November 1, 2026, Dive #109, stores 28,585 names. The longest list is “Name an animal that is native to South America” (19,395 recorded) and the shortest is “Name a type of music release (like an album)” (297). 26,933 score 85 or higher.
Current edition7 questions · 28,585 recorded answersNext edition
28,585 recorded names26,933 at 85 or higher7 questions with an 85+ name
Name someone with over 10 million Instagram followers
1,532 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work from the outside in. First list the arenas where mass followings are normal — cinema, professional sport, music, television presenting, comedy and devotional or motivational speaking — because the question only rewards people, not organisations. Next, pick three or four countries whose entertainment industries you know well and, for each, run through the actors, athletes and singers who are famous nationwide; the ten-million threshold is usually cleared by national stars, not only by global ones. Then test each name against the wording: it must be an individual with a personal account, not a fan page, a brand or a group. Finally, prefer the less obvious name in each field, since the scoring rewards picks that few other players will reach.
Get a hint
Begin with fields that export faces rather than products: film, sport, music and public commentary, where a single career can make someone recognisable on several continents at once.
A little more
Then shift your gaze away from the markets you know best, because a large share of the biggest accounts belong to performers who are household names in one country and unknown everywhere else.
One step further
Finally, check the edges of celebrity: relatives of famous families, retired competitors who became broadcasters, and online creators who crossed into mainstream media and kept the audience.
Reveal answers 1,532
Betül TunçOne in a Krillion100points
Aaryan KelvinDeep Cut85points
Abdul GhafoorDeep Cut85points
Abdul Rahman Al-AwadhiDeep Cut85points
Abdul SomadDeep Cut85points
Abdulkarim Al-Hendal Al-HashemiDeep Cut85points
Abhishek BachchanDeep Cut85points
Abhishek MalhanDeep Cut85points
Abhishek SharmaDeep Cut85points
Abir El SaghirDeep Cut85points
AboFlahDeep Cut85points
Abraz KhanDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal is strikingly flat at the top: 1,449 of the 1,532 recorded answers scored at least sixty, and the overwhelming majority of those sat at 85, which tells you the pool of acceptable names is vast. That band is where the reflex picks live — the faces a whole country would name at once — and Abhishek Bachchan, Allu Arjun, Ahmed Helmy and Amanda Cerny are typical of it. The single answer at 100, Betül Tunç, is the one that broke away from that consensus, and it shows that the top of the scale is reserved for a choice that is unmistakably over the ten-million line yet not the first name most players reach for. The 431 answers at 60 sit below the crowd, and anything under sixty usually stumbled on the threshold or named a page rather than a person. Rarity, not obscurity, is what pays.
Name a holiday from anywhere in the world that is celebrated in October, November or December
3,290 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work backwards from the three months rather than from a list of famous holidays. Picture the calendar grid for each month and ask what kinds of entries could sit in each cell: statutory days off, religious feasts fixed by a lunar or solar calendar, harvest and seasonal rites, national remembrance dates, and multi-day or month-long awareness campaigns. Then push past the obvious handful. Because the scoring rewards obscurity, the useful move is outward from the well-known toward the parochial: small communities, diaspora observances, professional and charitable campaigns, local patronal feasts. Keep a mental checklist of those categories and produce one candidate from each, letting unusual wording or a parenthetical qualifier stand when it is genuinely the name in use. Check afterwards that the date really falls inside the window.
Get a hint
Start from the month grids rather than from memory: any date in the last quarter can anchor an entry, and the broadest categories are statutory days off, religious feasts and cultural festivals.
A little more
Then widen the frame beyond official days off to commemorative periods — month-long awareness campaigns, week-long observances and single-cause days all qualify, and there are a great many of them.
One step further
Finally think small and local: parish feasts, regional harvest rites, community remembrance dates and minor saints' days are usually the least-guessed entries, so they sit at the very top of the scoring band.
