ONS 2019 baby names

I'm older than most of you and I'm curious about why some 'new' names have become so popular.

Roman - the only Roman I've heard of is Roman Polanski. A brilliant film-maker but... some v unfortunate history. So why are there so many Romans? If it comes from E.European immigrants, it's become mainstream in a v short time.

Arlo - again, it means Woody Guthrie's son to me, but that's surely a bit niche for it to have become so popular.

Noah - I don't understand the love for this name at all, perhaps because I'm a SE Londoner by descent and we pronounced it Gnaw. (cf nugget for nougat and lickerish for liquorice. V. non-U.) We didn't know any Gnaws, just the one in the Bible who had an ark.

Tristan - it seems v popular on here. To me it's code (like Hooray Henry, or Tarquin) for various upper-class tribes. The HHs are loud and throw bread rolls. Tarquin is the pfb of a pretentious social climber and Tristans are Oxbridge culture snobs at the BBC or members of the Islington set - out of touch with the rest of the country. But when I posted on the thread, lots of people came up with council estate Tristans.

Can anyone explain the cultural references that I've missed which have changed the connotations of these names?

Ignore my comprehension issues, I missed the birth year. Actually looking at mine and my siblings name, I wonder if you have the same name as her. It's really really dropped out of popularity since she was named a few years before Haworthia

If it begins with a K @SleepingStandingUp, then yes

It’s interesting how some name trends go in cycles. I know a lovely lady in her late 50s called Gillian.. she told me she changed her name when she was 18 from Mabel as she hated Mabel for being so old fashioned and an “old lady name”.. and now Mabel is very much becoming super trendy again, whereas I don’t think you meet many Gillians under 5!

My son was born in 2019, he has a name that had a temporary surge of popularity in the 1990s and is now outside the top 100, I wonder if it will come back round.

DS1 has fallen again this year to below 200. It's funny though because it is a name that is mentioned often on MN.

It was 144 when he was born.

Ignore my comprehension issues, I missed the birth year.
Actually looking at mine and my siblings name, I wonder if you have the same name as her. It's really really dropped out of popularity since she was named a few years before Haworthia

Curious to know what name basically had a popularity limited to such a short period that's within school gate mom age (so mid20's-mid 40's?)

We picked a name that jumped hugely in popularity from late 200s to top 100 and climbing, which did slightly annoy me, though to date I've only met one other baby with the same name and know of one more through an extended friendship group.

Something I really hadn't accounted for though, until I got to baby groups, was how even though her name might not be that common, its very much of a type. All the baby girls I know near where we live, who are likely to be in the same school, have relatively short names that end with 'a'.

So: Aria (x2), Mia, Ava, Ella, Maya, Luna, Mila. (There is literally one Robyn, who is an outlier!) So despite there being on paper nobody else with the same name, in reality the names are so similar that it feels to me sometimes like they all have variants of the same name and its even worse than if, say, there were two Sarahs but everyone else was Rebecca and Karen and Claire and Jennifer. Its funny because even though I read all the data I didn't really pick up on that until I was in a room with a load of other babies. It even applies to my extended family: two of my cousins have recently had a Pia and an Eva. So I guess my main learning is on some level, even when trying to be somewhat unique, we're more like sheep than we may want to believe!

I was born in 1980 and my name is bang on trend for that era. You’ll struggle to find any women ten years older than me, or ten years younger than me with my name.

At school I was the only one in my year, although there were other girls with my name in other years (mostly the year above I think). At work I didn’t come across another.

At the school gates though? Different story. I’m tripping over other mums with my name on the school run. It’s so funny and really proves that this name fits a very specific age bracket.

Thee data scientist in me LOVES ONS survey day! Although as I sit here with my 4 week old daughter who is definitely our last I am kind of sad that i don't need to use the spreadsheet any more, I have loved using it to help create the shortlist for our 2 kids. Our daughter has a name ranked approx 150, so not common bit not unheard of either. Our other choice was also in the 150s this year. My son's name is no 21 and my favoured choice had dd been a boy is no 20 this year so I am seemingly very consistent! My name alas being a very 70s/80s name has now dropped out altogether, I expect a resurgence in approx 2 generations as a granny name 😂

But there weren’t surveys of names back then - or only very infrequent ones - and people just didn’t know what was popular or not. You couldn’t look them up. It’s only since the late 1990s. There are many more names now, so popular now doesn’t equate to popular back in the day.

Why are unique names so fashionable? As in, why do so many people want names that no one else has. For is, the only standard name we both liked was Noah. Really really popular everywhere. Didn't want him to be fat Noah or tall Noah or Noah B etc, they're just want anything else "popular" we both liked enough. They don't have unique names as in literally only one registered with that spelling etc but outside of top 200 , outside top 2000 and not currently on darkgreener (not got the right yr up yet)

That would be a fascinating analysis - to take the people with the top ten names of the 70s and 80s and to see what they have named their own children I have a top 20s 1980s name, as do most of my school friends. I'd say the exception with the unusual names, most of them have Def to 100 of not top 50 names. No Olivia or Oliver though, yet

I like 'common' or what I would call solid boy's names like George, Jack, James, Frank. I think 'unusual' boys names tend to be a bit wet/weedy (Theo, Barnaby, Kit, Wilfred).

