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What Mamou is

Mamou is an iPhone app for two people choosing a baby name together.

You and your partner each swipe through a deck of real names on your own phone, privately, so neither of you sways the other. Mamou learns what each of you likes and gradually steers both decks toward names that could work for both of you. When you both like the same name, it becomes a match.

Once you have enough matches, Final Picks takes over: three quiet solo passes over your matches (how the name sounds, how it looks written down, whether its story moves you), then the Pitch on your two phones, then the Last Table, where you end up with a first name and a middle name.

Delete your account and your data

You do this yourself, in the app. Open the Matches tab, tap the … button at the top right, and choose Delete my account. If you have not paired with anyone yet, it is on the pairing screen, under Sign out. Confirm, and it is done there and then. You do not need to email anyone.

It permanently removes, in one go:

• your account and sign-in details
• every swipe you have made
• your deck preferences and filters
• your room membership
• the matches in that room, and any Final Picks game in progress

Deletion is permanent, immediate, and cannot be undone. There is no grace period and no way to get it back.

One thing to know before you tap it: a room is shared. Your matches exist because both of you liked the same name, so they go with you, and a Final Picks game that has lost a player ends. Your partner is not deleted and is not left stuck: their account, their own swipes and their preferences are untouched, and the room keeps its code, so they can pair again. If you only want to stop sharing, use Leave room in the app instead.

Questions we get

How do we pair up?

One of you taps Start a new room and gets a six-character room code. The other taps Join your partner’s room and types that code. You can also send the code by email from inside the app, in which case your partner gets an invitation email with a link. You are in one room at a time, and only the two of you can see what is in it.

Why do I need an account? Can I not just play?

Because Mamou is a two-phone game. Your room, your matches and your Final Picks progress have to reach your partner’s iPhone and come back, and they have to survive you closing the app, changing phones, or picking this back up in three weeks. That means the state lives on a server, and a server needs to know which of the two of you is asking. An account is the smallest honest way to do that. It also means neither partner can see the other’s individual swipes, which is the whole point of swiping separately.

Where do the names come from?

From official birth and population registries, published as open data by national statistics offices, plus open reference data for meanings and lore. Nothing in Mamou is invented by a machine. Every name in the deck is a name that real people have actually been given, and the deck carries how many, where, and when.

With gratitude to:

• England & WalesOffice for National Statistics
• ScotlandNational Records of Scotland
• Northern IrelandNISRA
• IrelandCentral Statistics Office
• FinlandDigital and Population Data Services (DVV)
• FranceINSEE
• SpainInstituto Nacional de Estadistica
• SwitzerlandFederal Statistical Office (BFS)
• United StatesSocial Security Administration
• QuebecDonnees Quebec
• Australia (NSW)Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages
• New ZealandDepartment of Internal Affairs
• Meanings and loreWikidata (CC0)

Each office publishes its data under its own open licence and keeps its own rights. Mamou does not redistribute those files, only the names within them. The same list is in the app, under Where the names come from.

Why did Mamou stop me starting Final Picks?

Final Picks needs at least 50 matches in your room before it opens. Below that there is not enough for the lens game to work with, and the ending is worse for it. Keep swiping. Matches come faster than you would think once you both have a few hundred swipes in.

I swiped the wrong way on a name I loved.

Tap the undo arrow above the deck. It takes back your last swipe, returns the card to the top of the deck, and deletes the verdict so the recommender stops counting it. You can keep tapping it to step back further, one swipe at a time.

Undo is free and always will be. So are your filters, and so is every one of your matches. Nothing in Mamou puts a paywall between you and a name you already liked.

Why do the same spellings never come back?

Because Mamou collapses spelling variants into one card. Kaitlyn, Caitlin and Katelynn are one name to judge, not three. You choose the spelling you want later, once the name is yours.

Can my partner see what I swiped?

No. Your partner sees your matches, never your individual swipes. In Final Picks your keeps and cuts stay yours: the standings show a combined score and never who voted which way, and in the Pitch neither verdict is visible until you have both committed.

Names my partner liked keep showing up in my deck.

They do, unlabelled and mixed in with everything else. That is deliberate, so that a match is two honest reactions and not one person agreeing with the other. It is also why matches arrive at a reasonable pace.

Is Mamou on Android?

Not today. Mamou is iPhone only, and both of you need an iPhone to play.