Our Story
Two parents, a spreadsheet, and a cat named Rune
We're Elsa and Aksel Lindqvist. We built the baby name tool we wished we'd had.
How it started
The spreadsheet that got out of hand
In early 2022, Elsa was pregnant with our daughter Saga. Like most expecting parents, we dove into the name search with way too much enthusiasm and not enough system. We had eight browser tabs open across five different name websites, a shared note on one phone, a different shared note on the other, and a growing sense that none of these tools were built for how people actually choose a name.
Elsa is a computational linguist. She studied onomastics (the science of names) at Uppsala and moved to Copenhagen for a postdoc on Scandinavian naming traditions. She didn't just want a list of popular names. She wanted etymology, phonetic patterns, cultural context. Aksel is a UX designer who spent years at a Copenhagen design studio. He wanted something that didn't feel like browsing a phone book from 1997.
So we built a spreadsheet. It had formulas to score names by sound, origin, and meaning. It had colour-coded columns. It had a tab for "vetoed by Aksel" and a tab for "too obscure even for Elsa." We found Saga in that spreadsheet. We also found something else: friends started asking if they could use it too.
By December 2022, we had turned it into a small web app and shared it with about 30 families. The feedback was immediate and specific: people wanted more. More names, more depth, more ways to decide together. That app became Bundle of Joy.
Where we work
The shed
We work from a converted garden shed behind our row house in Norrebro, Copenhagen. It has a standing desk, two monitors, a small couch that Aksel insists is for "thinking," and a ginger cat named Rune who sleeps on whichever keyboard is currently in use. Rune was adopted in 2020 and named after the Old Norse word for "letter" or "secret." He has never once contributed useful code, but he does provide moral support.
Our daughter Saga is four now. She occasionally wanders into the shed to suggest names for the database. "Butterfly" and "Pancake" were both submitted with great conviction and rejected with great diplomacy.
This is a small operation. Elsa handles the linguistic models, the name research, and the curation engine. Aksel handles the interface, the design, and the user experience. No investors. No office. No plans to move out of the shed anytime soon. It smells like coffee and cat, and that's fine.
What we believe
Three things we won't compromise on
Parents first, founders second
We use our own product. Every feature in Bundle of Joy was born from a real frustration we had as parents. If it doesn't help us, it doesn't ship.
Names deserve respect
Every name in our database has been researched. We don't randomly generate names or scrape lists without context. Cultural background, pronunciation, and history all matter. A name is the first gift you give your child.
Privacy is non-negotiable
Baby names are intimate. Your shortlist, your preferences, your partner's swipes. All of it is encrypted. Accounts inactive for 30 days are wiped. We don't sell data. We don't share data. Full stop.
Timeline
How we got here
2020
Rune the cat is adopted. He immediately claims the keyboard as his bed.
Jan 2022
Saga is born. The name came from the spreadsheet. Row 47, if you're curious.
Mar 2022
The spreadsheet that started it all. Colour-coded, formula-heavy, and deeply nerdy.
Dec 2022
First version shared with friends and family. 30 families. Lots of feedback.
2024
2,000 families served. The shed is still standing. Rune is still on the keyboard.
2026
Full relaunch with AI curation, Partner Sync, and name stories. The spreadsheet era is officially over.
We built this for parents like us.
Give it a try. Start with 25 free names, no credit card, no pressure.