Reveal answers 3,290
Night of the RadishesOne in a Krillion100points
14 October Democracy DayDeep Cut85points
14 October RevolutionDeep Cut85points
16 Days of Activism against Gender-based ViolenceDeep Cut85points
3 October Festival (Leiden)Deep Cut85points
AbanaganDeep Cut85points
Abhidhamma DayDeep Cut85points
AbissaDeep Cut85points
Abolition of Slavery DayDeep Cut85points
Abu Simbel Sun FestivalDeep Cut85points
Academic Writing MonthDeep Cut85points
Acadian Remembrance DayDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal is enormous, and that shape tells you most of what matters. Of 3,290 recorded answers, 3,275 scored at least sixty points and only fifteen fell below that line, so almost any genuine holiday dated inside the window earned something. The contest is decided inside the top band: 3,181 answers sat at 85 points, 93 at 60, and exactly one reached 100. That 85-point mass is the long tail of real but specialised observances — 'Abhidhamma Day', 'Ace Week', 'Adopt a Senior Pet Month', 'Air Force Day (Bulgaria)' — entries that are precise, verifiable and rarely volunteered. At 60 sit picks that are legitimate yet comparatively easy to reach. The lone 100-point answer, 'Night of the Radishes', shows what the summit of the curve looks like: a named local festival almost nobody from outside its region would think of first. The practical lesson is that recognisability is the cost; a household-name holiday is safe but cheap, while an obscure, correctly named observance in the right quarter of the year is where the points live.
Work from the most obvious layer outward and keep a written list, because this category rewards volume as much as cleverness. Begin with the everyday carriers anyone would name first, then move to the physical details printed on them: diameter, rotation speed, groove count, tape configuration, disc encoding. After that, shift from the object to the deal around it — how many copies, who was allowed to buy it, what was added or removed, whether it arrived in the post or purely as files. Finally, raid adjacent media: formats borrowed from cinema, computing and toys. Sort your list by how likely a general audience would say it, and submit the most ordinary ideas first, since those are the ones the survey recorded.
Get a hint
Start with the object itself: anything a shop or a mail carrier could hand over as a self-contained musical item belongs here, whatever it is made of.
A little more
Then narrow by the attributes printed on the item or its packaging — dimensions, playing speed, number of tracks, how it is cut, pressed or encoded — because each attribute has spawned its own named variant.
One step further
Finally consider how the item reaches the public: short production runs, subscription-only mailings, copies sent ahead of release, expanded re-releases and bundles that exist only as files all carry their own labels, and each label counts as a separate entry.
Reveal answers 297
Bone musicOne in a Krillion100points
10-inch recordDeep Cut85points
12-inch recordDeep Cut85points
16 rpm recordDeep Cut85points
180-gram vinylDeep Cut85points
3-inch vinylDeep Cut85points
33 1/3 rpmDeep Cut85points
4-track cartridgeDeep Cut85points
45 rpm singleDeep Cut85points
5-inch recordDeep Cut85points
6-inch recordDeep Cut85points
78 rpm recordDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal is lopsided: 283 of 297 recorded answers cleared 60 points, which tells you the scoring rewards breadth of vocabulary rather than luck. A single entry, Bone music (100), sat alone at the top because it is a genuinely obscure Soviet-era bootleg practice pressed onto discarded X-rays — memorable enough to be offered, rare enough that almost nobody else reached for it. The 228 answers at 85 points form the real body of the category: technical and collector-facing terms such as 78 rpm record (85), Acetate (85), 4-track cartridge (85) and Cassingle (85). Each names a distinct physical or commercial variant, so the survey could count it without merging it into a neighbour. The 54 answers at 60 points read as the broad, obvious vocabulary most players produce first, which is exactly why they paid less; the remaining fourteen fell below that. The gap between a specific variant and a generic label was worth roughly 25 points.
Work taxon by taxon rather than free-associating: sketch a quick grid of birds, amphibians, reptiles, freshwater and marine fishes, insects, arachnids and small mammals, then fill each cell with a name you can defend. Start with the obvious and keep descending into field-guide territory, because the scoring rewards precision and obscurity rather than fame. For every candidate, ask whether its natural range really sits inside the target continent and whether it also occurs elsewhere; a species shared with another region is usually rejected. Strike out anything domesticated, captive-bred or introduced. Then pick the least familiar name on your list that you can still spell correctly and justify in one line.
Get a hint
Cast a wide taxonomic net before narrowing: birds, amphibians, reptiles, freshwater and marine fishes, butterflies and moths, beetles, spiders, and small mammals all have deep lineages across the continent's varied habitats.
