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How to play Baby Boom

How Baby Boom works: guess the peak year of five baby names a day, score up to 500 points, use hints and build a streak.

The goal

Guess the year each of five baby names was at its most popular, and score as close to 500 points as you can. Everyone gets the same five names on the same calendar day, and a new puzzle unlocks at midnight in your own time zone.

Playing a round

  1. Read the name and its sex, shown underneath it as “girls’ name” or “boys’ name”.
  2. Type a year in the box or drag the slider, then press Lock in. Your guess cannot be changed after that.
  3. Read the reveal: the real peak year, your guess and the name’s popularity curve since 1880.
  4. Move on to the next name. After the fifth, you see your total score out of 500.

Colors and symbols

Each guess is scored blue 🔵, orange 🟠 or white ⚪. Blue means Nailed it: 90 points or more. Orange means Close: 50 to 89 points. White means a Miss: under 50 points. Screen readers announce every score in words, so color is never the only signal.

Hints

Each name offers one optional hint: a 20-year window that contains the real peak but is never centered on it. A free hint adds a light bulb to your shared result. When a short optional ad is available, you can watch it instead to reveal the same window without the light bulb.

The curve reveal

After you lock in a guess, Baby Boom draws the name’s popularity since 1880 as a single curve, with a solid line marking its true peak and a dashed line marking your guess. Reading a handful of these across a round is the fastest way to build a feel for how name fashions actually rise and fall.

Streaks and statistics

Finishing the daily puzzle on consecutive days builds your streak. Open Stats to see how many puzzles you have played, your average score, your current and best streak, and how your scores are spread. Everything is saved in your browser, so clearing site data resets it.

Unlimited and archive

In unlimited mode you see one known name with its real peak year and one hidden name, and you call whether the hidden one peaked earlier or later. Each right call keeps your run going; a wrong call ends it, and Play again starts a fresh run. The archive lets you replay any past daily puzzle; archive rounds count toward your statistics but not your streak.

Ready? Play today’s puzzle.