If you called your child a very popular name...

4 of me in my class in secondary school. It never occurred to me to be bothered by it.

I think wanting an unusual name is at least partly snobbery tbh...

The thing is, there is no guarantee of avoiding popularity. My name was very unusual when I was a child, but I still shared it with a girl in my class and so had to use my surname initial. Now it has shot up the charts and I often whirl around in supermarkets as a Mum calls out her young daughter's name.

My son's name is the most popular of all that we considered for him (it's top 50). We occasionally come across one in a playground but don't know any others at playgroups etc. Anyway, it doesn't bother me at all either way actually. It's his name and I love it :)

I am preg with DC2 - a girl - and we are probably choosing a v unusual name - not because it is unusual, but just because we love it. I would slightly prefer a fairly unusual name TBH but that's not my main factor in making the decision.

I myself have a very unusual name. As a teenager I hated it, because inevitably if you meet someone new, the first question is 'what's your name?' for me that was usually followed by 'pardon' or 'what??'. So consequently I avoided situations where I had to introduce myself.
My children all have relatively common names for this reason!

I named dd1 Isabella in 1999 when it was relatively unusual. It has since become incredibly popular although not particularly so in our area. Also Twilight came along so the name she is known by (Bella) is also trendy now! I don't regret using the name, still think it is lovely and it suits her. Am quite glad I didn't have any boys though, I was planning to use Jacob!

There are about ten girls at dd2s nursery with variations on her name, Samia, somaiyya Sumaiya, sumayyah

I didn't know anyone except one girl that was a few years older then me in high school with that name before.

My DS has a name that is never out of the top 10 (William) but I have yet to meet another in his age group where I live (he's only 7mo though so plenty of time!) in answer to your question yes I knew it was popular and no it doesnt bother me as it suits him and we like it he's rarely called by his full name anyway.

My dc names are popular but 'solid' names that hopefully will never date.

DH and I both have DB called Mark, SIL sister has the same name as me and DBIL nearly married another one - vair confusing for all the little Mares and their cousins!

Yes, I realised it was popular.(It's also classic, so won't date to much)

Yes, I cared. I wanted a really way out name but DH was adamant we would have a son and he would be called X.

He was in the same class as a boy with the same name. DS was always known as X-Scavo. People seriously thought his name was double barreled, and used to ask what his surname was!

Funnily enough, though we don't seem to meet that many.

I have 2 daughters and we chose their names based on meanings. I couldn't name a child a particular name if that name had negative meaning or didn't mean anything to me IYSWIM.

As it happens, both names are very popular. However, as we hyphenated both girl's names (because of the meaning again!) this is less of an issue for us. Still, both DDs are called by the first part of their name, but I'm not bothered about the popularity issue. I genuinely love their names!

I have, though, been put off by Isabella, Lily, Jessica, as they are a bit too popular where we are.

I was born in 1983 and there were 4 other girls in my class with my name! It just annoyed me by having to write my surname initial after my first name all the time. It's the one and only time I've had this 'problem', though.

I chose names that weren't hugely popular (so I thought). DS is named Daniel Jack, and a colleauge recently had a son also named Daniel Jack.

More shockingly my half sister has now called her son Daniel Jack. We haven't seen each other for years as we didnt grow up together (different mums) but still my dad has two grandsons named Daniel Jack.

There are no other Daniels in his class so far though that may change at high school.

DD is called Katie and I have never come across another katie under the age of 10 so I don't think she will ever be katie a or katie b at school.

DS 3 will be called Thomas, I think this may be a popular name so there could be multiples but we are having it anyway.

I chose ds's name because I liked it (Jacob) and then found out it was the most popular name in the states and high up on the UK lists! I found out before he was born but just loved the name so much that we stuck with it and I still really love his name.

I was a bit annoyed when I found out but after a few days decided to stick with it. Bizarrely, given the national popularity of the name, no one in his class has the same name but there is at least one Jacob in each school year.

