ONS Baby Names API — MCP Server
An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes England & Wales baby names data from the ONS birth registration dataset, deployable to Vercel.
Once deployed, you can connect Claude (or any MCP-compatible client) to ask questions like:
- "What were the top baby names in 2024?"
- "How has the popularity of Oliver changed over time?"
- "What names are similar to Olivia for girls?"
- "Which area had the most babies called Alfie in 2024?"
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_meta |
Available years and geography years in the dataset |
get_names |
Full list of registered names (all / boys / girls) with slugs |
search_names |
Search names by substring |
get_year_data |
All names and counts for a given year |
get_top_names |
Ranked top N names for a given year |
get_name_data |
Full time-series (count + rank per year) for a single name |
get_geographic_data |
Regional breakdown by local authority area |
get_similar_names |
Names with similar popularity trajectories |
health |
Diagnostic check |
Deploy to Vercel
- Fork or clone this repo
- Import it in Vercel
- Deploy — no build configuration needed
The MCP endpoint will be available at:
https://<your-vercel-url>/mcp
Optional environment variable
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
BABY_NAMES_BASE_URL |
https://baby-names-api.netlify.app |
Override the upstream API base URL |
Connect to Claude
In Claude's settings, add a new MCP server with the URL:
https://<your-vercel-url>/mcp
Local development
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py
The server will start on http://localhost:8000/mcp.
Data source
Data is served from baby-names-api.netlify.app, generated from ONS birth registration statistics for England & Wales. Source code: henryjameslau/baby-names-api.
