How to play
Every day, Name Wave shows a chart of how popular one first name was among babies born in the United States, year by year since 1880. Your job is to guess the name in 6 tries.
The rules
- Look at the orange curve. The higher it goes, the bigger the share of babies who got the name that year.
- Type a first name and press Guess. The box suggests names as you type, and only names that appear in the US records are accepted.
- A wrong guess draws its own curve in grey, so you can compare its shape with the mystery name.
- The letters of a wrong guess are colored like in Wordle: green means the right letter in the right spot, yellow means the name has that letter somewhere else, and grey means it doesn't have it.
- Each wrong guess also unlocks one hint, in this order: the sex, the first letter, the number of letters and the exact peak year.
- Find the name within 6 guesses to win. Either way, the answer is revealed at the end.
A new name arrives every day at midnight, your local time. Everyone plays the same name on the same day, so you can share your result without spoiling it.
How to read the chart
The chart shows a name's share of all babies of the same sex born that year, not the raw count. That way the 1950s baby boom doesn't make every name of that era look like a hit. A tall, narrow spike means a name was a short-lived fashion. A long, low hill means a steady classic.
Tips
- Start with the era. Names that peak before 1930 tend to sound like great-grandparents (Mildred, Bertha, Ethel). A peak around 1950 to 1970 points to baby-boomer names (Linda, Deborah, Karen).
- Look at the shape. A sudden spike often follows a famous person, song or TV character. A slow rise and slow fall is typical for traditional names.
- Use your wrong guesses. Pick a guess from the decade you suspect. Its grey curve shows whether the mystery name peaked earlier or later.
- Think about both sexes. The first hint tells you whether it's a girl's or a boy's name, but some names, like Taylor or Riley, have been popular for both.
Questions
Why isn't my guess accepted?
The game only knows names that were given to at least 2,000 American babies in total since 1880, so very rare spellings aren't in the list.
Where do my stats live?
Your guesses, streak and win rate are saved in your browser on this device. Nothing is sent to a server. See the privacy policy.
Can I play earlier days?
Not yet, but you can see every past answer with its full popularity story.