🎯 Names and Meanings scraper for Behindthename.com

This Apify Actor scrapes name data from behindthename.com, allowing you to collect structured information about names, including their meaning, origin, and gender.

The Actor supports searching for a specific name, searching by meaning, or retrieving a list of results, with optional filters for gender, origin, and name length.

🛠️ How does it work?

You select what to scrape using the Search section, with additional Filters available to help narrow your inquary.

• Use the Search section to choose the method for finding names.
• Filter the search to narrow the results so they fit your needs better
• Output data is stored in an Apify Dataset, one item per name

✨ Fun Ways to Use This Scraper ✨

• Character Creation – Discover unique names for stories, games, or roleplay characters
• Name Nerding & Research – Explore trends, origins, and meanings for fun or study
• Baby Names – Find names with the perfect meaning, origin, or gender for your little one
• App & Game Magic – Power your app or game with real names and meanings
• Personalized Gifts – Collect meaningful names for custom art, jewelry, or keepsakes

🗂️ Data that you can get

Get information for a single name, a list of names, or all names matching a meaning:

• Name – The name itself

• Meaning – Its meaning or significance

• Origin – Where it comes from

• Gender – Male, female, or unisex

🔍 Search options (Mutually Exclusive)

These options define the method of the search. They can not be combined. If more then one is provided the presedence is byStart -> byName -> byMeaning. First one filled in will be taken and the rest ignored. At least one method must be selected

🔡 byStart

Scrapes names that start with the letter (or letters) provided. Minimum of 1 letter is needed.

Type : string

"byStart": "A"

"byStart": "El"

🏷️ byName

Scrapes information for the name you provide. If multiple results exist for the same name, you’ll receive a list of all matches!

Type : string

"byName": "david"

🪄 byMeaning

Scrapes all names that include that meaning and returns the list of results.

Type : string

"byMeaning": "light"

🧩 Filters (combinable)

These filters can be combined with any one of the searches used, as well as with each other.

👤 byGender

Filter the names by the gender

Type : string

🔹 Available values

Key	Description
unisex	Unisex
feminine	Feminine
masculine	Masculine

"byGender: "unisex"

🌍 byRegion

Filers the names by the region they originated from. Names can have more then one origin, and the search will return all listed origins. Type: string

"byRegion": "afrikaans"

