The Name Maze Project

Every section of the Doyoumaze website has a story. Today I tell you about the Name maze section of the website. (If you are just interested in HOW to make a maze of your name, I have that covered.) I thought people would enjoy seeing their name in maze form - a kind of personalized maze. If you want to do this on your own click on the link above, otherwise we continue on… Maybe it was my time in corporate America but I think these mazes would look good on a cubicle wall. And they are fun to make. I also thought they would make a nice gift. Print out a friends name and write a note thanking them for being amazing (or maybe a-maze-ing). Now the story of how I went about actually making the name mazes. Here were the stages I went through:

Stage 1 - Names of my Close Friends and Family

Initially I started out as anyone would making my close friends and family members names. That got me to 6 mazes….ok maybe a few more,. Let’s say about 25 mazes. I added these to the website and felt pretty good. Now if they visited my website I had the important people done.

Stage 2 - The Ten Most Popular Male and Female Names

I did a quick search for the 10 most popular names for Men and Women. This is where I found out the Top 10 Men’s names in the United States represent 23% of all Men’s names ( James, John, Robert, Michael, William, David, Richard, Charles, Joseph, and Thomas) and for Women the Top 10 represent 10.7% of all Women’s names (Mary, Patricia, Linda, Barbara, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Maria, Susan, Margaret, Dorothy). I thought it was interesting that the Men’s name database has 1200 different names while the Women’s name database has 4,275 names !!! I later realized this was partly because men have more standard name spellings than women (like Katherine & Catherine & Katharine & Kathryn).

At this point I could display all maze name images directly on the website (and not the name listings you see today).

Stage 3 - My LinkedIn Connections Names

I have approximately 460 connections on LinkedIn. I thought it would be nice to make a maze for each connection. The best part about this project was that I got to think about each person as I made their maze. The people I have lost touch with. My old co-workers from previous jobs. I have to admit, this was a very rewarding project simply because of this process. This project added 302 more unique names to the maze name section. I would like to thank the following names for being popular among my connections:

Michael and Michelle - 8 connections each

Brian, Rachel and Rick - 6 connections each

David, Greg, Jason, Jennifer, Mary and Richard - 5 connections each

Now, if you ask me to connect on LinkedIn you’ll have a much better chance if you have a (short) common name. Website wise this is where I had to take down the pictures of each maze name and use the name listing version you see today. Because once you have so many names, if you want the page to load quickly lots of images is not helping anyone.

Stage 4 - Close variations of Existing Names

If I make Richard, it is easy to make Ricardo. Debbie became Deb. Douglas became Doug. Frank became Fran. etc. Close variations added about 100 more name mazes to the portfolio.

Stage 5 - Top 100 Male/Female Names

I decided that with so many names done I wanted to see how many of the top 100 Men’s/Women’s names I had already mazed. The answer was 134. Since there were only 66 more names (out of the 200 names) that needed to be made I went ahead and finished all of them.

Stage 6 - Top 200 Male/Female Names

Well, I might as well keep going right……I added 132 more names (out of the 200) when this was complete. As I finished this up I found these statistics about how many US names I had covered with the project:

The top 200 Male names represent 72.5% of men’s names.

The top 200 Female names represent 58.2% of women’s names.

Plus I have 262 names not in the top 200 from the previous Stages 1-4. So I think I’m pretty well covered as a % of total US names. The final tally of name mazes ended up being 662…and growing. If you have a name I have not done yet, you can always request it here.

UPDATE:

Stage 7 - Top 300 Male /Female Names

I researched the next 200 overall names (thru #300) and I already had 52 of them on the site. That leaves 148 to make if I take this on, names like Agnes and Cecil. I completed this and along the way added in a few other similar names…+164 names…new total 826 !!!

Stage 8 - Regional names page - “The Land”

I decided to create a Cleveland names page. This added 57 additional names to the project, including some unique ones that everyone knows like LeBron, Kyrie, Zydrunas, Halle, Stipe, Urban, and Dolph. This is the first time I used colors other than black and white for these special edition name mazes. New total 883.

