Would you pick a name in the top 200??

" but I don't think it ever bothered the Sarahs or Matts of this world"

Well, it certainly bothered me at school and at work, always being known as little Sarah or Sarah.surname initial....because there were so many of us. I was always envious of my friends with more timeless names that only belonged to 'them'.

Yes we did with DC1. Its a family name on both sides and although it was popular then and more so now, I don't think we've made a mistake. I have a very popular name for its time and there were always 5 of us out of a class of 30 at school and there are 3 at work. DS hasn't got another in his class and there are only a couple in the school.

Don't know where DDs name is in the list but I've only ever met one other in 5 years. Just picked it because I had loved it for years, popularity didn't bother me too much, although had it been in the top 30 I might have thought twice.

Roffle.

I'd hazard a guess that my dd's name was outside the top 100 when I gave it to her 11 years ago. Now it is number 2.

It really does show when people are trying too hard to be original with names.

rezzle thanks for the link. That is interesting. When I was pregnant I wanted to look for names that were not in the top 100. DD's was 140 odd the year she was born. DS though is top 100 but not top 50. Boys names are so much harder in my opinion. It is just my personal preference that I didn't want my children to have very popular names - especially since I married DH I have a very common surname!

My ds3s name isnt listed in the top 1000 names.

Ds2s name is between 50-60 in the top 100

Ds1s name just says 200+ on the list

...and if the name suddenly became really popular I wouldn't 'go off' it.

We chose a name for DS1 which is very popular among adults around our age (in our 30s), but very uncommon among young children (the name is John).

We chose it because despite having known of/met about 100 Johns across my life so far, neither of us had ever met one we didn't like and I love the simplcity of the name (I think it is quite beautiful). And yes, I do like that I have not met another child under ten with the same name. It turns out though that it is around number 100. So, even seemingly very unpopular names can make top 200! I guess I would try and avoid top 20 but if I really liked a name I would still go for it. I have seen people look actually quite gobsmacked when I tell them his name. Most assume it is a family name we got saddled with or at least a shortening of Jonathan (it isn't). I'm proud of it and would have called them both John if I could (we called DS2 Albert)!

Thre is a regional thing to consider. So a name can be top 50 and you never meet one. E.g. I bet most of the Johns that were registered live outside of London (where the fashionable names are all the rage).

I do think 20-something Noahs and Evas and Oscars will know alot of other people with the same name years from now, but I don't think it ever bothered the Sarahs or Matts of this world.

Recently I've encountered two baby Stanleys. So even if you pick something you think is completely out-of-fashion, the idea must have subliminally lodged in your brain and in that case it has lodged in other people's, too, giving rise to a glut of your carefully chosen name.

Sorry, that only tells you how many were given that name, not ranking. Top 100 are given in the other tables though.

I think that the speed a name races up from 200 to top five is far more significant. JMO

citylover The Scottish names popularity 2011 can be found here. You want table 4, then search for name ... My DS is number 200 ish in England, but 50 ish in Scotland!

ernest,walter,elizabeth,minnie,robert,charles,bessie,clara,rose,frances,pearl,
michael,richard,nancy,maria,heidi,erica.lovely classic names not common yet!xxx

I would. And I probably called my son in the top 20. But I don't care as I like the name so didn't check.

Identification and differentiation is only a part of why a name is chosen, surely, and not a traditional naming consideration? The name pool is larger, and more diverse, than it has ever been too.

We sometimes forget WHY we name a person (or thing) - to IDENTIFY him/her. So the more widely a name is already used, the less likely a name will fullfil this purpose. If there are several Harrys, Jacks, Evies and Ellas in a class then some sort of modifier needs to be added - a surname initial or other adjective (small, big, ...).

So yes, it is a good idea to avoid popular names, especially if you have a popular surname!

Lambzig, depends on your taste of course, but names that I like include
Lucian
Ronan
Quentin
Dominic
August/Augustus
Linus

love the name felicity for a girl.
sebastian for a boy.

if you pick a classic not common name now it will be certain to be in top 1o in in 10 years time .i use to love jack harry george henry isobelle and sophia now they are sooooooooo comon

mayanna any tips for boys outside of that?

We've chosen for our as yet unborn baby (due next month) and wanted to make sure the names weren't top 20 at the very least. Our 2 girls' choices are not even top 100, our boy's choice is top 30 but I don't know any personally. Our middle name choices are top 100 but old fashioned. I think it's when they are very popular trendy/modern variants that I groan a bit, as you know the nursery class is going to be packed with them for a few years. It ages the child a bit like a trendy dress ages your wedding photos.

In the greater scheme of things it doesn't matter a jot as long as you like the name but we just didn't want to be quite as predictable as we might have been. It was fun looking through the Penguin names book for inspiration too

Didn't give it a thought when naming my Dcs. In fact, I think one has a top 10 name and the other has a quite uncommon name.

Prefer classic names to trendy ones that date.

Can someone let me know how you look lower down the list than the top 100? I've only seen the top 100 for boys and girls and wouldn like to look further down the list.

I was a bit obsessive and constructed my own table of the top 500 names of the past 5 years when I was expecting the dcs.

Ds's name is still rare but classic [preen], but dd's... unfortunately it has shot from obscurity to middle class-tastic. I was most miffed when someone famous named their dd the same name one week after dd was born and that seemed to open the floodgates.

My DDs (Penelope and Constance, nn Penny and Connie) are over the 250 mark. DS is Kit and is nearly 500th.

I like that they are not made up names but are not popular. Kit could get popular and date, I suppose, but most people go for Christopher and shorten to Kit (which we didn't do because I was too scared he'd end up a Chris and not Kit, which we love).

In answer to the OP, I wouldn't have chosen a name in the top 50, (so no Olivias, Graces, Emilys, Jacks, Harrys etc) but outside of 50 I think it's unlikely to be seen as too follow-the-crowd.