about $50 for one name suggestion up to $10,000 for a nine-month concierge arrangement. Prices change, so check current rates directly with whoever you are considering.
Is a baby name consultant worth it?
It depends on which problem you have. If you have run dry on ideas, or you have an unusual constraint that needs a human to reason through with you, a consultant is worth the money because you are buying a conversation. If you already have ten names you like and simply cannot choose between them, or you and your partner keep deadlocking, you do not have an ideas problem. You have a decision problem, and a cheaper structured process usually solves it better.
What does a baby name consultant actually give you?
Typically a detailed intake questionnaire, a curated list of names chosen for your taste and constraints, notes on nicknames, sibling fit and cultural or linguistic considerations, and one or more live conversations to react to the list and refine it. Higher tiers add more rounds, more names, deeper research and sometimes ongoing availability through the whole pregnancy.
Is Names Done Right a baby name consultant?
No, and we do not claim to be one. A consultant offers a bespoke, call-driven human service. Names Done Right is a data-grounded naming report at a fixed price: a guided intake, real popularity data, constraint checks, a private partner tiebreaker and a keepsake report. Our $597 Heirloom tier does include a live 15 to 30 minute naming call, but the core product is a report, not a consulting engagement.
Can I get naming help without paying anything?
Yes. Free name databases, popularity data published by the U.S. Social Security Administration, and busy naming forums will all take you a long way, and for many families that is enough. Our free Name Check is also genuinely free with no card required: it is an in-depth analysis of one name you are already considering, not a name generator. We wrote an honest comparison of naming services, free ones included, if you want to see the whole landscape at once.
What happens if we don't like the names we are given?
Ask that question before you pay anyone. Revision policy is the single biggest difference between services and the thing least often stated up front. Every paid Names Done Right order includes one free revision and a 14-day money-back guarantee, and you can run a free Name Check before you spend anything.
One honest closing note
Nobody — not a $30,000 consultant, not us, not a free generator — can tell you there is one correct name and that this is it. Anyone who promises that is selling you a feeling. Names are subjective, and the choice is always and only yours. What a good process can honestly promise is narrower and more useful: that you will decide together, with real information in front of you instead of guesses, and that when you sign the birth certificate you will not be wondering what you failed to check. If you are worried about the wondering, that is the subject of a separate guide on baby name regret and how to be sure before you commit.