Would you pick a name in the top 200??

There are LOTS of beautiful, classic normal names outside the top 200-300 most popular names. Being less trendy also means that such names are less likely to 'date'.

I became a bit obsessed with this when I was pregnant with DD and chose a name in the 3000's.

Near to me, Ethan is a really popular boy's name and I personally know 5 among friends and family and there are two in my daughter's music class. Its a really nice name, but I would really hate a name that I came across so often.

I think its a bit easier to be fanciful with girls.

I am pregnant again and we are trying to chose names and really strugging with a boy's name. Its hard to pick something that is unusual and classic, but spelled correctly, and doesnt have the 'head kicked in, in the playground" factor. There are a few I like outside the top 100 so might have to settle for that.

According to that link there are no babies with my DD's name in 2008, can't click on 2010. She was only born this year though. 7 girls in that year were born with her nickname.

I'm glad it's such a rare name in the UK. It's not made up btw, it's a German classic name. I hope, it won't become more popular!

My sons name I think isn't even in the Top 1000 but if it was in the Top 100 I'd still have chosen it.

My DS's name is in the top 10 and has been for years, he is named after his grandfather and it is apparently a classic, timeless name - also the most popular dog's name . We actually have never met that many other boys (or dogs) with the same name.

My own name which I didn't think was that unusual is apparently over 2500 !!!

In our class this year (where I help out) there are 4 Harrys, two of which share the same surname!! Will be interesting to see which nicknames we can come up with....

We chose names we loved but both dh and I love timeless, classic underused names. So yes, we did avoid the top 250 or so names but not on purpose, rather that we didn't love any of the popular names.

Ds's name was used 13 times last year and dd's about 200 times. But both names are well known, classic names - they're just not trendy.

This is excellent, it goes back to the 1880s. Don't know where it gets it info from though.

I do wonder if DT1's name might date a bit, its Aidan. Still a lovely name though so I'm not worried about it.

When we chose DD's name we did not consider how popular it is (one of the top 5). For the past 2 years of nursery there has been at least one other child with the same name. They loved having the same name. The mother of the other child has told me on several occasions how it helped her DD. She was rather shy and younger than my DD so my DD tended to be a role model for her.

My DS's name was number 1 for years , (Jack )but I rarely hear of boys with that name around our area . There is only a few in his school . I chose it because I loved it at the time , I didnt care how popular it was or is now.

When we chose DS1's name, it was outside the top 200 I think, but is, according to figures from 2011, 78th (he's a Dexter). However, the rank held no sway over what we were going to name him, it was just the name we happened to love.

DS2 has a much less common name: Dawson (according to the link rezzle posted it was 609th). Again, we didn't chose it because it was less common and a bit more unusual, just loved it. If DS2 had been a girl, he would have been Lyra.

I've never really thought about names, and definitely didn't aim for unusual names or classic names or anything like that - I thought the best thing to do was go for something I loved and not worry about trends and what might happen.

To be honest it never even occured to me to check whether my chosen names were in the top 100 or 200!

I have just checked on the link above and my eldest is actually at No. 41 in the list with 1,468 babies registered with that name the year she was born, my youngest is at 2,589 with just 12 babies registered with that name the year she was born!!

There are some names which are popular for babies at the moment but were hardly ever used a couple of decades ago. So it will be these which make people think of this era, whereas the classics will stay timeless.

Thanks rezzle - quite surprised actually but probably as all my dcs have Scottish names. DD1 is 709th, DS only 68th and DD2 1332nd! In England and Wales. Is there a similar site for Scottish names?

There's nothing wrong with Sharon, Tracy, Mike, Kev, Sarah, Julie, Dave etc.
They were popular for a reason, they are nice names, even if they've fallen out of fashion now.

I spent ages choosing youngest DC's name and then discovered that it was very near the top of the popularity list, at that point he was named so I couldn't go back.

The name is a classic though and is hundreds of years old so I don't think he'll be a future Kevin.

Yes, I agree, Nappy.

Though it can be difficult to choose, and predict, a name not likely to date. The safest course is perhaps to select a name which has never been in fashion or popular, nor likely to be.

But they're not always great, some of the most obscure names. Perhaps better to just choose something you like.

If you type their names in here citylover it tells you what rank they were for the last 16 years. It's slightly addictive actually!

I refused to choose any names in the Top 100 when I named my DC's.

My name has been near the top of the charts for years and it isn't much fun having such a common name. Made school a PITA as there were 4 of us in my class.

For our ds/boys in general I mean.

I would love to know what all your dcs' names actually are!

I have a mixture I think - DD1 is definitely not top 200, DS is possibly top 20 and DD2 is top 20 in Scotland but unheard of in England. I think boys' names tend to vary less though? We certainly know/chose more traditional names.

There were over 1000 babies born in 2010 with DS's name and I still haven't met another. It depends where you live really, but over the whole country 1000 babies really isn't a lot. His name was ranked in the 50s.

My DD's name was no. 80, which I thought was quite acceptable, but everyone we met after we named her said "oh I know a xx, my niece is called xx, my uncle's dog is called xx, meet my new puppy xx" so I very nearly changed it.

Fortunately I was going to change it to Pepper (before I'd ever heard of Peppa Pig!) so she would now be greeted a piggy snort every time she introduced herself! I'm glad I stuck with her name, its suits her and there are only two others at her school, in other year groups.

Surely most names are in the top 200 .

And most people must pick them or they wouldn't be in the top 200.

I didn't look at statistics before naming DD1 - I would maybe have avoided the top 20. I did look at the lists when I was pregnant with DD2. I didn't really like any of the top 20 girls names that much anyway, but lots of my favourite boys names are in the top 20. I might have picked one anyway - if DD1 had been a boy, when it didn't occur to me to look at statistics, her (or rather "his") name would be in the top 10.

I don't know if my daughter's names are in the top 200 or not though. I imagine they probably are.

looking at it the other way, at least it was in fashion and popular at some stage. i have a name which i'm pretty sure would have been outside the top 200. I hate it and wish i'd changed it when i was at school.