🔹 Available values

Key	Region
african	African
african-american	African-American
afrikaans	Afrikaans
akan	Akan
akkadian	Akkadian
albanian	Albanian
ancient-assyrian	Ancient Assyrian
ancient-egyptian	Ancient Egyptian
ancient-greek	Ancient Greek
ancient-roman	Ancient Roman
apache	Apache
arabic	Arabic
arabic-egyptian	Arabic Egyptian
arabic-maghrebi	Arabic Maghrebi
armenian	Armenian
armenian-mythology	Armenian Mythology
arthurian-cycle	Arthurian Cycle
assamese	Assamese
avar	Avar
aymara	Aymara
azerbaijani	Azerbaijani
babylonian	Babylonian
balinese	Balinese
bashkir	Bashkir
basque	Basque
belarusian	Belarusian
bengali	Bengali
bhutanese	Bhutanese
biblical	Biblical
biblical-dutch	Biblical Dutch
biblical-french	Biblical French
biblical-german	Biblical German
biblical-greek	Biblical Greek
biblical-hebrew	Biblical Hebrew
biblical-italian	Biblical Italian
biblical-latin	Biblical Latin
biblical-portuguese	Biblical Portuguese
biblical-spanish	Biblical Spanish
biblical-swedish	Biblical Swedish
bosnian	Bosnian
breton	Breton
brythonic	Brythonic
buddhism	Buddhism
bulgarian	Bulgarian
burmese	Burmese
catalan	Catalan
celtic-mythology	Celtic Mythology
cheyenne	Cheyenne
chinese	Chinese
chinese-mythology	Chinese Mythology
choctaw	Choctaw
circassian	Circassian
cook-islands-maori	Cook Islands Maori
cree	Cree
croatian	Croatian
czech	Czech
dagestani	Dagestani
danish	Danish
dutch	Dutch
early-jewish	Early Jewish
egyptian-mythology	Egyptian Mythology
english	English
english-australian	English Australian
english-british	English British
english-new-zealand	English New Zealand
esperanto	Esperanto
estonian	Estonian
filipino	Filipino
finnish	Finnish
finnish-mythology	Finnish Mythology
flemish	Flemish
french	French
french-quebec	French Quebec
frisian	Frisian
ga	Ga
galician	Galician
ganda	Ganda
georgian	Georgian
german	German
german-swiss	German Swiss
germanic	Germanic
germanic-mythology	Germanic Mythology
greek	Greek
greek-mythology	Greek Mythology
greenlandic	Greenlandic
gujarati	Gujarati
hausa	Hausa
hawaiian	Hawaiian
hebrew	Hebrew
hindi	Hindi
hinduism	Hinduism
history	History
hmong	Hmong
hungarian	Hungarian
icelandic	Icelandic
igbo	Igbo
indian	Indian
indian-muslim	Indian Muslim
indian-sikh	Indian Sikh
native-american	Native American
indigenous-australian	Indigenous Australian
indonesian	Indonesian
inuit	Inuit
irish	Irish
irish-mythology	Irish Mythology
italian	Italian
japanese	Japanese
kannada	Kannada
kazakh	Kazakh
kikuyu	Kikuyu
korean	Korean
kurdish	Kurdish
kyrgyz	Kyrgyz
late-greek	Late Greek
late-roman	Late Roman
latvian	Latvian
limburgish	Limburgish
literature	Literature
lithuanian	Lithuanian
luhya	Luhya
macedonian	Macedonian
malay	Malay
malayalam	Malayalam
mapuche	Mapuche
marathi	Marathi
mayan	Mayan
mbundu	Mbundu
medieval-english	Medieval English
medieval-irish	Medieval Irish
medieval-italian	Medieval Italian
medieval-portuguese	Medieval Portuguese
medieval-slavic	Medieval Slavic
medieval-spanish	Medieval Spanish
middle-persian	Middle Persian
moldovan	Moldovan
mongolian	Mongolian
mormon	Mormon
maori	Maori
navajo	Navajo
ndebele	Ndebele
nepali	Nepali
new-world-mythology	New World Mythology
norse-mythology	Norse Mythology
norwegian	Norwegian
odia	Odia
ojibwe	Ojibwe
old-irish	Old Irish
old-norse	Old Norse
old-welsh	Old Welsh
pashto	Pashto
persian	Persian
persian-mythology	Persian Mythology
polish	Polish
popular-culture	Popular Culture
portuguese	Portuguese
portuguese-brazilian	Portuguese Brazilian
punjabi	Punjabi
quechua	Quechua
quranic	Quranic
roman-mythology	Roman Mythology
romanian	Romanian
russian	Russian
sami	Sami
scottish	Scottish
scottish-gaelic	Scottish Gaelic
semitic-mythology	Semitic Mythology
serbian	Serbian
shawnee	Shawnee
shona	Shona
sinhalese	Sinhalese
slovak	Slovak
slovene	Slovene
somali	Somali
sotho	Sotho
spanish	Spanish
spanish-canarian	Spanish Canarian
spanish-latin-american	Spanish Latin American
spanish-mexican	Spanish Mexican
sumerian-mythology	Sumerian Mythology
sundanese	Sundanese
swahili	Swahili
swedish	Swedish
tajik	Tajik
tamil	Tamil
tatar	Tatar
telugu	Telugu
thai	Thai
tibetan	Tibetan
tonga	Tonga
tswana	Tswana
tumbuka	Tumbuka
turkish	Turkish
turkmen	Turkmen
ukrainian	Ukrainian
urdu	Urdu
uyghur	Uyghur
uzbek	Uzbek
various	Various
vietnamese	Vietnamese
welsh	Welsh
welsh-mythology	Welsh Mythology
xhosa	Xhosa
yiddish	Yiddish
zapotec	Zapotec
zulu	Zulu

📏 minimumLen and maximumLen

Filter by the length of the name. The minimum value that can be selected is 1, and the maximum value is 20

⚠️ Important: Maximum Length can not be smaller then the Minimum Length.

Type : integer

Used seperately the search will return any names that are longer/shorter then defined length.

"minimumLen": 3

"maximumLen": 5

By combining both you can search fo a specific lenght, or a range.

"maximumLen": 6,
"minimumLen": 3

Output Schema

Each Dataset item represents one name

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	The name
gender	string	Gender of the name
region	string	Origin of the name
meaning	string	Meaning of the name

Output Example

{
	"name": "Estelle",
	"gender": "f",
	"region": "English, French",
	"meaning": "From an Old French name meaning \"star\", ultimately derived from Latin stella. It was rare in the English-speaking world in the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century, perhaps due to the character Estella Havisham in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations (1860)."
}

⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to BehindTheName.com. Any and all website content, trademarks, and product names belong to their respective owners. This scraper is intended for educational, research, and analytical purposes only. Users are responsible for complying with BehindTheName.com’s terms of service and applicable laws.