Chosen baby name: Rare? No, not any more!

My daughter is called a v close variant of Isla but with a slightly different spelling. We are Scottish living in England, so I also thought it would be a bit unusual. Did not really look at the name stats before she was born in 2008, although probably would not have made much difference as that is the year it massively jumped in populariy from about 60 something to 30 something so could not have predicted. I blame Isla Fisher! It is very annoying, I agree, I have since encountered quite a few Islas but I think this is partly because I am primed to do so and partly because when I tell someone her name they always feel obliged to tell me they know another Isla (probably as until recently it has been quite unusual).

It is something that bothers me though I know it shouldn't although my partner thinks I am being ridiculous and says he would not have agreed to anything else anyway. I didn't really want her to end up being called the noughties equivalent of Claire or Sarah, but I think there probably are more names around these days as people try to be original so even with quite popular names there are not always going to be lots in one place.

That is exactly why you should choose a name you love rather than a name to be 'different' or 'unique'.

I had a similar thing with my DD who is now 9. Her name was so unusual at the time that I got asked several times if I had made it up. I now know at least 5 in just our local area and it seems to still be popular with babies.

DS1 had a rather normal traditional name and we have never met another!

DS2 got another tradtional name but his is more popular. TBH I am not bothered, I like it!

I was desperate for DD's to have rare names.

Imagine my joy having named DD1 Ella, at discovering that every other female child is called Ella.

Nevermind, if you really like the name it won't matter (after about 3 years ).

It's a minefield. When all my three were born we didn't have the benefit of internet polls etc, we just had to go by what we knew and hope for the best. I managed to stay reasonably exclusive with my fist DS, very exclusive with my 3rd, but the 2nd has turned out quite a common name - the only one I cam across of his age group but there are loads and loads about 4/5 years younger than him.

Don't worry - Isla is a very beautiful name, and no-one else will give a stuff anyway!

Eva - named in June 2008 and thought it was fairly unusual. Now seem to be loads of Evies around(fewer actual Evas fortunately). Hope she won't be the seventh Eva in her class when she starts school in a couple of years time!

My dd is one of 4 children with the same name or derivative in her class. There are only 20 children in the class, so it's a crap ratio!

Luckily my dd is the only one who still uses the full version of her name.

I wasn't trying to choose an unusal name, and I never even considered whether there would be others in the class with the same name. I liked the name (still do) and don't really care that there are others.