Stage 9 - Top European names

I went with Europe since they have names most closely related to our own but with nice variety. I used the top 10 lists I found online for Europe by country for both men and women. Not every name was done but this did add 161 new names and I broke the 1,000 barrier. You can thank Turkey for Zeynep and Slovenia for Zala. New total 1,044.

Stage 10 - Top Americas and Oceanic names

Kept with the International theme but felt like I needed to break it into parts. Again, like Europe I did not do every name in each top 10, just the most recognizable and any that appeared in multiple countries. I was very happy to add my first X name thanks to Mexico, Ximena. Haiti brought us Widelene and Peru gave us Milagros. I added 94 with this project. New total 1,138.

Stage 11 - Top African Names

I learned that South Africa has a thing for names like Blessing, Prince, Princess, and Faith. Also was able to add 4 “Y” names to the 6 I already had and another Z name. Overall Africa brought an additional 74 names. New total 1,212.

Stage 11.1 - National Bubba Day

National Bubba Day June 2nd meant an addition to the list, +1. New Total 1,213.

Stage 12 - Male names from Asia

Asia has such a wide variety of names I had to split it by gender. A mix of traditionally Muslim, Jewish and Asian names made this section varied as there was very little overlap between countries. There is also less overlap with traditional Christian names already on the site. We can thank China for short names like An, De and Yi. Our new first name alphabetically Aarav comes from India. Shout out to Pakistan for Zahid. And more “Y” Names, +6 from 10 before. Overall I added 126 additional names . New total 1.339.

Stage 13 - Female names from Asia

The second half of Asia added 108 new names. This included 2 Q’s, 5 X’s, 8 Y’s and 4 Z’s. I also added 13 names with dashes in them. Most of these names are ones I was unfamiliar with and they are all top ten in Asian countries….can’t imagine what an uncommon name is !!!! New total 1,447.

Stage 14 - Names from Movies

In an experiment to find more names to add to the website I decided to use the character names from movies I was watching until I generated at least 50 new names. I wondered how many movies I would need to watch before I hit 50. The answer was 24 movies !! Here are the movies I watched and the names that came from them:

The Sons of Katie Elder (1965). Big Jake (1971). The Gunfighter (1950). The Westerner (1940). Lonely Are The Brave (1962). High Sierra (1941). The Defiant Ones (1958). Days of Wine and Roses (1962). Night of The Iguana (1964). They Shoot Horses Don’t They (1969). A Woman is a Woman (1961). Bloody Sunday (2002). Lovers of The Arctic Circle (1998). Tyrannosaur (2011). Dark Places (2015). Reign of the Supermen (2019). The Commitments (1991). Three Identical Strangers (2018). O Lucky Man ! (1973). Secondhand Lions (2003). Missing (1982). Suddenly Last Summer (1959). Seconds (1966). Adam’s Rib (1949).

Stage 15 - Name requests by readers

It was a long time between updates, but site visitors kept me busy throughout the year. Name mazes are always fun because I tend to get non-Western names since most of those are already covered on the site. New names added by request include Sadat, Farhan, Rehan, Protha and Fahim. And of course I always like to learn a new Z name like Zasia and Zarif. Overall I added 43 names from requests during this time frame.

Stage 16 - Dating Site name mining

I used a dating site, set the location to worldwide and picked the first 50 New names I did not have on the site. The worldwide search really gave me some diverse names. Eishah, Fyokla, Jamuna, Kaisa, Kia, Lupine, Miu, Neta, Rea, Remi, Shalina, Tiana, Yu, Yuko and Zsu all were added this way. I also captured some new calendar names with Summer, Autumn and May (June, August and April were already on the site). And of course if you add Dagny you need to add Ayn (it’s a rule). Overall with some spelling variations this added 58 new names to the site.

Stage 17 - Popular Names from Mexico

I want to continue to add more international names and Mexico seemed like a logical choice. Many names are spelling variations on existing names with an O or A added or an E becoming IO (Leonard became Leonardo, Marc became Marco, Maurice became Mauricio, and Justin became Justina for example) . Also there were a large number of Hispanic names already on the site from the Top 300 males/female US names. I was surprised I was missing Juana, Marco, Margarita and Arturo. This added 38 new names.

