There's an app for that (girl).

September 30, 2012 7:29 PM

"Looking back a year ago when conceiving this idea, we thought it would be far too impossible to even attempt. We tried anyway. So, after months and months of recording/writing its finally finished: “Persongalize”, a one of a kind personal song generator, featuring thousands of different girl names available in the rock, pop and country genres. Yes, someone, (Karlton Tillman), had to sing 1,816 names into these tracks, TWICE, since each name is sung twice in each song."
posted by unSane (25 comments total)

Mass customization projects are a bear. I did this with Dust Bunnies: Secret Agents, an iPhone/iPad storybook. We recorded around 475 names for that. I spent more than a few hours listening to the same line over, and over, and over... I even wrote a blog post about the production process.
posted by jeffkramer at 7:35 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Though she's not really religious I find that if I ever have to express my affections via name-specific song to my significant other I have an already tailored and excellent song for her confirmation name.

So I'll probably just go with that.
posted by sendai sleep master at 7:49 PM on September 30, 2012

"an app for that (girl)."
So disappointed that 1960s Marlo Thomas was not directly involved. (Hey, I was going through puberty... NOW it sounds ridiculous to have envied Ted Bessel...)
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:51 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

I'm still waiting for a device that plugs in any possible name to "Jolene"

okay "Nathaniel" might be an awkward fit
posted by The Whelk at 7:58 PM on September 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

"Persongalize" sounds like a brand of lube.
posted by R. Schlock at 8:13 PM on September 30, 2012 [5 favorites]

This is some serious horror-film weapons-grade creepiness right here. I hope Victoria and Renee get to meet and compare notes before anything really bad happens.
posted by motty at 8:16 PM on September 30, 2012

Previously.
posted by mkb at 8:23 PM on September 30, 2012

This was clearly a lot of work. What else to say? Mazel tov.
posted by Miko at 8:44 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Previously (offshore version)
posted by stevil at 9:01 PM on September 30, 2012

I can't ever find one of those tiny personalized state license plate keyfobs with my name on it. And yet, here's a song just for me! Yay!
posted by mochapickle at 9:46 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Nope, none for me. I remain an unsung special snowflake.
posted by dejah420 at 9:54 PM on September 30, 2012

"My daughter is also named Bort."
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:47 PM on September 30, 2012 [3 favorites]

I know I have a not-that-common name, but I think they still overreached a little by announcing they'd covered 'Every Girl Name Imaginable'. (Also, 'girl'? what's wrong with the word 'female'?)
posted by jacalata at 12:43 AM on October 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

haha. bought for myself, sending to girlfriends.
posted by dreamling at 12:45 AM on October 1, 2012

Does anyone know where there is a list of all the names for which they have songs? It is very annoying looking through the iTunes website. It would also be interesting to know the methodology used to select the names covered.
posted by kiskar at 1:36 AM on October 1, 2012

Listened to the preview for my name. That was really creepy in a...disturbing way, and I'm left unsure how I feel about it. If someone bought me one of these I think I'd be more horrified than charmed. Still, quite the project!
posted by zinful at 3:46 AM on October 1, 2012

It reminds me of the old chat up "As a matter of fact ... Philomena... I do know a song with your name in it - and a really well known one as well" - then singing her "Happy Birthday".

I'm pleased to say it never worked for me.
posted by rongorongo at 3:52 AM on October 1, 2012

Persongalize? Is there no end to the mangling?
posted by thinkpiece at 4:21 AM on October 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

The backstory behind Soul Coughing's "Janine" is apparently that some random drunk guy on the street asked Mike Doughty how to get a girl to fall in love with him, and Doughty told him to write a song for her, and then went ahead and did it. Boy did that guy hit the jackpot.
posted by rusty at 8:45 AM on October 1, 2012

They forgot Jessamyn.

(They don't have my wife's name, either.)
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:47 AM on October 1, 2012

Shelly; Shelli; Shellie

They spelled my name wrong, not just once, but three times.
posted by shelleycat at 10:05 AM on October 1, 2012

Unsurprisingly, it doesn't have my name either. I'm okay with that given I like my closest name song a whole lot better that the Persongalize ones.
posted by bluesapphires at 10:38 AM on October 1, 2012

oh come on! My daughter's name is in the the top 700 names in the social security baby name data base for the past 10 years, but there's no song with her name! Yet they have Emelin and Harleen which doesn't even rate in the SSI top 1000?
posted by vespabelle at 11:21 AM on October 1, 2012

Hey everyone, me and my partner are the developers of the entire project. One of the most important things I left out in a few of the posts is that we are not done recording names. I should have rephrased the post to say, "recorded 1,816 songs featuring ALMOST every girl name imaginable". As it would be very hard to have every name included, we put together a list of what we thought would be the most common names. It took weeks and weeks of nonstop recording to even have all of the current names included.

Its also our job to take as many name requests as possible so PLEASE email us at: [e-mail] if you would like to have your name included in our future volumes. There are SO many more names we have left to include and we know it will be time consuming, however, over the next few months we'll be releasing new genres, topics and we'll even write songs including male names. The reason I used the word "girl" instead of "female" is because of the certain age group I thought would have the most interest in the project.

Please stay tuned with us as this project grows and remember that our goal is simply to be a personal song writing entity, not just recording songs for girls but recording personal songs for everyone in different moods, genres, languages and whatever else we can do to make everyone happy. unSane, thank you very much for reposting and thanks everyone for the feedback.
posted by Aleclarson at 10:17 AM on October 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

No probs, Alec -- great to see you here. I'm pinkheadedbug over on Gearslutz.
posted by unSane at 12:40 PM on October 4, 2012