I am that mum who says to people "She's called Eva, but we didn't realise it would become so popular"! She was born in 2008. At the time we thought it was a lovely, classic name which wasn't weird, but was more unusual than the Top 10 type names. We were actively trying to choose a less common (but not weird) name.

I am slightly annoyed that it's shot up the rankings since 2008, and been joined by hoards of Avas and Evies. Having said that, I actually only know one other (child) Eva (as well as one Ava and one Evie). Isabelle / Isabella / Isobel type names seem to be more common amongst my friends and acquaintances.

But I love her name and we aren't about to change it!

One of my son's names is quite popular but it's a classic I've always liked, the popularity aspect didn't come into it. He's quite the individual so I don't think I'll have to worry about his name being forgettable.

we steered clear of Jessica on the basis it was just so popular there woudl be scores in the same class. We went for Eloise instead and since then have had two friends produce Elodies and have an Eloisa and Elodie in the same class. Have never met a tiny Jessica ;-)
go for what you like.

Well I went for the choose common timeless names that will not date approach. Despite all three having names in the top 10 list for boys only DS3 has had a duplicate in his class. Despite being an art school Graduate and a bit if a hippy I feel choosing names to make your child stand out is a bit dubious, as though you were imposing your personality on your child and saying MY child is more special than all the others.
Wouldn't it be funny if all babies were called "child Bloggs 1" until they were 18, when they could choose their own name.

A bit like more cats that kids, we gave DD1 a very unusual name, none of my friend or family had every known anyone of that name. We moved to rural France and out of just 5 girls in DD1s year group, 2 have the same name. And it isn't particularly common in France either.

Of course the 2 girls have been best friends for the past 9 years, completely inseparable. They don't really use nicknames here either so they are refered to by their full name (ie first name and surname) by everyone even their friends.

Didn't purposely chose a popular name, just chose names that we liked.

DS is Ben(jamin) and DD is (Isa)bella - both became v popular in recent years

Oh, no I didn't know how popular it is. But I would still have chosen it as it's been the name since I was 14!

DD's full name is relatively unusual, but her nickname is seriously popular at the moment. In fact I think it's one of MN's most hated.

I don't care. It's a beautiful name and it's who she is.

I've got a 'classic' name which has fallen out of favour recently, however there were four of us in my class at school . Now I'm older I like it, but it still doesn't feel like me so I'll stick with my nn.

One of my many, varied and bordering on ridiculos criterion for baby names is that it ought not be too popular. No idea why, I think it's the rebel in me. I don't think it matters too much because there are so many names these days that even the top ten does not represent a huge % of total baby names used.

ds's name is very common. I reckon 90% of 15 - 19 yr old boys are called one of about 4 names, and his is one of them!
I had no idea when I chose it, didn't really cross my mind. I'd not heard that there even were lists compiled of the most popular names ('twas before MN ).
Fast Forward a couple of years, and it was one of the top criteria on our name choosing list that dd1, and later dd2, had names that weren't common although still sensible and easy to spell and heard of by everybody.

When ds was in Junior school, there was 1 boy in the year above him and 1 in the year below him (so 3 in all) with the same combined first name and surname. It wasn't helpful!

My own name is quite unusual - my Mum had never met anyone with DD same name - we lived in quite large town. Moved to small village and there was girl with same name in class at primary - out of 12 girls! Her brother was same age as my DB - and same name too! Our Mums hated each other but other girl became one of my best friends - we were in same class at senior school too - school much bigger and we were the only ones with the name. It's not a common name still but 'fate brought us together'

Point being - never can tell - choose a name you love -

I have a very, very common name and - although it's "me" and I love it - it drives me utterly batty. I was once one of 3 Fluffys working at a company of 10, and it was a logistical nightmare (someone would phone up and ask for Fluffy, and we'd have to guess which one of us they wanted ). So we're trying very hard to pick something that is at least going to be unlikely to be "popular" iyswim.

DD2 is Katie, so there are many others! None in her age group, though. I did hormonally agonise think about it's popularity as a name, but I just love it so in the end decided I didn't care.