Our rules
Editorial policy
These are the rules that every text on the site follows. They apply to every name page, list and guide.
What we always do
- We describe the name, not the people: We talk about the word: where it comes from, how it is spelled, how many people IBGE (the Brazilian statistics institute) recorded with it. We do not say what people who have a given name are like.
- Every meaning has a visible source: Each meaning carries the link to the source we opened and read, under “Fonte” (source), on the page itself.
- Popularity only from IBGE data: Figures on how many people have a name come only from IBGE and state which census they are from: “Fonte: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022”.
- Disputed etymologies are shown as disputed: When two reliable sources disagree about the origin of a name, we show both versions.
- Names without a documented meaning stay published: We publish what is factual (IBGE figures, variants, how the spelling is formed) and say that the origin is not known with certainty.
What we never do
- Infer ethnicity, religion or race: A name says nothing about the ethnic origin, religion or race of the person who has it, and we do not suggest otherwise.
- Make things up: We do not invent meanings, etymologies, figures or people. Without a source, there is no meaning.
- Present folk etymology as meaning: Popular explanations that serious sources reject are not presented as a meaning; when they appear, they appear as a contested version, with a source.
- Mention real people who have the name: We do not mention or describe athletes, artists, politicians or any real person who has a given name.
Biblical, mythological and literary figures
When a name comes from the Bible, a mythology or a literary work, we mention the figure it comes from only as the origin of the name, in a neutral way, with no biography and no religious judgment. For example: “the name of the apostle John in the New Testament”.
Sources
For meanings we use Wiktionary, the *Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil*, the main entries of Behind the Name, the Michaelis, Aulete and Priberam dictionaries and, for biblical names, Strong's Concordance. We do not cite baby-name lists, meaning sites made for search engines or artificial intelligence answers. The details are in the methodology.
How the texts are produced
The texts are written with the help of artificial intelligence, from a specification containing these rules, and go through an independent check that reopens the cited sources, in addition to automated checks.
Corrections
Mistakes happen, and we want to hear about them. Anyone can send a correction. We correct the text when a reliable source supports the information, and we do not add unsourced meanings, even when they are widely repeated on the internet. IBGE figures change only if they differ from the official data.
Last updated: .