Privacy notice

Who we are

Rare Baby Names operates from Texas, United States. This notice explains how we handle personal information when you browse names, save choices, create a baby card, join a Family Circle or contact us. “We” and “our” refer to Rare Baby Names. For privacy questions or requests, use our contact form; you do not need an account to contact us.

You can browse without an account. Accounts and Family Circle invitations are for adults aged 18 and over. The required 18+ checkbox is a self-confirmation, not age verification; we do not ask for a birth date or identity document for that check.

Information we collect and why

• Searches and guest choices. Search text and filters reach our server so we can return results. Guest Love, Maybe and Passed choices, optional remembered filters and any locally saved card details stay in that browser’s storage. These are not automatically imported into an account or shared with a circle.
• Account identity. Auth0 handles email/password, Google or personal Microsoft sign-in. Auth0 and the chosen provider process identifiers, email and basic profile information such as a display name or profile image. Our application stores the sign-in issuer and subject, a local account ID and display name. It does not store an email field in the local account record. We use these details to authenticate you, secure your account and load your saved information.
• Saved choices and card details. When signed in, we store Love, Maybe and Passed choices and discovery preferences you ask us to remember. Remembered preferences exclude typed search text, surname and search history. Optional private card details include a middle name, family name and date the name was decided.
• Family Circle information. We store the tree details and relationships an owner adds, membership and invitation records, selected suggestions, finalists, ballots, voting settings, reveal times, chosen first name and discussion. We use them to provide the circle features you choose.
• Support messages. The contact form collects a reply email and message, plus an optional name, to answer your request. Hostinger Email delivers it to our support mailbox. Your reply email is not displayed on the site.
• Operational information. Connection information, security events, session records and temporary rate counters help protect and operate the service. Application rate counters use keyed identifiers rather than raw addresses. Hosting and sign-in providers can separately process connection and security information.

We use Google/Microsoft sign-in information for authentication, account features and security. The current sign-in flow does not request access to your inbox, contacts, files or calendar. We do not use this information for advertising or to train general-purpose AI models. Google and Microsoft identities stay separate; matching email addresses do not automatically merge accounts.

Cookies, browser storage and optional totals

Secure cookies and server sessions support sign-in and security checks. An application session lasts up to 30 days; signing out ends that application session. A separate signed, secure browser cookie can remember your 18+ self-confirmation for up to 180 days, including after sign-out. It stores only the confirmation version and site, not a birth date or account identity. Clear site cookies to remove it. Google, Microsoft and Auth0 may maintain their own sessions.

Browser storage keeps guest choices and any preferences or card details saved on that device until you reset them or clear site storage. Clearing one browser does not clear another device.

The unchecked “Help improve discovery” option enables aggregate daily action totals, such as search, save or compare, and a broad region category. That action-total store excludes search text, surnames, shortlist contents, personal notes and a persistent visitor identifier. Optional totals are separate from the processing needed to run and secure the service.

Separate server-side traffic reports help us understand public page loads and service errors. Stored reports contain aggregate counts, public page paths and referrer hostnames, not visitor addresses, browser user agents, query strings, private circle paths or session identifiers. A short-lived protected RAM input is excluded from backups. Aggregate reports are retained for up to 90 days. Temporary in-memory comparisons help estimate visits and distinguish automation; these estimates are not verified people.

An optional exclude-this-browser preference marks our own browsing and testing separately. Its secure cookie lasts up to 90 days, has the same value for every excluded browser and contains no visitor or account identifier. It is not a tracking identifier. You can change it on that page or clear site cookies. No browser analytics script is added.

Who can see or receive information

We do not sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising or make consequential eligibility decisions about people. We do not turn private account or circle content into public name data.

• Circle participants. Owners and accepted members can see the circle information made available to them. Only selected first names are shared through “Add from my saved names”; personal Love, Maybe and Passed lists remain separate and unchanged. Only the owner manages the tree, access, finalists, voting settings and final choice.
• Private voting. Each person can see their own ballot. Individual ballots are not displayed to other members or the owner. Combined results follow the circle’s reveal settings.
• Service providers. Hostinger provides server hosting and support email; Auth0/Okta handles authentication with email/password, Google or Microsoft; operator-controlled NAS storage holds encrypted recovery copies. They receive information needed for the service and can retain their own operational records.
• Your chosen destinations. Sharing controls open the social service, calendar or device destination you select. Those services handle information under their own policies. A calendar import is a separate copy; changing a reveal time here does not update an event already imported elsewhere.
• Required disclosures. We may disclose information when required by law or reasonably needed to protect the service, people’s rights or safety, limiting the information to the relevant purpose.

