Why does it bother me/others

In the grand scheme of things it's a small thing to worry about. I never did especially, three of my children have names that are currently in the top 10 although when I had my 'lily' 11 years ago it was considered slightly risqué and grannyish!
I'd much prefer to give my child a name I love regardless of its popularity than a name I'm not so sure of that is obscure.
It just so happened that the names I loved were popular. I also love some more unusual names but DH vetoed them.
Despite my dc names being supposedly popularly there's never been more than two in their classes.

I know what you mean. As a teenager my favourite name was Isabel (I was obsessed with all the Isabel Allende novels). It sounded very exotic to me

When it came to naming my DDs I was gutted that Isabel was so popular and it totally put me off. Which is a shame really as I do still love it.

I don't think its a new thing, I fretted about naming both my boys aged 13 and 4 and I remember my parents fretting about naming my little bro, he is 32.

I have a very unusual name - never met another with the same spelling - and despite the fact that people always get it wrong I love my name.

I don't know. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Popular names are popular for a reason.

My children are Emily and Daniel (known as Dan) I know the names are very very popular, but I don't mind.

I chose them because they are my favourite names and am very happy with my choices.

I was one of four in my class at school and I hated it. You end up being referred to either as 'Emma [surname]' all the time, or by reference to a physical characteristic (so there was also a 'little Emma'). Hated hated hated it and didn't want the same experience for my children. The DDs both have names that are well known and 'ordinary' but not currently in common usage.

Having said that, my top name for a boy was Oliver - I've never ever met an Oliver in real life (other than one my own age many years ago). All the boys around here are called Harry and all the girls are called Isobel or Isabella.

I was wondering the same OP!

I am getting increasingly stressed in a very 'middle class' fashion about DD' s name which was as you say, top 400 but suddenly more popular both on here and rl. I want to say 'no please don't choose that, it's my dds name' - like we have a patent on it or something!! Why am I so stressed about it being popular - I really don't know and it doesn't make sense but I am

So I do understand why you are lying awake thinking about it - good luck with your decision!

I think this is only an issue on Mumsnet - my DS's name is in the top 5 and we don't know any other boys with the same name - and we live in a busy town and are involved in lots of groups and activities.

I think it is much harder for a child to grow up with a name that is slightly unusual and raises a lot of eyebrows.

My DH has a fairly common name for men of his age (a name you never hear nowadays) - there are four with the same name on our road but it is a bit of a joke - there is 'new Dave', big Dave', Dave 3 - my DH is probably 'bald Dave' (Note - name is not 'Dave' ).

I think most of us are trying to find a name that sounds like a name but isn't the 'name of the moment'.

I was secretly pleased that id found a name DP and I both liked that was outside the top 100 in 2012 yet in the top 20's one year later!! So even if you feel pretty smug pleased that you've avoided a top 10 name, you can still end up with one down the line.

I always think that top ten names are popular for a reason

Also, the top boys name was given to less than 1% of the boys born kast year - you would need to.know 100+ boys born the same year to have a chance of encountering another one.

I think its a relatively new stress. I definitely didn't feel concerned about naming my first two boys 14 and 11 years ago. They were given popular, nice names and the whole process was easy. Ds2 ended up sharing his name with 4 others in his class (class not school) but this made his school life easy rather than difficult. He had an instant friendship group and remains popular now so his common name has been an advantage.
Yet naming ds3 (due any day) has been a huge headache. Possibly because I had a year of TTC to name obsess which just continued in pregnancy. I've also had endless sleepless nights considering every potential naming issue. We have now decided on a name that is slightly more unusual and raises a lot of eyebrows but we like it and hopefully he will too. In the back of my mind though I can't help but think that maybe, like ds2, he would fare better with a more common name.