Stage 18 - Popular Names from India

I have been watching a lot of Bollywood movies and I notice so many new names. So I researched Indian names and found a list broken into 2 categories, Hindu, and Muslim. This gave me a nice long list of names to add ! My favorite section was when I added Tanisha, Manisha, Anisha, Nisha, and Isha. I just kept dropping one letter ! Anyway, I had gone 5 steps without adding any V names, but that was changed during this step with 3 new ones, Vinod, Vikash and Vijay ! I also added Zaid and Zuhaib to give the Z’s some love. Overall this added 59 new names to the website !

Stage 19 - Names I was surprised I missed

I ran the query for additional names that are not yet on the website for the next 100 male/female names and selected 12 names each that I was surprised have never made it onto the site. Surprised because I know people with the names or just because I thought they were more popular and already on there. Usually I don’t list every name I added in a section, but this time is an exception. I grouped them into these categories: Names of people I know, Evan, Stuart, Rudy, Lindsay, Lindsey, Joanna, Monique, Opal, and Sheryl. Popular names I missed: Blake, Devin, Damon, Dominic, Edmund, Grant, Homer, Neal, Rex, Brandi, Harriet, Lynda, Maggie, Natasha, and Whitney. AND THEN I said how about a few more and I added 16 more…

STAGE 20 - Name requests by readers (2024)

I keep a running list of name mazes that have been requested for the website. I like to to see where the names come from and see if I am missing any particular region. Here are the names I added starting in the Spring of 2024 until now, number’s 2002 to 2087 on the site. A few teachers had me create mazes for the students in their classrooms. Thank you to everyone who helped me add a name to the site !

Here is the list of names added with the countries where it is most popular !

Aaliyah (US); Alivia (US, India); Amaria (Algeria); Anessa (US); Archer (US, Barbados); Archie (US); Arelia (Mexico); Asher (Isreal); Atik (Indonesia); Atilla (Turkey); Avery (US); Baba (Nigeria, India); Babakan (India); Babe (Mauritania); Bailey (US); Bash (Nigeria); Bennie (US); Boyd (Zambia, US); Brandt (US); Breanna (US); Brigham (US); Brooks (US); Bryson (US); Chinyere (Nigeria); Christen (US, Denmark); Colm (Ireland); Danica (Serbia, Montenegro); Delvin (Kenya, US) - interesting that this is a female name in Kenya and a male name in the US; Demilade (Nigeria); Emmet (US); Emory (US); Favour (Nigeria); Fedal (Turkey, Iran); Fiorella (Italy); Gohan (India); Gwen (US); Habilin (Indonesia); Haniya (Isreal); Hudson (Brazil); Huntley (Jamaica, US); Jethro (Phillipines,Zimbabwe); Kavya (India); Kaylee (US); Keerthana (India, Sri Lanka); Kenslee (Papua New Guinea); Kittie (US); Lincoln (Brazil, Jamaica, Liberia); Lissy (India); Madelyn (Philippines); Madison (US); Mariano (Mexico, Argentina); McKensie (US); McKenzie (US); Melody (US, Philippines); Miles (US); Miliano (Brazil); Missy (US); Nash (US); Oakley (US); Olukorede (Nigeria); Pierson (US); Pranav (India); Rawan (Egypt, Qatar); Rebekah (US); Retno (Indonesia); Ruthie (US); Ryder (US); Safaa (Egypt); Sanvi (Togo, India); Savannah (US); Selah (US); Seua (india); Sharla (US); Sid (Algeria, Mauritania); Tasha (US); Taylon (Brazil); Tilly (Netherlands); Tobias (Germany); Waylon (US); Wrigley (US); Xavier (France); Yaser (Egypt, Bahrain); Zia (Pakistan, Afgahnistan); Zuri (Mexico, India).

