Help Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Where Can I Get the App?
- Home
- Most Popular
- Browse Names
- Surprise Me
- Name Detail
- Favorites
- Removing a Favorite Name
- Reordering Your Favorites List
- Adding a Custom Name
- Sharing Your Favorite Names
- Trivia
- Info
- More
- Sounds On/Off
- Help
- About the App
- About the Data
- Privacy Policy
- Acknowledgements
- Fun Stuff
The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) would like to thank you for your interest in our Baby Name Playroom mobile application. Baby Name Playroom lets you see the most popular names in the United States since 1880, while also providing you important online resources that you may not know existed. In April 2012, we discontinued this mobile application. If you already have this application on your mobile device, you may continue to use it. However, we do not plan to release updates to the application.
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In April 2012, we discontinued this mobile application. If you already have this application on your mobile device, you may continue to use it. However, we do not plan to release updates to the application.
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To get started with the Baby Name Playroom, tap on the “Home” tab on the bottom of your screen.
You can choose to see the most popular names, browse names, or be surprised. The "Home" section
will focus on these three functions.
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The Most Popular option lets you choose the gender, year, and rank you want to use for limiting
your results. For instance, by choosing the top 100 boy names for 1993, you will receive the
most popular 100 names given to boys that year. If you were to select “Either” for the gender,
you will receive 200 names – 100 for boys, and 100 for girls.
After you get your results, you can change the gender to re-filter your list. You can also
change the sort order by tapping “Sort” in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Your
choices are by rank or alphabetically.
Names are color-coded: blue for boys, pink for girls. If you have trouble distinguishing the
colors, that’s okay – we’ve also included symbols to make it easier for you. By tapping on a
name, you will come to the Name Detail screen. See below for more details. You can also tap on
a blue star with a “+” sign to add the name as a favorite, or tap on a gold one with a “-” sign
to remove it from your favorites.
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The Browse Names option presents you with an alphabetical list of the most popular names over
time. There are no filters here, so you get the whole list. There’s also no sorting option on
this screen. However, you can use the alphabetical index on the right side of the screen to
quickly access names starting with a certain letter. Both the Browse Names and Most Popular
options also give you the ability to quickly search the list by simply entering a name at the
top of the list.
Names are color-coded: blue for boys, pink for girls. If you have trouble distinguishing the
colors, that’s okay – we’ve also included symbols to make it easier for you. By tapping on a
name, you will come to the Name Detail screen. See below for more details. You can also tap on
a blue star with a “+” sign to add the name as a favorite, or tap on a gold one with a “-” sign
to remove it from your favorites.
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The Surprise Me option lets you get a random name from the SSA database. By either tapping the
“Surprise Me” button, shaking your device, or tapping on the rattle, a new name will appear on
the screen based on your gender selection. If you see a name you like, tap on it to get more
detail.
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The Name Detail screen gives you some basic information about the popularity of a name. You can see its
highest rank and its lowest rank within the top 1000 since 1880. You’ll also see how many times the name
appeared in the top 10, 25, 50, or 100 names. To save a name as a favorite, tap on the blue star with a “+”
sign next to it. To remove a name from the favorite list, tap on the gold star with a “-” next to it. To
see the popularity of the name over time, tap on the “View Popularity Over Time” button, and you’ll see a
scrolling graph. Just move the graph left or right to view more years’ data.
If the name you’ve selected can be used for either a boy or a girl, you can view the corresponding
information for the other gender by selecting it on the screen. If you save the name to, or remove it from,
your favorites list, it does so only for the selected gender. You can, however, save the name twice – once
for a boy, and once for a girl.
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The Favorites tab allows you to see names that you’ve identified as your favorite names. You can add names
to your favorite list using the methods described in the “Home” section of this help file. From here, you
can remove a name from your favorite list, reorder your favorite names, add new custom names, and share your
favorite names with your family and friends.
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To remove a favorite name, you can swipe across the name to get the “Delete” button to appear. Tapping on
“Delete” will remove the favorite name. Another way to delete a name from your favorite list is to tap on
the “Edit” button in the top left-hand corner of the screen, then tap on the red button that appears to the
left of the name. When you’re done deleting names this way, be sure to tap the “Done” button on the top
left-hand corner of the screen. Finally, you can tap into the name detail and tap the gold star with a “-”
sign to remove it from your favorites list.
