Onomamania: Why Are Some People Obsessed with Names?

Updated Thu Feb 20 2025

Onomamania: Why Are Some People Obsessed with Names?

Like many of you, I’ve always been fascinated by names. It’s beyond an interest: It’s a passion, an obsession.

What I don’t understand is what makes us name obsessives so, well, obsessive? Is there some pattern to the interests and lives of real name enthusiasts? Is onomamania something you’re born with or something you can develop? Who are we, and why?

If you’re not a real name enthusiast, if you’re just a kind of mildly interested casual reader of the Nameberry blog, we’d love to hear about you too. Like, how do you not see the world names-first?

I hope this survey will help us understand more about onomamania: what it is, who we are, and how we got this way. We plan to write an article detailing the results.

All information will be strictly anonymous. If any of the questions doesn’t apply to you, just skip it.

Ready to take the survey?

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

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Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.