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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Did you change name choice due to popularity?

61 replies

lollydollydrop · 15/01/2014 00:48

And did you regret it?

Just wondering whether we should stick with an agreed old favourite name of ours or change it due to being so common at the moment?

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Theonlyoneiknow · 15/01/2014 08:37

But in reply to the OP, no popularity didnt really matter we just chose a name we both liked

Theonlyoneiknow · 15/01/2014 08:37

Oscar also not popular here, i dont know any

HoratiaDrelincourt · 15/01/2014 08:29

Oscar is not a popular name at all round here. Those are the only Oscars in the school, and we haven't encountered another at toddler groups, classes, etc. This ain't Islington Wink Grin

HopeS01 · 15/01/2014 07:55

I have changed my name choice due to popularity, and I'm really glad I did!

MajesticWhine · 15/01/2014 07:12

Yes, we avoided Olivia because it was no1 in the list. But my children all have very popular names, without that being my intention so you can't predict it. The one who was going to be Olivia has no other Olivias in her class and yet there is another girl with her name.

JapaneseMargaret · 15/01/2014 07:00

No, sorry, nobody who calls their son Oscar expects him to be the only one in the class...! Grin

We avoided popular names by virtue of going with family names for both, but it was easy to avoid them anyway, since all of them are so ubiquitous as to be dull and repetitive.

MotheringShites · 15/01/2014 06:45

I've only had wobbles about using popular names after reading the nastiness that gets spewed on here. Loving the name is the most important thing.

Incidentally my three are the only ones in their school with these names!

gruffalosfriend · 15/01/2014 06:41

And I find it hard to believe that anyone naming their son Oscar thinks they are being adventurous!

gruffalosfriend · 15/01/2014 06:39

We name our children so they can be identified easily. This is much easier if they have their own name.

Also, fashionable names fall out of fashion eventually, making a name sound dated.

Therefore I would avoid very popular names. In other words, popularity affects how much I love a name!

kreecherlivesupstairs · 15/01/2014 06:33

No, because I had no idea of the popularity (to come) since we were overseas and secondly, it was the only one we could agree to.
I regret it now, not because of popularity, just because I think we could have done better.
The only good thing about it is DD loves her name, and remarkably she is the only one at her school with it (Ruby).

HoratiaDrelincourt · 15/01/2014 06:28

We were avoiding a name for popularity, but went with it in the end because it was the only one we both liked enough to use.

It annoys me slightly that he is always known with an initial or his surname, but less than not using the name would have annoyed me iyswim!

The next baby, we chose a less common, but still well known name. Eight days later another school mum used it for her new baby - it's a one-form entry school feeding into a single big secondary school so no avoiding each other.

In another school year the only duplicate name is Oscar - it's hardly unknown, but I bet both sets of parents thought they were being adventurous and expected to be the only one!

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