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Expecting a baby? Congratulations! My wish for you is that the roughest part of your pregnancy is selecting a name for your new little bundle of joy.
Do you have your heart set on naming your son Huey, after your favorite Uncle Hubert who was the mayor of your home town? Does your Significant Other have his heart set on naming the baby Louey after his great grandfather Louis Archibald, who started the family horseshoe business? “What are you complaining about?” he asks. “At least I didn’t pick Archibald!”
If you and your Significant Other are truly at odds over your choice of names, no problem, use tech to help you decide! Sure, you could use the Wheel of Choice app, sell naming rights on eBay, or name your baby Like after the Facebook button, but that’s not what I’m suggesting here.
Instead, you should grab the app Kick to Pick from the iTunes App Store. Kick to Pick is an iPhone app that allows your baby to choose what his/her name will be. (Kick to Pick also works with the iPod Touch and iPad.)
After you download the app, you pick your favorite names (say, Huey and Louey) or let the baby choose from the thousands of names on the app. Place the iPhone on your Baby Bump. (Make sure you put your iPhone in airplane mode to ensure an errant Push Notification doesn’t decide the name of your baby instead!)
The app uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to detect the baby’s movement, which apparently means that movement indicates your baby is delighted with the name choice. How the app knows that the baby is not squirming with disgust, well I just don’t know, but then again, I am not an app developer.
My most recent pregnancy resulted in the birth of my amazing twins but don’t think the app would have worked well if I had it back then.
“Wait, which one kicked? Did they both kick? Uh oh, they both want to be called Gertrude!”
But a twins version would be a great idea for an update of the app.
I also humbly suggest that the developer use its powers of interpretation for a new app that detects the baby’s food preferences. I made several unfortunate meal choices when I was pregnant with my first child only to discover the hard way that she didn’t like seafood. (She still doesn’t.)
Is Kick to Pick an app that you would use/would have used to name your baby? Did you use tech or would you use tech to pick your baby’s name? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Image by Trey Metula
I like the name Huey. My great niece is having a baby I’ll have to suggest Huey. If when the kid is older he starts “cocking a deaf ‘un”. I can just shout “Hey Hue”
Hi Mike, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I’m certain your great niece will appreciate the suggestion, and I’m also certain that your great-great nephew/niece will appreciate your suggestion even more!
Have a great bank holiday!
Now, that’s an app I should have been using a lot when it was time to pick the names of my two kids. I bought all sorts of books with thousands of names. But, it was no fun reading them all. My wife and I did spend a lot of time before we decided on the names, and I’m not sure if we found the names in a book or not. Sometimes the best way to do things is just to think.
But I would definitively have used this app, although it would probably not suggest many Norwegian names 🙂
Jens
Hi Jens, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! Good News! I wrote to the developer, Nathan Parks, about your wish to have Norwegian names in the app. He wrote back immediately telling me that your wish has been granted! While there isn’t a Norwegian version of the app in the App Store yet, the next update of Kick to Pick will include the ability to add names to its database.
So tell your friends in Norway who might be interested that they can pick their next baby’s name with Kick to Pick!
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks once again for reviewing the app and inviting me to read it and the comments from your readers! As an independent developer I’m personally grateful to anyone who shares their opinion of the app good or bad (and I have read many polar opposite opinions of it!).
Many people have taken the app very seriously and literally and as such not had very favourable things to say about it or it’s potential users. However, the Kick To Pick app is purely for fun, which the majority of people understand, and if it does happen to help make the decision a little easier (by choosing from a very select shortlist) for someone along the way, then that’s great!
I always welcome any suggestions for improvement to the app such as being able to add your own names manually etc. so if anyone does have any suggestions then feel free to email them to [email protected].
Thanks again for your support!!!
Hi Nathan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Our readers greatly appreciate when developers visit the site and interact with them.
I’m surprised that there is anyone who doesn’t like the app. Perhaps the people who don’t like the app are the ones who lost in the decision between names such as Huey and Louey? No one needs to be bound by the results of the app’s name choice unless they want to be.
In researching your app, I read many reviews and they were universally positive. No reviewer seemed to take the app too seriously, all seemed to get that the app was in good fun.
Congratulations on your successful app that has received a lot of press. That’s not easy to do with all of the apps in the App Store!
So, Wonder of Tech readers, any suggestions for Nathan with changes you would like to see with Kick and Pick?
Thank you, Nathan, for visiting and for interacting with Wonder of Tech readers! Good luck with the update to Kick and Pick. I’m sure it will go well!
My aunt bought a books with thousands of names with meaning. But then it was no fun of reading them all too. I should consider that application then. I think it’s so easy to look into it.
Hi Mary, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I think this app would be a lot of fun. Do let us know which name your baby selects! 🙂