Bad idea to choose a popular name?

I think you should go with the name you love the most. I think there are more important issues than popularity, ie how good it sounds with the surname, and how much you love it. Popularity may be just one factor, and how important that is really is very personal. Some people prefer having a popular name.

I avoided popular names because they all go out of fashion sooner or later, and then it will sound like the name has aged badly. So the very popular Sophie might sound really dated in the future.
Not everyone is bothered about this of course, but I decided to go for either classic or unusual names.

Funnily enough even though Jemima is more unusual I actually know two under four! I also know a couple of Lily’s. I would go with what you like rather worrying too much about popularity as you don’t know how many you will come across! One of my sons has a relatively unusual name and I have met two others recently.

I actually know more little Jemima’s than Lily’s...

Jemima is lovely, I would choose that.

Issue is name trends change all of the time. My almost 9 year old DD has a name that wasn’t even in the top 100 when she was born, then a certain celebrity used it as her DD’s middle name and now it’s in the top 20 . There’s just no way of predicting how fashions will change so just use whichever you like you best.

I wouldn’t worry too much with Lily @foxcote90

If you look at the official statistics, the name has been on a downward trajectory since 2011.
The most recent year we have statistics for, the number of Lily’s had halved from 2011 to 2018 and they’ll be even less by 2020
Obviously it’s relatively popular but if anyone who has a 2011/2012 baby tells you it’s popular , it’s a very different story now so thought you might want to bear that in mind. I like Jemima but prefer Lily

I have the most popular name for my year (and probably for about 10 years in he 80s) and have honestly never minded. It's a classic that has never been associated with any particular class, travels well and (almost) everyone can spell it. There have been a few times in my life where there have been more than one of us in the office (never in the same class at school if I recall correctly), and maybe it had been mildly inconvenient but never enough to bother me.

There is far more variety in names these days so the "top 10" names are used by fewer people and are actually less common than they were in the 80s (if that makes sense).

Mainly what I'm saying is - if you love the name go for it

If you love Lily go for it, names drop in and out "fashion" unpredictably and it varies by area too despite the UK wide lists!

My DS has a name that was just inside the Top 50 when he was born but there were 4 in his class at nursery/primary school - other than adding a letter to distinguish which one they were talking to it made no difference to him. He's in secondary now and they've all been seperated anyway.

I have a name that I need to spell all the time and would rather have a common name.

It's only a problem if it bothers you or not. Not only that but you never know with names. You could go with Jemima and there could be 3 in her class and no Lilys in her year group. E.g. My DD was born 1999. The forth most popular name was Sophie. However there wer e no Sophies in her year group, let alone her class.

Well, DS1 has a top 10 name for his year and DS2 a top 20 name, and there hasn’t been an issue. DS1 had one other in his class, but goes by a diminutive anyway. DS2 has not had another in his class ever but we do hear it a lot when out and about!
I think you can’t really know which names everyone is suddenly going to decide to call their children anyway - there were two Hamishs in our baby group and we are as far from Scotland as it’s possible to be! I suppose if a name was crazy popular and had been number one for years I wouldn’t use it - Oliver, Jack, Isabella, at the height of their popularity - but I think Lily is OK.