Naming a dog is a genuinely difficult small decision. Every list online is the same alphabetical wall of a thousand options, which is exactly the wrong format — nobody reads a thousand names and feels closer to choosing one. Name my Dog is a light, whimsical prototype that hands you a single name at a time and gives you a reason to like it.
One name at a time
Tapping Give me a name serves a single suggestion on a large card — the name, two personality tags drawn from a small vocabulary of Playful, Classic, Sweet, Bold, Quirky and Noble, and a one-line character sketch. Beneath it sits a short piece of etymology or history: Barnaby is Aramaic for 'son of comfort', Ziggy was electrified by Bowie in 1972, Moose comes from the Algonquian for 'twig eater'.
That history section is the whole idea. A name on a list is arbitrary, but a name with a story attached is something you can actually feel a connection to — and it gives you something to say when someone asks where the name came from. Anything you like gets hearted and saved to a favourites shelf, so the shortlist builds itself as you browse instead of forcing you to write one down.
Seeing the name on a real dog
A name reads differently in the abstract than it does attached to an actual animal, so Discover lets you search any name and see photos of real dogs who wear it — a square photo grid that answers 'but does it suit a dog?' far faster than any description. Photo 'Pup'load closes the loop: add your own dog's portrait and name to the gallery so the next person deciding on that name sees your dog in the results.
It's a small community mechanic with a nice property — the app gets more useful the more people use it, and the contribution asked of each person is one photo of a dog they already love showing off.
Warm, round and unserious
The interface leans deliberately friendly: a soft off-white ground, deep blue ink with a brighter blue for emphasis, gold and pale-blue tag chips, generously rounded cards and a paw-print motif throughout. Type is large and confident — the suggested name is set at 44px, because the name is the product and everything else on screen is supporting cast. A full dark theme ships alongside it, and the whole thing is designed mobile-first around a two-tab bar, since this is an app you use on the couch next to a new puppy.
I designed the screens in Figma first, then built the prototype to match — the linked file holds the source frames for the Name, Discover and upload views.