Other posts you may like:

What I use to make my mazes

10 Places Where you can Buy Spectacular Maze Art

The Surprising Benefits of Solving Mazes

Maze Solving Case study - Using the reverse fill solving method

I asked the audience which of the 4 maze solving options they used when they solved a maze. The overwhelming majority (in early results, but I do not expect them to change) use a writing utensil for standard physical mazes. If they are solving on a screen they use their eyes. Let’s review the 4 types I laid out:

4 Most Common maze solving options

• With a writing utensil - probably the most common way to solve a drawn maze. You have a maze printed out or in a book in front of you and you grab a pen or pencil and solve using it. Makes the maze a one time use unless you have an eraser that does a good job and doesn’t harm the paper too much

• With your finger - you use your finger as a guide to work your way through the maze and solve it. This method allows multiple people to solve the same maze

• With your eyes - my personal most common maze solving method. Works for most maze types, although you need to add in a more comprehensive method for any spiral maze.

• Reverse fill with a writing utensil - a method I used to use because I liked the way it looked. You use a pen / pencil and start at dead ends, filling each in until you reach a new branch. Eventually this leaves only the correct path NOT filled in, creating a reverse solve !

And now let’s look a a maze solved using the reverse fill method. The best type of maze to use this for is the hidden message maze, because what you are left with when it is solved is a fun message !

The big test for a maze maker is about to take place. I have made a hidden message maze. If I have made it well, you do not know what it says by looking at it…Take some time…Do you know what it says ?

So, I am hoping you do not know what that says yet. Here is where I put in a large block so it is more difficult to get any hints from your eyes naturally looking ahead and seeing the answer. The first answer I will show is using the most common method of using a writing utensil to solve the maze (in this case it is actually done by a digital pencil).

So did you get it correct? Solving in the normal way gives us a hidden maze message of “MISS YOU”.

Now, let’s start with a reverse fill solve and see what it looks like. For my example I wanted to show you the start of the reverse solve, shown with each incorrect branch being a different color so you can more easily see what is happening. Starting in the bottom left corner of the maze, I found a dead end and began filling it in completely until I reached an intersection, where I stop. Then I find another dead end and do the same. If I come to an intersection and have filled in the other path that branches off from it, I have essentially created another dead end to fill in ! Here is what the first 15 dead ends look like filled in (each in a different color).

Using that dead end fill-in method will eventually leave you with the only paths left being those that are the solution ! This is a long process, but one that gives you a much different look when you finish solving the maze ! Here is what the hidden maze looks like reverse solved:

So, if you are bored, or have a new full ink pen and want to solve a maze in a new way….try the reverse fill method.

PRO TIP: How do you think you could use this solving method best ? Well, start in the middle of the page between the start and the goal. Now evaluate the shortest distance from wall to wall. In a square shaped maze this will not matter, but in this example, the rectangle, you will want to look for dead ends in the center moving from the north/south walls since they are the shortest distance from the center.

What are you trying to accomplish ? You are trying to break the maze into 2 sections, the east/west side of the maze, or the north/south. If you find the correct location of the center pathway, you have essentially now made the maze into 2 sections with a center checkpoint. This makes the maze much easier to solve. I used LONG dead ends in the hidden, message maze above, so let’s try an easier maze with this new knowledge:

Since it is a long rectangle we want to cut this in 2 mazes, north/south.

And here is what it looks like after a few dead ends are reverse solved:

Happy maze solving !

Maze design posts that may interest you:

How to Create Maze Art in 6 Easy Steps + Case Study

Maze Art: Advanced Tips to Creating Your Own Masterpiece

Case Study#9 - Improving a Maze - Taj Mahal

Maze Comic Book Cover #110 - Olly Olly

Issue #110 in my comic book cove collection features the maze of an Oxen and is titled Olly Olly with a subtitle of Free. I used a new font for this. I hope you enjoy the maze !

My comic book cover mazes are archived by year:

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 1 (Issues #1 - 53)

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 2 (Issues# 54 -105)

Comic Book Cover Mazes - Year 3 (Issues #106 - )

Seems like an interesting character.

Maze Comic Book Reviews - Jim Henson's Labyrinth Comics

I read and review maze books about the spirituality of mazes, or the history of physical mazes. I also delve into comic books that contain either mazes and labyrinths. You will not be surprised that today’s comics based on Jim Henson’s classic film from 1986 Labyrinth do just that. The movie has been in the news again as it made it’s way into theaters January 8-17, 2026 to celebrate it’s 40th Anniversary.

