About

namefortune.app is a small site sitting at the intersection of two things people have always done with names: assigning them meaning, and asking how unique they are.

The game

The home page is a simple probability simulator. You type in a name, and the page generates random strings of letters from the matching alphabet — Latin or Cyrillic — until one of them happens to spell your name. The number of attempts the universe needs is, in a mathematical sense, an answer to "how rare is this name?"

It is a toy. It is also, secretly, a working illustration of the geometric distribution: a wait-time problem that most students meet in a probability class and forget by the next semester. Watching it run on your own name is a more memorable way to learn the same thing.

The articles

Alongside the game, this site publishes long-form pieces on numerology, the history of names across cultures, and the mathematics underneath. The articles are written for curious adult readers who want a clear explanation without breathless mysticism. We take the symbolic systems on their own terms — describing what practitioners say, where the practice came from, and how it is used today — without pretending the claims are scientifically tested.

You can browse them in the articles section.

What we believe about names

Names are interesting because they are tiny pieces of language that carry a lot of personal weight. A good name choice can feel generous; a bad one can feel like a parental fingerprint that doesn't wash off. Numerology and gematria are not the only ways humans have tried to extract meaning from names, but they are among the oldest and most enduring. We are sympathetic to that impulse without being credulous about the claims.

Who runs this

namefortune.app is a small independent project. It is not affiliated with any other publisher, and there are no sponsored articles on the site. If we ever introduce sponsored or affiliate content, it will be clearly marked as such.

Thoughts, corrections, suggestions for new articles, or polite disagreements all welcome — see the contact page for how to reach us.