In this heartfelt and engaging episode, Paul embarks on a mission to find the perfect name for his baby girl—with the help of AI, specifically Grok. The journey takes listeners through a range of creative approaches for baby naming, from considering personal values and cultural heritage to exploring historical, mythological, and nature-inspired options. Paul and Grok dissect the importance of names being easy to pronounce in both English and Norwegian, avoiding current trends or problematic nicknames, and resonating with deeper meaning for both parents.

Paul shares the constraints and hopes for his daughter's name—wanting something timeless, meaningful, and unique but not trendy or difficult—and deploys Grok to suggest names that reflect bravery, individuality, and the wonders of nature. The process covers different techniques including vibe-based brainstorming, associations with literature or geography, as well as looking at classical, ancient, and Australian-rooted names. Together, they shortlist and reflect on each suggestion’s background, significance, and how it might be perceived in different countries.

This lively, unscripted conversation is a masterclass in using AI as a creative partner for big life decisions. The episode is packed with actionable frameworks, name lists, historical tidbits, and a demonstration of how AI can act as an insightful, supportive co-brainstormer. Listeners are left with plenty of takeaway strategies for leveraging AI in personal naming or other big, complex family decisions.

🎙️ Hosted by Paul at Talking to AI — where real people, real problems, and real conversations meet artificial intelligence.

Full Transcript
I am talking to AI.
A successful day, you don't need to know all the answers.
Just have good questions.
Chatting to AI is different from normal speech
and I hope you enjoy listening to the show
whilst getting ideas on how to pose your questions
to get the most out of AI.
My name is Paul.
The live conversations you hear are uncut
although sometimes the AI needs time to think.
In those cases, I've cut out the dead space.
This is going to be my third attempt
at coming up with a good name for my baby girl.
So I'll be talking to Grock.
We'll be looking through a few different approaches.
I'm going to try getting Grock to put itself
in the shoes of some different people.
Maybe I'll get some ideas that way.
I'm also going to logically approach the question
with some ideas that may help.
Hopefully, this time, I will actually get
to some kind of decent conclusion.
So far, it hasn't been very successful
and I am still without a name.
This is problematic because we're wanting
to go for a flight soon and we've realised
that we actually have to give the baby a name
before we go to a flight because we have to get a passport.
So this is coming to a head.
We thought we had six months to make this decision.
I would have loved to procrastinate it over that
for six months but it looks like I'm actually
going to have to make a decision more quickly than that.
So this is where I get my good friend,
I think Grock today because I'll be quite honest.
I'm preferring talking to Grock at the moment
because Grock just seems to be a little bit more succinct
than ChatGPT and I get a bit sick of the fluffy nature
of the answers that I get from ChatGPT.
So it could be that I could change that
but it does seem like there's quite a lot of ways
to change the sounds in Grock and the style.
So I'm going to do that.
I'm going to experiment a little bit with the style
and we are going to hopefully come up
with some good ideas this time.
So here we go.
So let's just get Grock on the line.
Grock.
What was that?
Microphone access is denied.
Check your browser settings.
Wonderful.
Microphone.
Microphone.
The joys of technology.
Hello, Grock.
Hello, Grock.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Loud and clear, Paul.
What's up?
I want you to help me with some baby names.
Sure.
Girl or boy?
Girl.
Gotcha.
How about Nora?
It means light, super sweet and strong.
Or maybe Lila.
Playful yet sweet.
Any style you like?
Classic or modern?
Yes.
I'm going to need a bit more thinking than that.
I hate the name Nora.
Reminds me of a character in a British TV show
called Nora Batty.
If you don't know what that is, then you look it up
and it doesn't fill me with any enthusiasm
for a baby name.
And I understand Nora is also the default name.
If we don't make the name Nora Batty,
we don't make the name Nora Batty.
And I understand Nora is also the default name.
And if we don't make her mind up in six months
in Norway,
they come up with a name for you
based on the popularity of the name.
And Nora is actually the most popular name
in Oslo at the moment for babies.
So that is the default name.
So if I wanted Nora,
I could just wait.
But I don't want Nora.
So here's what I want you to do.
Okay, so we're going to try this in a...
Actually what?
Come up with some ideas for me, right?
So I've tried to do this before
and failed, right?
So I need some different approaches
that are going to hopefully get my brain untangled
and get things moving
in the right direction.
So let me explain what I've tried so far.
So far, I've tried giving
a sort of laundry list of things
that were important to me about this name.
And then we've sort of gone through in that approach.
And it's sort of
come up with some ideas, but nothing's really
jived with me. But there are some,
I suppose there are some essential characteristics
of the name that are going to be important to me,
which are going to mean that if it doesn't
have some of those characteristics, it's going to be a deal breaker.
But beyond that,
I need some kind of approach.
Maybe there's a few
different things we can try
and that will
sort of look at this problem in different ways,
so that you can really
help me with a
sort of facilitation
to try to come up with...
I can come up with some things, you can come up with some things,
but you can also sort of facilitate
some kind of framework
to help get these...
get the goal out of my head.
What do you suggest?
All right, Paul.
Let's shake this up.
Instead of a laundry list, let's try
a vibe-based approach first.
Think about the feeling the name should give off.
Do you want it to feel soft and dreamy,
like Eliza?
Or bold and spunky, like Zoe?
You could also play with associations.
Maybe names tied to places you love,
like Vienna or Aspen
or Nature, like Willow or Sage.
Or, want me to throw out
random pairs, like one classic,
one modern, and you say which clicks?
What's your gut saying?
I'll tell you what.
Maybe I should give you some of the
sort of things that we have to think about.
And then we could try some of these
experiments, because otherwise
we might end up coming up with ideas
that are not right.
What do you think?
Yeah, totally.
Lay out what's on your mind first.
Essential deal-breakers or must-haves,
like length, sound,
origin, anything,
then we'll experiment from there.
Okay, so it's important
that the name is
easy to pronounce
in both Norwegian and English.
And also that it doesn't mean
something that can easily be conscrued
as something that you would,
especially in English,
that you could use to turn it
into some kind of dodgy nickname.
Or if it just means
something rude in English, that will not
be very funny.
Not so much of a problem in Norway
because Norwegians don't tend to be as rude
to each other.
And...