Frequently Asked Questions

Great question — and the answer is surprisingly elegant. We take your name, normalize it (consistent casing, trimmed spaces, the whole tidy-up), then run it through SHA-256 — the same hashing algorithm that secures the web. That gives us a unique starting point on the number line.

From there, we search forward until we find the next provable prime number. The result is deterministic: same name, same prime, every time. It's not random — it's mathematical destiny.

Curious about the details? Our Prime Wisdom articles walk through every step.

Names are more common than you'd think — but primes are rarer than you'd hope. Here's the good news: our algorithm accounts for this.

If your exact normalized name has already been claimed, our system finds the next available prime along the number line for you. Think of it like street addresses: if 1847 Main St. is taken, you get 1861 Main St. — still on the same street, still uniquely yours, still prime.

And because the number line is infinite, we will never, ever run out of primes. Euclid proved that around 300 BCE, and we're still grateful.

Absolutely. Every prime in our registry belongs to exactly one owner. No sharing, no duplicates, no "it's complicated." Your prime is yours and yours alone — recorded permanently in our public registry.

You can verify this anytime by checking the registry.

Yes! We encourage it. Head over to our Prime Test page and paste your number in. We use the Miller-Rabin primality test with 16 rounds — the same standard used in cryptography.

Or if you're feeling old-school, try dividing it by every integer up to its square root. We'll wait.

Your prime is a 128-bit number, which means it has roughly 38–39 digits. That puts it in the same neighborhood as numbers used in serious cryptography.

To put that in perspective: there are more possible primes in this range than there are atoms in a grain of sand. Your number isn't just unique to you — it's unique to the observable universe, practically speaking.

A Prime for You is a digital product. After purchase, you receive a beautifully designed PDF certificate that you can download, print at home, or send to a professional printer for framing.

We've found this gives you the most flexibility — print it on archival paper, poster-size it for a wall, or keep it as a digital keepsake. Your prime, your call.

That's actually how many of our primes find their owners! Just enter the recipient's name and your email at checkout. You'll receive the certificate and owner link, which you can forward or print and wrap up with a bow.

Mathematically unique, personally meaningful, and impossible to re-gift. The perfect present.

After payment, our system immediately generates your prime number, creates your certificate, and registers your entry in the public registry. You'll receive an email with:

• A link to your prime's dedicated page
• Your downloadable PDF certificate
• A shareable link to show off your number

The whole process takes just a few seconds — though we show you a fun animation while the math happens behind the scenes.

You sure can! Our Bulk Orders page lets you generate primes for an entire group — perfect for corporate gifts, wedding favors, classroom projects, or any occasion where "a number that will outlast the sun" feels appropriate.

Each person gets their own unique prime and certificate.

$11 per prime. Why $11? Because it's prime, naturally. We also offer volume discounts on bulk orders.

That's entirely up to you. When you order, you choose one of three privacy levels:

• Public — your name and prime appear in the registry for all to admire
• Anonymous — your prime is listed, but your name is hidden
• Unlisted — nothing appears publicly at all

You can change your privacy setting at any time through our support page.

The minimum needed to run the service: your name (to generate the prime), your email (to deliver the certificate), and your privacy preference. We don't sell data, don't run ads, and don't track you across the web.

Full details in our Privacy Policy — which, unlike most privacy policies, you might actually enjoy reading.

No. The SHA-256 hash we use is a one-way function — you can go from name to prime, but not from prime to name. It's the same principle that protects your passwords online.

Even with all the computing power on Earth, reversing the hash is computationally infeasible. Your name's secret is safe with mathematics.

A prime number is a number greater than 1 that can only be divided evenly by 1 and itself. So 7 is prime (nothing divides it evenly except 1 and 7), but 6 is not (2 × 3 = 6).

Primes are the atoms of arithmetic — every whole number is either prime or can be built by multiplying primes together. They're the building blocks of all of mathematics, and they've fascinated humans for over two thousand years.

Never. Euclid proved around 300 BCE that there are infinitely many primes. His proof is elegant: assume you have a complete list, multiply them all together, add 1, and you've found a number that none of your "complete" list can divide. Contradiction. More primes must exist.

We wrote about this in more detail in our article on Euclid's proof. It's one of the most beautiful arguments in all of mathematics.

We use the Miller-Rabin primality test with 16 rounds of verification. This is a probabilistic test, but with 16 rounds, the chance of a composite number sneaking through is less than 1 in 2³² — or about 1 in 4 billion.

For context, you're more likely to be struck by lightning while winning the lottery while finding a four-leaf clover. Your prime is prime.

It's the sweet spot. Large enough to guarantee uniqueness across all the names in the world (and then some), but small enough to print beautifully on a certificate and type into a calculator if you're feeling ambitious.

128 bits gives us a number space of about 3.4 × 10³⁸ — that's 340 undecillion possible values. Even if every person who ever lived each claimed a thousand primes, we'd barely make a dent.