What's in a name? babynames.com founder says "a lot"

OAKHURST, Calif. (KFSN) -- Picking a name for your baby can be a challenging task, but one popular web site is helping parents and even pet parents name their babies.

Name, name, what's in a name, if you ask the founder of babynames.com a lot.

"I think a name is so tied to our identity that it's one of the most important things that a parent can choose for their child," said Jennifer Moss, babynames.com founder.

Moss started babynames.com, which she runs from her home in the Madera County mountain community of Oakhurst. The computer programmer has been obsessed with names since she was a kid and in the 1990's put her database of names online for fun.

"Once I registered babynames.com in 1996 it just snowballed and now we get almost 1 million visitors a month," Moss said.

The site is popular and visited by people around the globe for inspiration. She combines the U.S. social security lists and variations of the same name to see what's trending.

She explains, "This year on the boy's side a lot of what we talked about is occupational surnames, so we're talking Mason and Sawyer."

She adds on "The girls side, a huge trend is flower names so Magnolia, Iris and Lily."

The site has been so popular that she even made a spin-off, with petbabynames.com and characternames.com.

However babynames.com remains her most popular site.

A lot of expecting parents will come to the Web site looking for some help, especially as the due date gets closer.

Jennifer has some key advice. She says first pick a name you and your partner love and block out everyone's opinions.

She adds, "Look at the perspective of the person that's going to have to live with it. Can the name grow with the child? You're not just naming a baby, you're naming an adult."

This year is also a royal year for babies.

Prince Harry And the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle are expecting their first child.

"I think she is going to go royal and she is going to go traditional, something like Victoria and that vain."

She thinks Spencer could be a name for a boy as they honor the late princess Diana.

That royal baby fever is expected to be an influence this year.

Jennifer has also started a podcast with her sister to talk all things babies. She has about 12,000 downloads per month.

The web site clearly shows their is a lot of baby love for baby names.