Name Sprout
Problem
My brother had his first baby, and I thought it would be fun to use a tinder-style app to find a good name. I looked and looked, but there weren't any free options that took advantage of iOS platform features and offered lots of names.
Solution
Name Sprout: basically tinder for baby names. Partners swipe on names to rate them, and names they both like are collected as Matches. Name Sprout supports Siri, App Intents, App Clips, Widgets, and Controls.
Name Sprout
Apr 2025 - Oct 2026
Personal
It started as a side project with a friend and turned into my favorite place to practice interaction design on iOS.
Name Sprout
Apr 2025 - Oct 2026
Personal
It started as a side project with a friend and turned into my favorite place to practice interaction design on iOS. Everything here, from the card to the haptics, is something I designed, tried on my own phone and tuned until it felt right. I wrote all the copy, made all the product decisions, and designed all the screens.
Problem
My brother had his first baby, and I thought it would be fun to use a tinder-style app to find a good name. I looked and looked, but there weren't any free options that took advantage of iOS platform features and offered lots of names.
Solution
Name Sprout: basically tinder for baby names. Partners swipe on names to rate them, and names they both like are collected as Matches. Name Sprout supports Siri, App Intents, App Clips, Widgets, and Controls.
Maker
I did everything related to this project.
UX Designer
I designed the experience of using the product based on research, testing, and intuition.
UI Designer
I designed the visual and interactive experience of using the product to spark delight.
Interaction Designer
I designed how the user interacts with the products through input and output.
I couldn't find a baby-naming app that was beautiful, let alone one that used the whole Apple ecosystem. It looked like a fun way to show what I can do with interaction design.
Explore
This prototype taught me the importance of undo and filters... There were a lot of (to me) nonsense names but sometimes I wanted to go back one and couldn't.
The buttons didn't work yet, but we were getting something with the visual style. Notice the filter buttons in the top right that didn't make it to final.
The final card, available on the app store today. A lot of work went into making it work as well as it does.
Matches
At first we went with the default iOS system control but it felt like we needed something more custom.
I tried to keep the separation of lists but it messed with the swipe gestures and wasn't very intuitive.
I looked at how actual dating apps do it and figured one big list with collapsible sections was the way to go. Typically you'll have more likes than matches, so putting matches first is fine.
Next, let’s take a look at how the app works.
Swipe, right?
Just like your favorite dating app, swipe right to like and left to dislike. This pattern is so recognizable it's memed. I made Tinder for baby names.
When like isn't enough
Holding down on a card causes it to grow and shake until finally it exits offscreen to the top. Unlike normal likes, your partner is immediately notified of super likes.
Go fullscreen
Tapping on the card or swiping up like you're scrolling opens the card into a new, scrollable full screen view.
Pull down for more
Pulling down opens the options context menu where you can open full screen, share the name, report the name as wrong, or block a name so it doesn't show up again.
Time Travel. Kind of.
Name Sprout support infinite (within your session...) undo. Notice the undo arrow switches depending on which way you swiped.
Craft
Swipe from anywhere on Explore. The card follows your finger even if you start in the empty space around it.
Open a name and you can still rate it. Swipe the full page left or right and it leaves like a card.
Tap the gender symbol and it wiggles. It has been there since the first prototype.
During development, I mapped out the most significant ways someone could rate a name and gave extra care to celebrate that with them. I call them Hero Ratings.
It's a match!
When you like a name your partner already liked, the deck stops and a panel rises with the name on it. Both your avatars go toward the heart and confetti streams in the background. The congratulation message has 15 different variants.
Eureka!
I wanted spending a super like token to be rewarding, so I came up with this super over the top animation to show it being spent. It even cooler with haptics! I spent a long time tweaking the animation until it felt just right.
Aaaaannnndd... Blocked.
I wanted the prohibitory sign to feel like it was shaking its head no, but I had the hardest time animating it until I took a video of myself doing it and watched my nose. The trick is a little half-shake on the enter and exit of the animation, otherwise it looks like a shiver.
Designing social interactions was a little challenging. I wanted partners to feel connected but not observed. Here’s what I came up with:
Two's company
I wanted the profile to feel like it was more than just you. The partner profile at the top shows you and your partner contributing to Name Sprout with a subtle dot animation. It has three states: one for no connection, one for a pending connection, and one for connected.
If it can be measured...
I love data vis so this was a great opportunity to make some pretty charts about the engagement. I did consider briefly this could become a cause for argument, but I'm not worried about that.
You've got... mail!
Inviting your partner opens an illustrated envelope with a flap, a lining and a card inside. There's even a special onboarding experience where, instead of a partner invite CTA, the final step confirms you want to be partners with your inviter.
How the deck is dealt
The deck deals in runs of eight. Four are names your partner liked, dealt early in the run. One leans toward your taste and one toward your partner's, and two are random so the deck never closes in on itself. Anything your partner super liked skips the line. If there aren't any more liked names, it shows you more that it thinks you'll like. Over time it learns which signals you prefer, like a specific origin or a specific era of popularity.
Of course, there are so many more little design bits that I love about Name Sprout. Here are a few of my favorites:
Style Guide
I mostly used Apple's "New York" font, but included SF Pro where the text was smaller and the serifs were hard to read.
The gender icons are custom SF symbols that support variable weight, animation (including draw on / off), and hierarchical coloring.
4 shades of 7 colors for rating, gender, and surfaces.
Find it quick
As you search, your input is matched to hundreds of potential tokens based on the origin, gender, your like / dislike history, and era of popularity. You can chain these like filters to find exactly the name you're looking for.
Names. So hot right now.
I'm really proud of this interaction. As you press and drag, the year goes on top of your finger and the popularity updates as you scrub through the years. If you go too close to the popularity on the left, it moves to the right of the year loupe so you can still read it.
Mr. Worldwide
Picking your name origin is so important, so I wanted to make it a memorable experience. You can move the globe to focus a region or tap the continent's menu to see all the origins from that place. It's a lot of fun to use and I'm really proud of how it turned out.
Get a feel
In settings, you can change how far you need to swipe before the rating is committed. I thought it would be fun to do this with your own name, so if Name Sprout has it, it will surface that card to practice on.
Editing and Adding Names
Add your own names and automatically share them with your partner
Report a name if its details or spelling is wrong
Accessibility First
I made it a point to support and test every accessibility feature Apple offers, because it's the right thing to do. Name Sprout supports Siri, VoiceOver, Voice Control, Dynamic Type, Increase Contrast, Reduced Motion, Differentiate Without Color, and Dark Mode.
Name Sprout supports Apple's Dynamic Type all the way to the largest scale.
Increase Contrast makes everything just a little easier to see.
When you turn on Differentiate Without Color, it gives charts textures to make them easier to tell apart.
Next to your contacts
Every name is searchable by spotlight, so when you go to look up a contact it shows you what their name means.
Sit with a name or get a suggestion
There are two widgets in each size - one puts a name you haven't rated on your home screen and swaps it every hour, and the other reminds you of names you've already liked.
It's getting Intents
The Name Sprout control opens the deck on a fresh name. Put it in Control Center, on the Lock Screen or on the Action Button. Rating, viewing, and searching for names are also intents so Siri can do them too.
For our green message friends
When you share a name with someone who doesn't have Name Sprout yet, the link opens a page drawn just like the app's card, with a link to the App Store.
Gentle gradients make room for controls
Alternate app icons for couples expecting boys, girls, either, and devs.
Thoughtfully-applied Liquid Glass across the entire app
I hope you enjoy using Name Sprout as much as I enjoyed making it. Thank you.
Recognition