We have 5 different comic versions to look at.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth 2016 30th Anniversary Special (2016)

from BOOM! Studios, 40 pages

by Jonathan Case, Cory Godbey, Ted Naifeh, Adrianne Ambrose

The comic consists a collection of 7 stories featuring some of the movie characters (the wonderful Jim Henson puppets from the movie). It is actually a collection of previously released mini stories that were given out for free comic book day. The stories are quick, fun and are not interconnected. It is helpful to know a bit about the characters to enhance the relatability, but you will not be lost (maze reference?) if you pick this up with no prior knowledge.

The best story, and the reason for this review is story 4 titled “Rock Solid Friendship”, which features Ludo the monster in a predicament that has him entering the labyrinth to escape. But is entering the labyrinth really a good idea ? Now Ludo must find his way out !!

Ludo approaching the Labyrinth

Overall this is a comic great for fans of the movie, and worth a read if you are not but you do like 5 page fantasy stories.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth Tales (2016)

from BOOM! Studios, 46 pages

by Jim Henson, Cory Godbey

We come back with a second book based off of the same characters, from the same year, the same publishing company and the same illustrator. I think you will love the artwork you see in this volume from Cory Godbey and I suggest you check out his site/portfolio to discover even more.

And as far as a review. Really this book, despite having the same illustrator is more about the illustration than the first volume above. The book is almost completely full page illustrations that look like paintings. There are 3 short stories included in the book. Outstanding book. You will spend more time looking at the pictures than reading the dialogue.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth 2017 Special (2017)

from BOOM! Studios, 40 pages

by Jim Henson, Katie Cook, Delilah S. Dawson, Roger Langridge , illustrated by Jared Cullum and more

Our final review is from the 2017 Special volume that features 6 short stories. Of the three comics this one does feature a few stories with the Goblin King, but like the other volumes really focuses on the puppet characters from the film like Sir Didymus, Worm, The Four Guards, and Ludo.

Each of the stories are fun and we get a different look from our first 2 reviews. This is mostly because we have 5 different illustrators for the 6 stories. Although we do not see any illustrations of the labyrinth, we do get a call back to the famous MC Escher inspired room you probably remember from the movie.

Jim Henson's Labyrinth Artist Tribute (2016) AMZN

from Boom! Studios, 120 Pages

by various authors and illustrators (see list below)

First, let’s start with a photo of the page that lists all of the artists you will find in the edition. It is a large list and includes artists who use many different styles !

This comic is exactly what the title says it is. If you are a fan of Labyrinth, either the book, the movie, or the comics, this is the book for you. It has the feel of a coffee table book, because while there are snippets of writing, this is also about the artwork. The colorful characters created by Jim Henson that you saw as puppets in the movie make for great subjects for creative artists.

I did not want to include much artwork from book but this transition page did catch my eye.

And I did feel compelled to include this maze ! Because, well, this is a maze website and it features the characters from the Labyrinth world.

Overall, this is an artist tribute that I would love to see for many different franchises.

UPDATE: In anticipation of the 40th anniversary re-release of the movie Labyrinth into theaters, Boom Studios! released a new adaption of the movie in 8 issues:

Jim Henson's Labyrinth (2024)

8 issues, by Kyla Vanderklugt, illustrated by Giorgio Spalletta

This is an expanded novelization of the book by A.C.H. Smith. You can see a preview of the first issue here. All reviews which I agree with are focused on the wonderful artwork by Giorgio Spalletta.

While my favorite comic of the 4 was Jim Henson's Labyrinth Tales because of the illustrations, all books are nice, short, fun stories that anyone could enjoy. If you were a fan of the movie (or still are a fan), all 4 are worth a read/look. And if you want to get into longer stories I suggest you check out the longer comic series that have been published:

Jim Henson's Labyrinth (6 issues)

Jim Henson's Labyrinth: Coronation (12 issues)

Jim Hanson’s Labyrinth (2024) (8 issues)

Other blog posts you might like:

The 12 Best Maze and Labyrinth Movies Of All Time

How to make over 40 types of maze