Which would you regret more?

I would regret not using the popular name that I love.

Go with the name you love.

She will be your Evelyn. That will make all the difference.

I would never say but when I hear of yet another Amelia / Grace / Olivia / Eve I internally 🙄 poor kid new baby and such a generic dull name!

I agree. There are so so many lovely and more memorable names out there!

Op, I would continue looking for another name you love that isn't as popular. There's thousands of names to choose from!

Names are meant to identity us.

In 30 years all my dds friends will be either Eve Amelia Olivia and Isabel.

Pretty much all my friends called Vicki Sarah or Katie 😁

Everybody was called Vicki/Vicky, Becky/Becky or Sarah when I was at school.

My daughter is Evelyn on her BC but never used-never met another one.
We call her Effie, statistically well out of the top 100 and have met three, one of which is in her dance class. Sometimes you can’t predict these things. Use the name you love.

There were six Catherine's of various spellings and abbreviations in my school year. Never bothered me particularly and at university I was the only one in my year. I gave dd1 a name I loved which became top ten popular about ten years later so although we don't know any her age there are a few little ones about. Dds 2 and 3 have less popular names and dd3 moans about it!

I work in a large nursery and there are only two Evelyn's, one known as Evie. If you love it use it!

Flattering to be copied though 😁 If another parent uses your older child’s name you know they are not absolutely hideous as awful kids put you off names I find

Go with what you love. Popular names doesn’t mean you’ll meet hundreds of them walking down the street.
Unique names don’t mean you’ll be the only one.
One of my children has a popular name, another with a less common name. And I’ve come across more of the less common name recently!
Don’t be that person that never wants to meet another child with ‘their’ name.
I know two people with a Gene. Both were incredibly annoyed to meet the other one.

Names like Evelyn/Evie, Amelia, Olivia etc were once beautiful names. But by becoming SO common and widely used, they've become dull. They will fall out of fashion and sound dated.

the others I'm not brave enough for - like Barnaby and Raphael

Interesting that you feel the need to be 'brave' to choose either of these lovely normal names

This may help to explain the reluctance of some parents to deviate from the fashionable top10 names?

Personally I love those boys names. I also love many beautiful underused girls names.

I fine Evelyn/Eve/Evie/Eva a little dull from overuse.

I would never say but when I hear of yet another Amelia / Grace / Olivia / Eve I internally 🙄 poor kid new baby and such a generic dull name! But it’s subjective

It can happen.You get pockets in some parts of the country where a name becomes very popular but the name isn't particularly popular elsewhere.

An example might be Jürgen being very popular in for boys born in the Merseyside area this year.

I recall someone telling me about two kids in a class that looked like twins. Different mothers.

I find it strange these comments about there being 5 children with the same name in a class. I’m a teacher and occasionally have 2 children with the same name but that’ll be it. Maybe it’s just area dependent?

Well, I'm in my mid-40s, and there was a considerably smaller pool of names used in the 70s -- there were five girls with the same name in my (all-female) primary school class of about 30/32. Having said that, my son is 8 and in his class of 27 there are three Harrisons and three Alices, two Louis and two Sophies.

I agree with FizzyGreenWater about exposure although I usually roll my eyes at names because they are so overused that they seem unbelievably dull.

You hear a name for the first time and you think it's unusual then they crop up everywhere.

Thing about why you love the name and think of any other names that might fit the bill.

I find it strange these comments about there being 5 children with the same name in a class. I’m a teacher and occasionally have 2 children with the same name but that’ll be it. Maybe it’s just area dependent?

One of my children has a popular name and I do regret it but I didn’t ‘love’ it. I would have chosen a much more uncommon name but husband didn’t like any of them and we didn’t make a decision before the birth. So I do find it hard when people tell me that they know another child with the same name. I didn’t realise the contempt some people have for popular names before I have a child! But i think if I had truly loved the name, I wouldn’t care. I would say keep looking at names outside the most popular in case there’s another that you prefer but if you love it and it feels right, go for it x

I would go for the name you love, and not worry about it’s popularity. My daughter is an Eva and in a school of 420 she’s the only one, although I know of one about to join in sept so that will be two.

I have 2 dds, one has a name that’s probably not been out of the top ten for many years but she’s never been in a class with anyone with the same name. The other has a name that’s not unusual but not top 10. She was once in a group of children where there were two others had the same first name and the same initial surname.

So you can never tell, just go with what you like.

Names are weird

My dd in a massive school never met a child with the same name

Moved to a local village school, and there is another girl with the same name in her class.

Don’t regret not giving your dd the name you love

Choose the name you love

I don’t think Evelyn is that popular anymore tbh

I think even if you choose a popular name it's only something like 1 in every 50 children who share it. I like popular names too. Oscar is the only boys' name I like and would use at the moment (the others I'm not brave enough for - like Barnaby and Raphael) but it is also overwhelmingly popular.

I hate to say it but the reason you 'LOVE' Evelyn is likely the same reason 1000000000s of others do. It's currently one of THE names. Everyone feels like you - or they did - otherwise there wouldn't be so many of them. Nobody names their child a name they don't 'LOVE!'

So less real attraction to the name and at least a big chunk of simple exposure. That's how it works.

Eve variants are so overwhelmingly popular - it's meaningless.

I would really urge you to genuinely consider less popular names because I honestly think you'd probably find other names you love as much.

I think the issue is you can do what we did and choose a 300-ish name, and find it leaps up to the mid-hundreds in one year. You would then be really frustrated you'd chosen a less popular name for 'nothing.'

Something I've also never thought about is the sound of the name- we have a name that ends in 'a', she's the only one of the little cluster we know with her exact name but all except one of 20-something female toddlers I know have names that end in 'a', so in a group with Rosa, Ava, Eva, Mia, Mya, Ella, Aria, the fact is her name is a bit same-y in a way I hadn't anticipated.

It's like the something-mae or something-rose names, they feel a bit of a type.

I've accepted that some kind of subconscious influences makes a generation of parents gravitate towards particular names, and maybe that's ok and we shouldn't fight it so hard.