Whereas with girls I like slightly more unusual but not weird, e.g. April, Teaghan, Madelyn (this was a contender for Dd but wanted to change the spelling because it reminded me of madeleine mccann ).

If I loved a name, its popularity wouldnt put me off though. Dd's name is in the top 100 (but not the top 10).

I do agree about the Dave and Steve thing but many others at my school got nicknames even though they were the only person with that name in my school....."Clever Clara", "Messy Patrick" , "Virgin Mary" and "Tall Jenny"

Me, my line manager, and my direct report are all called Sarah. It's a bit of a nightmare. I wouldn't go unique with a baby name but I'd definitely aim to avoid top 50.

Sad to see only three babies named Nicola. It's a favourite of mine (although vetoed by dh as being too like knickers).

At university, there were a lot of Daves, and we ended up with “Tanned Dave”, “Psychology Dave”, “Skiier Dave”. “Cockney Dave”.

Yes, my experience too. Even at work we have "Tall Steve", "IT Steve", "Photocopy Clare" etc. Not always nice or complimentary adjectives.

There are so many great names to choose from. And the alternative to a popular top 10 name is NOT some whacky unique name, but a huge list of lovely normal names outside the top 100!

I have a very common first name of my era.
DH has a very uncommon but not unknown name . Our DC have well known traditional names ; around about 100 when the DC were born since when two of the names have rocketed into very popular territory. I wasn't aware of competition around popularity, or not, of names when we were choosing.
I never minded being BB one of several of my name at school , far from it. DH absolutely hated his name and really felt that it was a sign of his mother's vanity that she had named him that and not David or William or something.

And I know that’s pretty scathing of me I think perhaps just because that use of the word “basic” is generally quite derogatory, but I don’t think it needs to be. I get what you mean. Lacks imagination. Which is interesting because obviously it reflects more on the parents than the child, but then I suppose all name choices do.

I’m now unpicking why I named DS as I did (“Peter” esque). DH actually picked the name and I went along with it but I wasn’t against it. I think my criteria for my sons name is actually that I didn’t want anyone to have any strong opinion at all. I didn’t want to call him Oliver or George because I didn’t want “eugh not another one”. And unusual/unique names don’t appeal to me for a million reasons. I think his name ranked somewhere about 150.

But I don’t know if I wanted his name to elicit no strong response for me or for him. I’d like to think it was for him. I don’t think I wanted to give him a personality along with the name.

I’ve never thought about it this much before!

Three Steve Smiths is ridiculous... how do you differentiate?! I hope you know them in three different settings!

OT but I find the new meaning of 'basic' genuinely useful to capture the otherwise slightly nebulous concept of someone who follows the crowd and lacks imagination.

At university, there were a lot of Daves, and we ended up with “Tanned Dave”, “Psychology Dave”, “Skiier Dave”. “Cockney Dave”.

We had the same. Several of them have since let it be known that they absolutely hated being known by a nickname - some of which were less than complimentary. It influenced my thinking when naming my own children.

@daisypond yes see what you're saying. I was meaning that I know many Emily's aged 10 years and older but found it strange I haven't come across a baby Emily for a while near me, and looking at the stats that does fit as there were nearly 7,000 Emily's born in 1999 compared to 2,500 ish in 2018. Not sure of the 2019 stats yet til dark greener up but sounds like the numbers for Emily have dropped again. That's a huge drop in numbers (albeit I appreciate it's not a huge drop in actual chart positions)

But I don’t mind being “Emily Smith” as opposed to just “Emily”.

I actually know 3 adult Steve Smiths! Can be confusing at times!

You say “basic”... can you elaborate a bit more? Which I’m aware might read that I’m being obnoxious but I promise this is being asked out of fascination.

I mean “basic” as in the Urban Dictionary definition of the word, as in dull, mainstream, not interesting or special. And I know that’s pretty scathing of me, but this is the ONS stats thread, and if you’re heavily invested in the ONS stats then you’re a bit of a name snob by definition.

I don’t dislike any of the names I mentioned. They’re endlessly popular for a reason. I just find them so dull.

Arlo at #34 is both a surprise and not a surprise. I think it’s very of its time and will sink as fast as it climbed, but equally I don’t like it so I’m surprised it’s that popular It’s much more popular than Milo, which I didn’t expect.

Reggie is not a surprise. Gangster names are popular around my way. Ronnie and Vinnie will go the same way. Surname-names like Cooper and Fletcher are on the up too, I reckon.