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Baby names

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

Original poster

The Popularity of a Name

39 replies

Liz09 · 08/07/2016 10:57

How important is the popularity of a name, really? If a name is popular (top 10), is it something to avoid, or should we just look past it because we love it?

FWIW, my name was number 27 in the year I was born and I never knew another person named Elizabeth until my last two years of school. By comparison, Madeleine was number 36 and there were 2 Madeleines in my class in primary school and 3 in my high school (out of about 30 girls in the grade). So I assume popularity differs depending on where you live, specifically.

My husband and I (he in particular) love a name that is in the top 10 and has been for a long time now; we are both put off by the popularity, despite not knowing any babies with the name. Should we just look past it and assume that its popularity will die down eventually?

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Original poster
Liz09 · 08/07/2016 11:41

MrsJoey Thanks so much for taking the time to break that down. That definitely puts my mind at ease, especially as the stats from the closest area to me put this name outside of the top 10. Smile

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MrsJoeyMaynard · 08/07/2016 11:37

Worth bearing in mind that the pool of baby names used now is also a lot larger than in the 70s/80s, say, so the most popular names now will be given to a smaller number of children than the most popular names in the 70s/80s.

Take the most popular baby name in 2014 in England and Wales (2015 stats haven't been released yet). That was Oliver, with 6,649 baby Oliver's born in 2014 (The most popular girls name, Amelia, was given to 5,327 babies). Sounds a lot, initially, but... There were 695,233 live births in England and Wales in 2014.

So that means, assuming my maths is correct, that 0.95% of all babies born in 2014 in England and Wales were given the most popular baby name. That's less than 1 in 100. So assuming a class size of 30, if The Oliver's were distributed evenly throughout England and Wales, you'd get 1 Oliver in every 3 to 4 classes.

Popularity does vary locally though, so you'll have some areas flooded with Oliver's and other areas where Oliver's are almost unheard of, but as a general rule, a top 10 name certainly doesn't mean your child is guaranteed to be one of several in a class.
Personally, if I really loved a particular name, I wouldn't let its position in the top 10 baby names put me off, especially if I didn't know of any locally.

(All statistics quoted above are taken from the office of national statistics)

caju · 08/07/2016 11:35

I think it's something to take into account, but if you love a name that happens to be popular, you shouldn't let that be the deciding factor against it.

I have a very common name (think top 10 and sometimes top 5 every year for the last 20+ years) and it's never bothered me in the slightest. Of my group of 8 very close friends at school, 3 of us had this same name! But it never worried us. In my adult life I meet a few others with the same name as me at university, places I work, etc. but the majority of people have names that are not mine, lol. So not an issue at all.

Original poster
Liz09 · 08/07/2016 11:32

Thanks toadgirl. My mum feels the same way - she has an unusual first name and had an unusual maiden name. She doesn't hate it now, but she still loathes having to spell and pronounce it for everyone she meets.

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toadgirl · 08/07/2016 11:28

I have an unusual name.

I hated it when young.

How I longed to be called "Jane" or "Emma" or something more normal.
I just didn't have the personality to want to stand out and have to spell my name and have people pass comment on it every time. Even though the comments were always flattering.

I have never met someone else with my name, although I believe it's more common in the US.

I've kind of got over it now though, so my feelings did pass.

Original poster
Liz09 · 08/07/2016 11:26

DavidPuddy My dad was a David. He was one of six in his Kindergarten class. His teacher reassigned them all a new "nickname" and his stuck for life!

I suppose you can never really predict these things. For as popular as Jessica and Ashley supposedly were for my age group, we never had a single one in our grade! The same goes for Joshua and Thomas.

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DavidPuddy · 08/07/2016 11:20

It was so ordinary when I was at primary school to have duplicated names. We had two Natalies, two Joannas, two Richards, two Charlottes, two Gemmas. This was in a class of about 30. Everyone had their own personalities and friends and it didn't occur to us to mind. I was one of these children. The name was the only thing we shared and really defined us so little.

Original poster
Liz09 · 08/07/2016 11:11

The closest area stats I can find are for about 40+ minutes away bit figure it can't be too different. It's actually ranked number 11 on their list, so might be declining in popularity.

Thanks, everyone! Almost all of the names we like are in the top 50, so I assume at some point our child will end up meeting someone with the same name, but it didn't bother me (although it might be because I was older) that there was a second Elizabeth in my grade. I just worry that they'll have several others in their class.

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Hastalapasta · 08/07/2016 11:09

Go with whichever name you both like, assuming the baby suits itGrin
At school there were a lot of Davids and Sarahs so I know what you mean but I don't think that is a thing now, no jacks or sophies in my DC's classes....

MrsJayy · 08/07/2016 11:08

DDS years were Amy and callum then Rachel and Lewis

ItMustBeBedtimeSurely · 08/07/2016 11:08

If it's popular and classic I think it's fine. If it's a name that was unheard of 20 years ago, steer well clear because it will date.

MrsJayy · 08/07/2016 11:06

Oh I meant to say. Unless a name i "out there' or made up its probably going to be on some list name the baby what you want

BakewellSliceAgain · 08/07/2016 11:04

Some popular names are widespread and you don't meet lots of them in one school. Others seem locally popular. Examples in my children's classes have been Jack. - most popular name for years and yet we never came across too many. Mia / Maya seemed to be a lot in a few years and local to us. There are a lot of Andrews in my son's year now. We used to live in West of Scotland and the equivalent year had Callum as a popular name. Look to local trends.

MrsJayy · 08/07/2016 11:03

I have a popular 70s name every other girl had it in my year in school we all had to be Jay x y z if a teacher was talking to us Dh haas a very feminine name he was teased for for it soo naming or children had to be no tease element and nothing too popular as a result they have ordinary but popular names just not for the year they were born iyswim