CafeMom acquires BabyNameWizard.com, the premier online baby name destination for expectant parents

NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, CafeMom announced its acquisition of Baby Name Wizard (www.babynamewizard.com) the leading destination for expectant parents making the important decision of what to name their baby. The site's unique tools like the NameVoyager, Namipedia and Name MatchMaker combine extensive worldwide data, user-generated content, and exclusive algorithms to give more than 1.5 million monthly unique users truly complete information on more than 40,000 names. As part of the acquisition, CafeMom will also take ownership of Baby Name Wizard's sister site, NameCandy.com.

The acquisition is part of CafeMom's larger strategic initiative to provide quality content and tools that improve moms' lives.  Across its properties, which include CafeMom.com, TheStir.com and MamasLatinas.com, CafeMom is dedicated to improving moms' lives by helping them make better decisions, form genuine connections, and take a deserved break.

"The value Baby Name Wizard provides to users aligns perfectly with our commitment to improving moms' lives," explained CafeMom CEO, Michael Sanchez.  "We are excited to share Baby Name Wizard with our audience of more than 30 million users, to give them useful information and a place to connect on the topic of baby names."

With the support of featured launch sponsors, CafeMom is enhancing the Baby Name Wizard site to make it even more helpful to users. The first major product improvement, making the site's premium "expert" tools free to all users, is already live on the site. There are also plans to optimize the site for mobile devices.

One of the featured launch sponsors of Baby Name Wizard is Huggies.  "Parents are responsible for many decisions, and choosing their child's name is one of the first and most significant in their child's life," said Antonio Molinelli, Sr. Brand Manager of Huggies. "We are excited to partner with CafeMom and Baby Name Wizard to provide a tremendous service to expectant parents, giving them useful information and a place to connect with other parents."

CafeMom is bringing on board Laura Wattenberg to continue to lead the content and development of tools that will help expectant parents find just the right name. As Co-founder of Baby Name Wizard and the author of The Baby Name Wizard book, the acclaimed "field guide" to baby names, Laura will ensure the site continues to deliver the high quality level of content, data, and tools Baby Name Wizard users have come to expect.

"I'm thrilled to be joining CafeMom as we work together to continue to make Baby Name Wizard great," said Wattenberg. "I'm certain that the audience that already knows and trusts Baby Name Wizard will be equally thrilled with what lies ahead as we team with CafeMom."

"Laura and I have spent six years building some of the most innovative research tools and niche content on the Web," said BabyNameWizard.com Co-founder Jennie Baird. "With CafeMom's tremendous reach and dedication to building authentic community and engaging content for moms, we couldn't imagine a better home for Baby Name Wizard and NameCandy to grow and flourish."

About CafeMom:

CafeMom is the leading digital media company for moms, dedicated to improving moms' lives by helping them make better decisions, form genuine connections, and take a deserved break. CafeMom's family of properties reaches more than 30MM UVs / month, and includes CafeMom.com, MamasLatinas.com, TheStir.com, and now BabyNameWizard.com. CafeMom is the leader in developing custom programs for top brands, making it the premier strategic marketing partner to brands that want to win with moms. With the launch of Athena, its audience targeting platform, CafeMom delivers scale and performance for brands allowing them to connect with the entire women's audience. CafeMom has partnered with dozens of high quality properties to allow it to reach an audience of 80MM. CafeMom lead investors are Highland Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company was founded by Andrew Shue and Michael Sanchez.

About BabyNameWizard.com and NameCandy.com

BabyNameWizard.com was founded in 2008 by best-selling author and baby name expert Laura Wattenberg and longtime digital media executive Jennie Baird with the goal of creating the most robust, comprehensive and engaging tools and advice for baby name research anywhere. In 2009, TIME Magazine included BabyNameWizard.com on its list of "50 Best Websites," and in 2010, the National Library Association cited BabyNameWizard.com as one of the best free reference sources on the Web. The pair also created NameCandy.com, online home of the advice column "Ask the Name Lady," as well as daily news and gossip about names in popular culture.

SOURCE CafeMom