Would you pick a name in the top 200??

I didn't look at any "top names" lists I picked a name I liked for DS I don't understand the fear of another child having the same name as yours.

As it happens the name I picked was according to lists very popular - DS is nearly 3 and I have only met 2 others with the same name

DD's name was about 370 when she was born. Now it's about 110!

I would probably be slightly put off a name if it was in the top fifty. But I don't think I'd entirely cross off a name I truly loved even if it was number one.

I named DD after my grandmother and then discover it was the number 1 most popular name. It did not put me off even when we saw books and a tv series with the same name and got bought the merchandise as presents. However we have only encountered the male version of my DD's name so far in RL.

My name was unusual when I was a child and the only other children named the same way as me and my DB were ones that had asked my mother if they could use it for their children too. So there were a brother and sister who lived opposite my grandmother with the same name as me and my DB. Weirdly they had no interaction with us at all! My name is now considered either v posh or v chavvy depending on which celeb you think of first. I am about 10 years older than these celebs.

We chose names we liked. Who cares whether they're in top 10, 100 or 1000? Why would you bother checking?

I've given dd4 a name that is about 800 in the list. i've met 3 since she was born (in May).

otoh I do sort of regret giving naming dd2 Isabella - it was in the 40s when she was born, but is now much higher. She is still the only one in her school though.

I do think that we will be able to pinpoint most names to this decade though, because even classic ones, have their own modern take or nickname - e.g Kitty for Catherine (rather than Cathy in the 1960s, or Kate in the 1970s) or Annas or Annies now rather than Anne.

Oh I have just read your OP properly...

Go for popular of you want, but I would steer clear of modern celebrity popular,

Most of the names in the top 100 don't date though... They are names that have been used forever...

Oliver, Matthew, Henry, Harry, Samuel, William, Emily, Catherine, Isobel, Charlotte, Emma...

They don't date. There's popular and there's popular classic.

My DD's name was in the top 20. I love the name, and while in an ideal world my DD would be the only girl in the world with it, it is popular for a reason.

I've still only met one other girl with her name so far, so it's not that popular around here, people still look at me funny when I tell them her name and say they have never heard it before (it's Freya).

It doesn't bother me. It now belongs to my DD, and any other data about the name is irrelevant. I am a Claire of the early 80's, I know about 10 others, doesn't bother any of us, there were 5 of us who were close friends when we were young, a bit confusing but never a problem.

I excluded names from the top 100 in England, France, the US and Australia before choosing DD's name. Names below the top 100 are really not given that often.

I chose a name for DD that I had only heard a few children called but that year it became incredibly popular and there are five of them in her year at school. I still love the name but I do wish it wasn't quite as common as it is.