Circle discussion is access-controlled, not end-to-end encrypted. Authorized administration and recovery processes can access underlying records. Other participants can copy or photograph information they can see; share only what you are comfortable disclosing to them.

Private cards and public sharing

Signed-in visitors can request a one-time first-name-only email to an address they enter. After a name is chosen, only the Family Circle owner can review a full-name card and recipient addresses, then explicitly send separate emails with a printable PDF to selected accepted members. Nothing is emailed automatically. Addresses entered for these sends and uploaded card pixels are processed for delivery and are not saved to account records or the circle. Our email provider and recipients can retain delivery records and copies; sent emails cannot be recalled. Recipients are not subscribed to a mailing list.

Public name-page previews, social links and first-name-only downloads exclude your saved middle name, family name and decided date. They do not publish your shortlist or circle discussion.

Private printable cards and PDFs can include the full-name details you save. In Family Circle, those private card actions are owner-only. Review a preview before downloading or sharing. The site cannot recall a printed card, downloaded file, social post or other external copy.

Invitation links are claimable by one signed-in account and are not tied to an email address. Send them only to the intended person. Opening a link does not join a circle; acceptance after sign-in is required. Do not send invitations to someone under 18. Avoid unnecessary identifying details about children or other people in a tree or discussion.

How long we keep information

• Accounts and circles: kept while maintained, until the applicable account, circle or content removal. They do not automatically disappear due to inactivity.
• Application sessions: up to 30 days, subject to sign-out and account deletion.
• Local production diagnostic logs: a 14-day window with rotation and size limits. Routine security records use a 90-day window. A documented incident may require a longer, periodically reviewed hold. These controls do not determine third-party providers’ retention.
• Resolved support conversations: manual review for removal 12 calendar months after resolution; spam after 30 days. The review covers messages, replies, Sent, Trash and relevant exports. An old or read message is not automatically treated as resolved. Documented incident/dispute exceptions are reviewed at least every 90 days.
• Routine encrypted backups: a rolling 30-day target, retaining at least 14 independently verified successful sets. Cleanup stops if replacement verification or trusted deletion-history checks fail. This can keep copies longer than 30 days.
• Historical/manual recovery holds: preserved separately for periodic review and not automatically expired. We do not promise that every archive is erased within a fixed maximum period.
• Minimal deletion records: account references and keyed sign-in identifiers are retained while needed to prevent restored information or a suppressed sign-in identity from recreating a deleted account. These records are separate from shortlist, card and chat content and are excluded from ordinary backup expiry.

Your choices and account deletion

You can toggle Love or Maybe off, restore Passed names, turn off remembered preferences and clear optional card details. These controls are different from deleting an account.

Self-service deletion in Settings requires fresh verification using the same sign-in identity and explicit confirmation. It removes the local account and application sessions, saved choices, remembered preferences and private card details. Owned Family Circles are deleted only after a separate warning and confirmation. In other owners’ circles, your membership, private ballot and authored discussion are removed; identifying attribution is removed or made generic. Already revealed aggregate results can remain without a link to your account, and other people’s messages can still mention you.

Deletion does not delete an Auth0 profile or a Google/Microsoft account, clear every browser you have used, recall external copies or immediately erase every backup. A minimal suppression record prevents the deleted sign-in identity from silently recreating an account. See Account deletion for the steps and limits.

Deletion must be acknowledged by an independent protected recovery system before it can complete. An unavailable check can leave deletion pending and temporarily block protected account actions. Restores require trusted deletion history and reapply pending and completed removals before account access reopens.

Privacy requests and appeals

Use Contact for access, correction, deletion, a portable copy or another applicable privacy right. You do not need to create an account. We may verify control of the relevant account before acting; never send a password, passkey, sign-in code, session cookie or live invitation link.

Where the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act applies, we respond within 45 days of receiving a request; a necessary extension of up to 45 more days is explained within the initial period. To appeal a refusal, submit a new contact message marked “Privacy appeal.” Where applicable, we provide a written appeal outcome within 60 days of receiving the appeal, reasons for the decision and complaint information. Mandatory rights and shorter applicable deadlines remain available.

You can also contact the Texas Attorney General about an applicable Texas privacy concern. A shortlist export is not a complete export of every account or circle record. Support and provider records may require separate handling.

Security, providers and changes

We use access controls, encrypted connections, protected recovery copies and independently maintained deletion safeguards. No online service or backup system is guaranteed against every incident or simultaneous failure. Avoid sharing unnecessary sensitive information.

We operate from the United States, and service providers may process information in other countries under their own arrangements. Their privacy information is available from Auth0/Okta, Google, Microsoft and Hostinger.

We will update the published notice when practices change and identify its effective or updated date. Material changes will be communicated through appropriate service notices. Questions can be raised through Contact.