This is Not How New York City Names Schools (But it Could Be)

The Data News team recently spent a week locked in a house to rebuild the SchoolBook Search tool from the ground up. After hours and hours staring at spreadsheets full of New York City school names, eventually you sort of go into a trance. The names all start to blur together into a fever dream of aspiration, achievement, and multicultural harmony.

Like any city, New York names its fair share of schools after local and national heroes: authors, mayors, governors, civil rights icons, and athletes.  And let's not forget Latin and Greek phrases, the quick path to scholastic credibility ("Excelsior," "Apollo," "Invictus").

But New York City parents face some tough choices: do you want a school where your children "achieve"?  Or would they rather see them "exceed," "excel," or "succeed"?

Choose one!

How adventurous is your child?  Is he or she ready to go on a journey?  If so, you may want to opt for a school that turns them into an "explorer" on an "expedition" or sends them on a "quest" to reach a "summit."  He or she can even be a sea captain, navigating the seas of knowledge by "lighthouse" or "compass."  If an old-fashioned voyage is less appealing, students can always get in a rocket ship instead and "ascend," "rise," or "launch."

You can rest assured that your child's school will care a lot about togetherness.  It will be a "village" full of "unity" and "equality."  It will also care a lot about the future, full of "visions," "opportunity," and "imagination."

Eventually, we started to see patterns emerging and decided to reverse-engineer what we think is the Department of Education's top-secret school naming formula.  And now we hand this powerful tool to you: name your own New York City school of the future with the WNYC School Name Generator.

Give it a try!  If some of the suggestions sound indistinguishable from real schools, that means it's working.