How popular is TOO popular?

It's difficult to predict.

Which would make you feel worse - choosing a name you love that is currently popular, or choising what you believe is a name unlikely to be duplicated and then finding sod's law means s/he has a identically named classmate?

It doesn't always work out like you would think. My 2 daughters both have names sitting firmly in the Top 10, they are described on here as "too popular" but in a double intake infant school of 240 pupils they are the only ones with their names.

There are however 2 Mabel's, about 10 Sonny's and a number of other less popular name duplications, picked presumably so they weren't one of a few in class.

See, the 'top ten' shouldnt be discounted due to how many you will.know. The number one boys name given last year went to less than 1% of ALL boys born tgat year. Therefore, you would statistically need to know 100 girls borb tge same year to stand a chance of finding another one.

Additionally, top 10 names are there for good reason.

My dds year, she was one of only 13 born with the same name. However I went to softplay and found one.of the other 13!

Go for a name you like. Better to be Grace B (or whatever) and you love the name Grace than be Jocelyn (and only be OK with the name)

My DS is Thomas. Out of a vast acquaintance of children, I only know one other Thomas, and he is 13.

That said, the school abounds with Lilys and Mollys and Jacks.

Top 10 was also a no no for us, but girl wise that didn't matter as nothing grab us, for boys it's been a pain

Towards the end of my pregnancy with DC1, we argee nothing in the top 30/50.

DD's name is in the 400! DC2 yet to be decided.

But ultimately if you love the name you should pick it, if you don't i think you're massively regret it. Thomas, Oliver and Jack are all massively popular names yet I only know 1 of each under 5. You can just never tell you might pick a name that isn't popular and within five years it tops the charts.

Utter minefield and tell you this naming malarkey!

Choose the name you like - my DS's name is apparently in the top 5 - he genuinely doesn't have any others by the same name in his (wide) circle of friends/acquaintances. We attend a large church and there is one (much older) person there with the same name.

I think top 50 is risky as they're likely to have been or to become top 10 over a 10 year period.

The other option is to count up how many little girls you know or know of with that name. Some names can be very geographically concentrated.

Top 10 was too popular for me. Think my kids names are both in the top 60-top 70. Popular enough to not be or but not popular enough to have them turn round 10 times in the playground when other kids are called.