If the name you’ve deleted can be used for either a boy or a girl, it will only be deleted from the boy or
girl list, depending upon where you’ve deleted it.
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To reorder your favorite names list, tap on the “Edit” button in the top left-hand corner of the screen. On
the right side of the screen, next to each name, you will see some horizontal lines. These are handles you
can use for dragging a name up or down on your list. When you’re done, tap “Done” in the top left-hand
corner of the screen.
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A custom name is any name that does not appear in the SSA Baby Name Playroom mobile application on its own
– in other words, it has not been in the top 1000 names since 1880. To add your own name to your favorites
list, tap on “Edit” in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then tap on “+” in the top right-hand corner
of the screen. In the box that appears, enter the name you’d like to add, and choose whether this name is
for a boy, girl, or either. When you’re done, tap “Done” in the top right-hand corner of the screen. To
cancel this action, tap “Cancel” in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Note that you can share or
delete a custom name, but you cannot click on it to see popularity data.
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You can share your favorite names through Facebook, Twitter, or Email. To share your favorite names, tap on
“Share” in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Each name will have a checkbox next to it. Tap the
checkboxes next to the names you wish to share. Then tap on the “Share” button again in the top right-hand
corner of the screen. Choose which method you’d like to use for sharing your names by tapping on it. You
can then customize the message that will appear to your family and friends.
For Facebook and Twitter sharing, you must have an account already. You may be prompted for your login
information, but SSA will never know your login name or password. We will also not store your login name or
password within the application, nor will we ever ask for your login details by phone, email, or text
message.
To cancel sharing your names, tap on “Cancel” in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
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How much do you know about the popularity of names? Here’s a good way to find out. For each question,
choose “A”, “B”, or “C” about the most or least popular names from a given year, or find out if a name is
for a boy, girl, or either. Getting stuck? Click on the “Hint” button at the bottom of the screen to
remove an option.
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Having a baby isn’t all about fun and games – though we’ve tried to give you as much of that as possible.
There’s a lot you need to know about your new arrival, and our Info tab gives you instant access to great
U.S. Federal Government online resources. The links are categorized and may be updated over time with more
relevant information. To view the web pages, click on a section header to expand it, then click on a link.
You’ll stay inside the Baby Name Playroom mobile application, but will be viewing the web pages we’ve made
available to you. You can click on any link on the page to navigate to more information, or you can click
on “Safari” at the bottom of the screen to open the page in your regular browser You’ll also see some
messages appear on the bottom of some screens, especially in the “Home” section.
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The Settings tab provides you some quick information about the Baby Name Playroom mobile application. Here
is the basic rundown for you.
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From here, you can quickly enable or disable sounds in the application. By now, you might have heard some
of them. But, sound can show up in some surprise locations. Poke around the Playroom to find some more!
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The "Help" option gives you quick access to this web page.
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In April 2012, we discontinued this mobile application. If you already have this application on your mobile device, you may continue to use it. However, we do not plan to release updates to the application.
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Baby names data is somewhat complex. Our actuaries would like you to know exactly what this data
represents as well as what it doesn't represent. The About the Data page helps clarify some of
those questions you may have.
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The Social Security Administration wants you to know that we respect your right to privacy. We also
want you to know about any information we may collect while you use the mobile application and how
it will be used. Please be sure to take some time to read through this. It's there for your
protection -- and ours.
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In order to bring you our Baby Name Playroom mobile application, we relied on software libraries
developed by third parties. Aside from the fact that we're required to give them credit, we'd like
to, anyway. The Acknowledgements page is just one way of tipping our hats to those who have helped
us along our journey.
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The Baby Name Playroom was designed to be fun and informative. We’ve discussed the informative, and we’ve
discussed some of the fun. Just keep playing with the app. You may be surprised with how you can interact
with it. After all, once your bundle of joy arrives, you’ll never cease to be amazed with how you can
interact with them, too!
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