Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
I'm building a website for discovering first names that's enjoyable to explore: https://abracadanames.com. I started it after a family member told me they were frustrated with existing websites, which often feel cluttered and not smooth to use, almost like a 1-to-1 translation of the underlying database queries. I wanted to create a different experience with an interactive full-screen wall UI and infinite browsing, so most of the screen space is dedicated to the core content.
I worked on the name sampling algorithm to try to make it as enjoyable to browse as I could, and the only filter displayed by default is the one to select genders. More advanced queries are available through the search field which supports natural language queries, running on a local multilingual interpretation engine with a cloud LLM fallback.
The database engine is custom built with Rust, compiled to WASM for higher performance when running on CloudFlare Workers. I don’t use an external DB service for names today.
What I’m pretty proud of is to know a lot of technical work is hidden behind that UI, and how it has been shaped by the experience I wanted instead of the other way around.