A little more
Then think like a field-guide index: many valid names pair a genus with a descriptive epithet, or borrow the name of a river, ridge or valley where the taxon was first collected, so odd-looking combinations are usually real rather than invented.
One step further
Finally, settle on one narrow-range species you can vouch for, something recorded from a single cloud forest, cave, deep-sea trench or high-altitude stream, and confirm its native range touches no other continent before committing.
Reveal answers 19,395
OlinguitoOne in a Krillion100points
88 butterflyDeep Cut85points
Abakapa rain frogDeep Cut85points
Abatira SkipperDeep Cut85points
Abauna SkipperDeep Cut85points
Abdonides SkipperDeep Cut85points
Abitagua CaecilianDeep Cut85points
ABOFOA's Humming frogDeep Cut85points
Abra Acanacu marsupial frogDeep Cut85points
Abra Málaga Andes FrogDeep Cut85points
Abra Malaga toadDeep Cut85points
Abyssal assfishDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
Scoring here tracks obscurity, not correctness alone, so the pool splits into three tiers. The lone 100-point answer, Olinguito, sits apart from everything else: one unusual mammal name that no other player in the recorded set produced, and the only pick to break the 85 ceiling. The 85-point band, with 19,071 answers, is where specialist vocabulary pays: 88 butterfly, Abakapa rain frog and Acre treefrog all sit there, each a real, verifiable species that most players would never retrieve under time pressure. The 279 answers at 60 points are the safe, familiar choices, recognisable animals that many people reach for first, so the crowd splits the credit. In practice the difference between 60 and 85 is a willingness to leave the well-trodden list and name something a field guide would index; the difference between 85 and 100 is luck as much as knowledge, since a single unusual recall has to be the only one of its kind.
The productive route is breadth before depth. Fix a grid of scales — held in one hand, pushed, towed, self-propelled — and run every domain across it: raising plants, moving earth on a building site, extracting material underground, working wet ground, working hard ground, and the small trades where one repetitive job produced a purpose-built implement. Write down everything the grid throws up, including the entries that feel too strange to submit, because the scoring inverts the usual instinct and pays best for the most specialised name. Only once the list is long should you prune it, dropping anything that is a material, a process or a job title rather than a physical object, and keeping the regional and historical vocabulary that a general audience would never reach for.
Get a hint
Start with the scale of the job: something you hold in one hand, something you push ahead of you, something you drive. Each scale has its own vocabulary, and the puzzle rewards moving up and down it.
A little more
Then shift from object to trade: the person raising plants for sale, the crew opening a street to reach a pipe, the team at a rock face underground. Each has an implement built for that one job and named after it.
One step further
Finally, work the margins: regional and historical vocabulary, implements tied to a single crop, a single surface or a single soil type, and the tiny hand versions sold for one hobby. Obscurity is what pays here.
Reveal answers 416
Golf hole cutterOne in a Krillion100points
Air spadeDeep Cut85points
Airlift dredgeDeep Cut85points
AlmocafreDeep Cut85points
Amphibious dredgerDeep Cut85points
Amphibious excavatorDeep Cut85points
AngadyDeep Cut85points
Antler mattockDeep Cut85points
Antler pickDeep Cut85points
Archaeology trowelDeep Cut85points
ArdDeep Cut85points
Asparagus knifeDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The scoring rewarded reach, not recognition. The single hundred-point entry, golf hole cutter, is an implement most people have never seen and would never think to say, which is precisely why it topped the board. Behind it sits a long shelf of eighty-five-point answers that are just as specialised but a little easier to reach once you start thinking in trades and regions: air spade, almocafre, angady, antler mattock. Each names one narrow job — lifting turf without wrecking roots, working a particular soil, cutting a particular crop — and each asks for vocabulary beyond the everyday. The ordinary entries sat in the sixty-point band, a round-point shovel, a garden fork or a camping trowel, the ones anybody would call out first, and that familiarity is exactly what flattens their worth. Rarity is the currency here: an answer earns more the fewer players could have produced it, so the winning move is to keep pushing past the obvious names into dialect, history and single-purpose engineering.
