Would you pick a name in the top 200??

whyismymindblank, I was wondering that too and asked the question a while ago. Apparently the list only includes FIRST names (not middle names) and only those first names that were used at least twice.

Mintyy, mine might, DD was only born this year, so not sure where her name will be in the stats! DS was no 1 name for his year of birth.

Both my children have top 2 names. I defy anyone to beat that!

both my children have top 5 names. chose both names because a) we love them and b) they work in both our countries of origin.

I picked dd1's name as I liked the name and it was the only one I really liked. I certainly didn't look to see how popular it was as even If it was popular then I wasn't going to give her a name I didn't like.

As it happens it was a popular name for a while and there were a few about and still are. I still love the name and wouldn't change it.

Does anyone know if these name lists just include popularity as first names, or are they middle names too? If they're middle names as well then maybe that's why sometimes they come up as v popular, but you rarely meet someone with that as their first name?

My son is Thomas. I was told when expecting and announced I liked it as it was a timeless and strong name that it was 'dirt common' by a relation. I took that to mean popular. He is one of 3 in his year. Not that dirt common then......

We were going to name DS (just turned 1) Reilly but changed our minds after discovering that Riley (same pronunciation) was about number 25 in the list last year. This year it's even higher, and it's number 4 in Wales, so we're glad we didn't go with it! In the end we chose a name that is so rare, it's not even listed in the statistics - they exclude names given to fewer than 3 babies in order to protect their identity :D

DD's name was 130-odd on the list in 2009, when she was born. I've never met anyone with the same name, although occasionally friends tell me they encountered a child with it. And it made an appearance on CBeebies birthdays a few weeks ago, albeit with an ugly spelling :P

(I love watching the birthdays on CBeebies, just to see what people are calling their children!)

To put things in perspective, in Scotland in 2011 the No1 boys and girls names each had around 600 children named those. There are over 2000 primary schools some of which have more than one primary class - so the chances of having loads of kids with the same name in a class are actually pretty small even if you choose the No 1 most popular name. Obviously there will be clusters etc, but is it that big a deal really? i think it happened in the past more so as there were fewer overall names that people chose from so the top names would be used far more frequently than they are now.

There were lots of lovely names I liked when thinking of names for my DD however didn't choose based on the fact they were just so popular. The Sharon/Tracey etc of this era.

My DD's name has gone from 3126th to 613th on that list rezzle! Eeek I've gone for something getting more popular

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest where DD's name came/comes in the top xxx baby names lists. I chose a name I liked and a name that hadn't already been used in my close family and friendship groups. Nothing else was particularly important to me.

Names in top xxx are there because lots of people do like them, so I can't see why it would be a bad thing to also choose one.

DS's name is now number 7 in popularity (Jacob) and was, I think, number 12 when born. However, it is the anglised version of his great-grandfather's name (Yaacov) so a link to his 'other culture'. Incidentally in Israel it is considered really old-fashioned and religious so it raised a few eyebrows from the other side of the family!!

I still really like it and despite it being so popular haven't met any of his contemporaries with that name. I suppose my point being that there are often other reasons why people choose a name.

Two of my children have the current number one names, Amelia and Harry. The others are Ben, Jack and Joe so all quite popular. We didnt want our children to stand out with odd Christian names - our surname getslenty of comments as it is.

When we chose dd1's name, no one had ever heard of it. It didn't appear on any lists, so being a bit PFB, we went with it, to baffled faces all around.

Within three months of her birth, someone in the media had a dd and used the same name, caused a huge surge, and I think it's been top twenty ever since, and universally loathed on mn. meh. Don't ever think you're being original.

With ds1 we just gave up and chose a top ten name.
Dd2's is a European version of a classic.

It's all trends, however unique you think you are.

My two are solid top 100 (one is top 20) but they've both been solid top 100 for decades if not centuries, so while they will bump into a lot of other people with that name, they won't date.

And the advantage of calling your DS eg James, is that if somebody called James runs amok with a machete, or is busted for child pornography, then the name is sufficiently well established that it won't get stigmatised by an unpleasant primary association.

We have a very unusual surname, so we wanted names that were not very popular but, at the same time sounded good with the surname. DD's name is the only one in the top 100, in fact it is in the top 50 in the UK, but, she is called after DH's Grandmother so even if that name was number 1 we would still have used it.

We are in Ireland, the name isn't in the top 100 here at all.

DD's is 148, apparently.

the name I chose for a boy is usually top 10 (James)

both timeless classics, i think.

I prefer to stayout of the top 50, but often that's because we know someone/I have taught someone with the name.

DD1's name is around 170, DD2's name is around 270. I can see it becoming much more popular over the next couple of years due to a celeb using it.

Nope, chose a name I liked for DS and stuck with it, the popular baby names thing would never have entered my head. His name is in the top 10 and is a common name....he is named after a great grandfather.

Sorry sonnieboo!

My name is the 2nd most popular girls name for 2011. I am 40 years old. I was the only one in my school with that name and for years I never met another girl/woman with my name. Now it's very popular, as is the name of my brother which for years was just as unusual. It has taught me to just go for a name you love as you can never predict how popular a name might become. All three of my DCs have top 100 names, chosen because I like the name, not for popularity or lack of popularity. You might just find that your carefully chosen name becomes the Olivia of its day afterall.

DD was named after my grandmother. It would have been her name pretty much regardless of popularity. It was outside the top 200 in 1996 but is 80 something now. DS is in the 400's. I've never met another of either name so far (but know of a few on here).

DS2's name has been in the top 10 for the last 16 years, according to the link, but when he was born it was just 'him'. The name we were going to call him is outside of the top 200 but didn't suit when he was born. DS1's name is more timeless like DS2's, but I imagine DD's name will date, even though we didn't know anyone with the same name until she started primary! A variation of her name is now the most popular in the country.

Oh I just checked. His name was #12 on the list in the year he was born. Thats interesting because he is the only one in his class (43, but of course about half are girls)

honestly, I didn't even look. We chose a name that we agreed on for DS1. There was only one. For DS2 I chose it, and DH couldnt think of anything else, so he said fine then...