Taylor A. Humphrey, a 37-year-old consultant from San Francisco, has built a strange but very wealthy profession helping parents make the important choice of what to name their children. Her love of baby names, which started ten years ago, has turned into a full-time company with a huge online following—over 100,000 people follow her on TikTok and Instagram. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Humphrey currently has more than 500 names in her portfolio that she has successfully curated for families.
From Doula to Expert in Naming Babies
Humphrey has a lot of experience in branding, marketing, and doula training. She has “thousands of spreadsheets” containing names, their origins, meanings, and “vibes” to back up her claims. She says that her job is more than just that of a consultant; she often feels like a “therapist or a mediator between parents,” as she told the SF Chronicle, helping couples make a difficult choice.
She offers different levels of service, starting with a $200 entry-level package that includes an email with personalized name ideas, meanings, and trends in popularity.
But for her high-end clients, the prices go through the roof:
For $10,000, you can get VIP treatment for in-depth name curation.
Her most exclusive services, which cost $30,000, are said to include everything from genealogical research to full branding campaigns for baby names.
Humphrey’s clients include famous people and very rich people who all want names that are simple but not boring, unusual but not weird, and fashionable but not too much.
Naming and Custom Requests with High Stakes
For her clients, the stakes might be very high. Humphrey told the story of a couple who came to her for help since they couldn’t agree on a middle name for their kid and were stuck in the hospital. She was able to end the standoff in a few minutes, which saved them a lot of money by not having to stay in the hospital longer.
Parents are looking for names that reflect their ethnic history, fit with family traditions, or strike a balance between being both timeless and modern. The New York Post says that Humphrey offers the most custom services, such as employing think tanks to come up with names or making “baby name aesthetics” that are unique to each client.
A Successful Virus and a Growing Industry
A New Yorker article on Humphrey went viral in 2021, and her business took off, leaving her with too many clients. Even though people have made fun of her high-end service online for charging thousands of dollars for things that some people think are silly, Humphrey loves the jokes and says that sometimes she can’t believe she gets paid to come up with baby names.
Even when people are saying bad things about them online, there is still a growing need for name consultants. There are only around a dozen full-time baby name experts in the US, and Humphrey is thought to be the only one in the Bay Area. Experts say that this new sector is emerging because parents are feeling overwhelmed by all the choices and are becoming more anxious about the risk of “name regret.”