Would you pick a name in the top 200??

not intentionally pick a top name
discounted names if we thought too popular
followed baby lists when pg to get heads up on popular names

I plan to give my DCs my favourite names, whether they're 1000th on the list or 1st. I would never not use a name I loved just because it was popular.

I've got a common name for people my age and it's never bothered me at all; it's a beautiful name and I love it.

Kind of hard not to pick one in the top 200, but I'm trying to avoid picking one in the top 10 as I think these will date really quickly (girls' names at least).

hellokitty our plumber is called Steve, as is my cousin (similar ages), your theory holds true on that score.

There will be bands of names such as Melanie, Sharon, Debbie, Paul, Michael and Richard of which there were many when I went through school. There were 4 Sharon Williams in my games group!

Just as there are a band of names such as Teagan, Regan, Riley, Lewis, Madison etc that are doing the rounds now.

I absolutely wanted to avoid overly popular names (although didn't check any lists at the time). DD1's name was pretty uncommon when she was born almost seven years ago (it's a granny name). Anyway, it remained that way until a couple of years ago and then shot up to no.14 in the national stats list. I was pleased to note that it's dropped down a bit this time though. I've come across quite a few babies and toddlers with this name now.

DD2 (2.5yo) also has a granny name but hers remains low down the list, thank the Lord.

I never even thought of or even consulted the top 200 names, I wouldn't / diddn't give a monkeys , I liked the names we chose and really that was that !!!!

My daughters name was in the 700s 10 years ago (when I was pregnant with her). We named her after her Grandmother. How were we to know that 10 years later it would be in the top 10 and slagged off on MN for being over used?!!

I gave my dc's names to them becuase I liked them - nowt to do with any lists. I care not for these lists.

I've never met anyone with the same name as me (it's currently 549th). I don't mind having an unusual name but I get fed up with having to explain it to people and having to spell it all the time. When people ask me what it means I say 'pretentious middle-class parents'. My boys' names are 25th, 23rd and 11th on the list so they'll never have that problem.

There was an episode of the Simpsons where Milhouse met a boy from the next town called Milhouse and he said, "I thought I was the only one."

I have given my dc more and more popular names as we've gone along. I tried really hard not to give ds1 and popular name, but it has become more popular since we chose it (I've only encountered one other though). Dd's name is top 50 - we hear it now and again and there is another at nursery. Ds2's name is very popular, but also very classic - we hear it quite often. I've progressed from caring about it, to not caring very much at all (still care a bit). We tried to find a more unusual name for ds2 and struggled to find something that matched up to the name we chose for ds1 (which I think is perfect), so in the end we just chose the very popular name which we happened to like best. We'd have ended up calling him something we didn't love just to try and be different and that isn't right.

The more popular/widely used a name already is, the more likely it will be that the child will have to 'share' his/her name in school, at work etc. This is not the end of the world, but can be a pain (and I've worked in schools and our local scouts groups). Depending on what area you work in, it can be helpful to be identified easily - again, this gets harder if your name is Jack Smith or Harry Jones.

We recently had our bathrooms renovated and every second tradesman was called Steve - can get a little confusing at times....

So I think we need to remember that we name our children so that they can be easily identified and that there are lots and lots of great names that are outside of the top 200 or so (just perhaps not currently 'trendy').

It never even crossed my mind to check the popularity of DS's name. We just loved it and named him it. He's two, and so far I've only ever met one more baby with the same name. However, it's supposed to be soooo popular now, so maybe we'll come across more when he goes to nursery.

At the soft play area we were at the other day they call out the kids names to let them know their time is up. There wasn't one other child with the same name as DS so I don't think we're in too much trouble.

Mumsnet inform me that it will date horribly, but he hasn't built a tardis yet (should I be worried and post on behaviour and development), so I think the fact that his name is of the time he lives in shouldn't be to much of an issue.

I have a rare name and it's a PITA. DM should've stuck with Kirsty, but was spooked by a "oh that's getting really popular isn't it" comment, and must've thought "I'll fix her". She did.

All my childrens names where chosen because I liked them oldest always said I'd call my first daughter that out of them all the youngests is most popular but only know a few with her name only ever met 2 people with my sons name and he's 18

I just chose names that I liked.
DS1's name was chosen before we'd even started trying to conceive.
DS2's name was chosen after his brother started calling it him before he was born. Luckily he was a boy, although it'd worked with a slightly different adaptation for a girl.

Both names are strong classic names. They have since risen into the top 20.
We have yet to meet another with DS1's name but there will be another boy in DS2's nursery class when he starts.

we checked for the top names in uk germany and sweden.

unfortunately dc's name is very popular in the other gender and the short version (which we call most) is similar sounding to a few other names...

Can you think of 200 names, of the same era, which are the equivalent of Sharon/Tracey/Kevin...?

I like dated names though.

I have moved on from the Victorian/Edwardian revival, and am now trying to promote the names of my mum's generation (Janet, Bridget, Patricia etc.).

I can very much imagine that Tracy will be popular again too.

I have a biblical but less common name, v rare growing up
Now Saturday morning supermarkets full of them...
DS was to have his granddads less common but fab name which then turned out to be super common and apparently try hard according to mn
As it was he didn't suit it when he finally appeared and after consulting every book going for a perfect unusual but not try hard name settled on a lovely solid one which is in top 10 but so far only met 1 other which is easy to yell

My 3 are called Graham (21 yrs) Naomi (19 yrs) and Luke (10 yrs). The eldest was after a family friend, Naomi was out the bible (as we have a Ruth in the family) and Luke just came, he was nearly a Daniel but I didn't like 'Danny' or 'Dan'.

at the times they were born my ds's name was ranked 353 and my dd's was ranked 305, my ds's is now 402, it wont show me my dd's for some reason, just out of curiosity i did my name too, there wasnt anything for me, dont know whether to feel special or neglected

On the otherhand, I would change dd's middle name in a heartbeat. Even though it does suit her, I still wish I had gone with my first love which would have suited her too and not settled with dh's first choice of middle name.

I chose a name because I had always loved it (dh too).
It is my favourite name of all time.
I love how it looks on paper and will never tire of hearing it. It didn't occur to me to check whether the name was popular. I agree that there is popular and then there's popular classic. DD is the latter

We had been keen to give a name to ds1 that turned out to be in the top 5, and yes it did put us off. Fast forward five years and there are three boys with that name in his class. Still a lovely name, but just a bit too popular.

Down from 848th to 2843rd this is the position of my name lol not very good name to use

Minty and Kveta, given that there were thousands of babies given the top most popular names it wouldn't be surprising at all that there are lots of them around!