Treat the task as a walk through shops rather than a test of advertising recall. Clear your head of the names that shout from roadside hoardings and forecourt fridges, and park them to one side. Then widen the field: childhood favourites, labels sold in a single county, packets carried back from a trip, family firms still bearing the founder's surname, supermarket own-ranges that print a genuine name on the wrapper. A week abroad, a summer at a relative's table, the shelves of a village grocer, all count as sources. Jot down far more candidates than you need, check the spelling of each one, and settle on a name you are confident belongs to a real commercial label rather than a description of the snack.
Get a hint
Sweep the whole savoury-snack shelf instead of one style: sliced and fried, puffed, extruded, baked or vegetable-based all sit inside the same family of packaged brands.
A little more
Weigh two dimensions together, reach and territory: a name confined to one nation, one province or one immigrant neighbourhood outscores one beamed across the planet.
One step further
Settle on a name you would have to spell out letter by letter for a friend, the sort that shows up in an import aisle or a village grocer's, and drop anything printed on a stadium hoarding.
Reveal answers 2,658
The Whole ShabangOne in a Krillion100points
007Deep Cut85points
1 in 6 SnacksDeep Cut85points
100% MéxicoDeep Cut85points
3 PaulyDeep Cut85points
3D'sDeep Cut85points
42 degrésDeep Cut85points
4700BCDeep Cut85points
5GDeep Cut85points
605Deep Cut85points
999Deep Cut85points
A Casa VellaDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The scoring curve stays unusually flat through the middle: 2,569 separate labels each landed on 85 points, so the scale is separating reach from local knowledge far more than good picks from weak ones. The 75 names parked at 60 look, on that reading, like the entries a stranger could produce blind, printed on hoardings and stocked beside every till: correct, yet free to think of. Points then arrive through distance. A name confined to one country, one region or a lone import aisle reads as specialist knowledge even where the player is only recalling a summer at a relative's table. The sample bears that out: The Whole Shabang took the lone 100, while Amaizin, Bissli and Brad's all settled at 85. None of those would greet you from a roadside poster, which is the point: specificity earns, fame does not.
Name one of the 1,000 most common first names in the world
997 recorded answers
How to approach it
Work from demography outwards. Rank the world's major naming systems by the number of people who actually carry them, then ask which individual forms sit at the very top of each one, because a name only needs to be frequent inside a large pool to survive a thousand-entry cut-off. Cross out anything globally famous: those are the picks every player makes, and they pay the least. Then favour the awkward middle, a form that is unremarkable in its home region but almost never encountered by outsiders, especially a clipped or transliterated spelling. Verify the candidate is a given name rather than a surname or a title, check that the spelling is a real recorded variant, and submit it without adding a second element.
Get a hint
Start with population arithmetic: any naming pool tied to a very large population is bound to place dozens of entries inside a thousand-name cut-off.
A little more
Steer away from the names that turn up constantly in mainstream news and entertainment; the middle and lower bands of such a list are dominated by forms that are everyday somewhere else and striking where you live.
One step further
Short one- and two-syllable forms, including clipped transliterations that look unfinished to a mainstream reader, cluster near the bottom, so an odd-looking minimal spelling is a serious candidate.
Reveal answers 997
KrzysztofOne in a Krillion100points
ADeep Cut85points
AbdelDeep Cut85points
AbdoDeep Cut85points
AbdoulayeDeep Cut85points
AbdullahiDeep Cut85points
AbubakarDeep Cut85points
AdamaDeep Cut85points
AdamuDeep Cut85points
AdelDeep Cut85points
AgusDeep Cut85points
AhmetDeep Cut85points
Why these answers count
The reveal carries 997 entries and 867 of them clear sixty points, so the scale is compressed near the ceiling and almost any genuine member of the global thousand gets paid something. A single slot at one hundred went to Krzysztof, which reads as the least guessable qualifying entry rather than the rarest name overall. The eighty-five band is enormous, 492 answers, and it is populated by Abdel, Ayşe, Abubakar and Aminata, forms that are everyday across large populations yet rarely surface in mainstream Western media. That width is the useful part: the band is broad enough to be hittable and obscure enough to pay close to the maximum. The 374 answers on sixty points sit at the opposite end, the comfortable picks that occur to nearly everyone and therefore earn the least. Rarity pays because points track how few players reach a given answer, so the profitable zone is a name that is ordinary somewhere populous and unfamiliar elsewhere.
Krillion