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Baby names

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Did you choose a popular (top ten) name? Do you regret it?

116 replies

fluzz543 · 05/03/2015 22:49

Just that really. DC 1 due soon and our favourite name for a boy and a girl are both in the current top ten. If you chose a popular name, has this bothered you once the child gets a bit older and you meet many more at school/nursery? I know a lot of people avoid popular names so I'ld love to hear experiences from people who have gone with them. Thanks.

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burgatroyd · 16/03/2015 21:20

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Falconwolf101 · 16/03/2015 20:54

Eaugh, no way. I loathe top 10 names, unless they're from somewhere like Norway.

jaykay34 · 16/03/2015 11:18

My eldest son has a very popular name; my daughter and baby son don't have names in the top 100 - but they are timeless hebrew names that everybody has heard of - that actually really go with DS1's name.

I don't regret DS1's name as there aren't too many around here (usually a couple in his year group) and it really suits him.

dangerrabbit · 13/03/2015 19:01

Yes for both my children and no I don't regret it.

I have a top 10 name (of my time) and I feel it gives me privacy should people ever wish to google me.

Don't get the fashion for faddy celeb-style names. All seems so try-hard.

mimiasovitch · 13/03/2015 18:44

You could choose to call your daughter something classic, but not in the top ten, or even one hundred, only for a celebrity to choose it and there be an explosion of them. This happened with my dd2's name, and my own. For thirty years I only knew of four others with my name - two famous actresses, and two cousins, then along popped a hollywood baby, and bam, I'm in the top 20. You cannot protect against this sort of thing, you just have to sulk about it.

Papyrus02 · 13/03/2015 18:19

I gave DD1 a name that became very popular in a fairly short space of time. I do feel a little miffed now. However, we don't know many others with that name. But one has just recently joined her year group, (its a big school so it's not overrun with them though!)

I had an unusual, and sort of posh name, and when I was at secondary school in the 80's I hated it. I got a bit of stick for it and I just wanted to be called Sam or Michelle or Cheryl or similar. I hated standing out as I was, and still am, quite shy. I think this affected my choice for dd1 and I really didn't want a stand out name. equally though I'm not so keen on dd1 being one of quite a few. I'm sure it will be worse when she gets to secondary school. Though she is fairly unassuming and shy too so maybe she'll be happy with a fairly popular name.

DD2 has a top 100 name - I think it will rise a bit more, but possibly not as much. I'm happier with her name really. Although I do love both names.

I agree that some names are popular but classic. Maybe that's the way to go.

Are you the sort to regret things? I do a bit, I wish I cared less. maybe think about how you react in a general way.

MerryMarigold · 12/03/2015 14:43

Cleo is cool. Not sure about them together, but hey ho, not my kids. Sorry for derailing thread a bit, OP.

SunnyBaudelaire · 12/03/2015 14:35

dajeeeenam - funny!
Yes Cleo it was!

MerryMarigold · 12/03/2015 14:32

I've got a friend in Dagenham and she calls it (tongue in cheek), Da'jEE'nam (with the 'j' making a 'je' sound like 'I am' in French). Is the daughter Cleo? I like that name, a lot more than Arlo.

SunnyBaudelaire · 12/03/2015 14:24

yes yes, totally Harlow! If only they had called their daughter Dagenham!
Mind you they did call her after a Ford Car, so there could be a connection now I think of it. Oh no it was Renault, my mistake.

MerryMarigold · 12/03/2015 14:22

I can't get away from the Harlow association as my parents live there and most people who live there generally call the place, 'Arlo'.

To me it is just Harlow with an Essex accent.

SunnyBaudelaire · 12/03/2015 14:17

loololololol thanks Marigold, I just threw it in cos my bro called his kid Arlo and he really does think he is rather posh.

MerryMarigold · 12/03/2015 14:14

Arlo's not posh! Arlo's Hackney (or otherwise known as trendy with money).

Pandora, bless the baby Gary, keeping the name alive. I bet he's the only one in the school!

SunnyBaudelaire · 12/03/2015 13:23

lol no I do not count them as 'posh' per se, they are a diffrent lot altogether.
I guess they do not need to try as hard as the parents of little Mint and Cress, Cosmo and Arlo.

Hakluyt · 12/03/2015 13:12

What, like the Royal family, Sunny? Or as I said, ar you not counting them as posh? What with their Williams and Jameses and Henrys and Louises and Georges................

There is a Columbus somewhere, I admit..........

SirChenjin · 12/03/2015 13:05

Yes - but these are names that I've liked since I was young (many years ago...) when they weren't popular, so I wasn't going to go for names that were 'meh' simply to be youneeq. We have an unusual surname, so it balances out.

Pandora37 · 12/03/2015 13:03

MerryMarigold I met a baby Gary a few months ago! Poor thing, I can't imagine anyone looking at a baby now and thinking yep, he looks like a Gary.

SunnyBaudelaire · 12/03/2015 12:35

'very posh' people call their children Araminta or Cressida and nickname them Mint and Cress.
Unless it is a boy in that case he will be called Cosmo or Jocelyn.

CloserToFiftyThanTwenty · 12/03/2015 12:32

"Very posh people" give their children traditional names but then call them by nicknames like Tiggy and Patch

Hakluyt · 11/03/2015 22:25

"Very posh people don't really call their kids Sophie, Oliver, Max, et al; the middle classes do."

Er, yes they do! Unless you don't consider the Queen's grandchildren very posh. And there is an argument for that- the really old English families are a bit snooty about them. But even those families are all George and James and Catherine and Sophia..........

Namechanged101 · 11/03/2015 20:03

I ruled out all top 50 names wouldn't even consider them when I was expecting 2 years on you guessed it- now top 50 looking at Scotland name stats earlier in the 30's now so you never can tell.
Also dd started in her preschool class there is another little girl with the same name something I didn't want but actually it's not a big deal and quite sweet actually.
I love the name so I can't expect others wouldn't love it too.

FeijoaSundae · 11/03/2015 19:56

LOL, it's not a blanket rule, there will always be exceptions.

But the upper end and the, um, other end tend to care less what people think and would be far more comfortable going with Sheherazade or Cressida, or even something normal but simply less main stream / dateable, like Tabithaor Felicity or Sybil.

As PP have said, there's a vast swathe of middle ground between top ten and yoon'eeq.

TheBookofRuth · 11/03/2015 18:03

Don't know about that Feoija, there was a Lady Somethingorother in my NCT group and she named her son Oliver.

FishCanFly · 11/03/2015 11:00

Not regretting, just constantly fighting with people who want to butcher that name. Its William, NOT Billy or anything else.

FeijoaSundae · 10/03/2015 18:18

Hmm, I don't know if 'posh' is the right descriptor. Rather - solidly middle class.

Very posh people don't really call their kids Sophie, Oliver, Max, et al; the middle classes do.