Snobbery to popular names

I get the desire to not have your child be one of several in their class, however, it is less likely these days and as PP have said, it’s not possible to control.

I personally didn’t want to call my kids names of someone I already knew as I had existing associations (both of mine were too 100, one top 30 or 40, so not uncommon, but I didn’t want any existing personal associations in my mind)

It’s funny, the idea of “oh, it’s too popular now, I’ve heard it before” is actually just people being part of name fashion/trends. The same way fashion and music falls in an out of favour, there is a tendency for names to get popular for a while until people have collectively heard them enough and moved on to the next. All of which is fine. The snobbery bit comes in when you’re judging other people’s name choices.

My only thoughts on other people’s choices are that it does sometimes seem that there there is too much worry about how popular a name is. It always seems a shame to me to pass up a name you really like because of worries it’s too popular and pick something you like less.

I remember a lot of Johns and Mikes going by their last names to avoid confusion and a lot of frustrated Jessicas and Jennifers - but then there were also those with odd names that had nicknames too. Different people react to names differently.

I think for some it's not wanting issues if loads of people have the same name, particularly if you had it growing up, much as if you have a fairly unusual for an area name you might go for something more popular. I was doing some family tree search and had a laugh that Mary has a child called Rial and Rial has a child named Lottie.

I also think for some it is snobbery of wanting to be seen as unique parents not following the crowd. I remember with my oldest, the closest baby clinic was in a fairly notoriously snobby area and a lady got properly cross with me because our sons shared a name, and she went on at me about how she'd wanted him to be different. The name was in the top 30 or so that year as it had been for several years leading up to it so I'm not entirely sure how she'd thought that (and, though I didn't know until after we named him, it was associated with a footballer which I guess she'd probably heard as often as I did, but was more fed up with it. Now no one makes that remark so it wasn't that associated, but at the time it happened a lot).

I also have a child with a 'top 3000' name, which I didn't know until after she'd asked up to look it up (her older sister had an assignment that included looking up how popular her name is). It hasn't really made a different for how often we run into others (that mother in the baby clinic is the only other with that popular name we've met) or others comments on their names, but she definitely gets more excited for things with her name on it. I think there is definitely a balance between wanting something not in the top 20 and wanting something entirely unique (or uniquely spelled).

There's also a lot of snobbery on here about 'proper' names. Things like "Jack isn't a real name, its a nickname for John" or "Harry is the diminutive of Henry." I've also seen Jamie, Edie and Abi listed as "not real names". I know people with all of the above names on their BCs, some of them are in their 40s so whilst they might traditionally have been the shortened/familiar form of other names, their use as standalone names is hardly new.

I agree op, it's also impossible to know what's going to be popular in your area, in your child's specific age group. My dd has a name that isn't particularly out there, but it's not in the top 150 girls names. There are 2 at her small nursery! Conversely, there are no children there called Olivia or whatever the most popular name was 2 years ago. Name your kids something you like!

I don’t like really popular names, I’ve never met someone with my name, and like it like that. You feel differently and that is fine! I don’t feel snobby about it, as in I don’t judge other people for using them, but if you asked me what I think of Ava, I’d say it’s boring to me because I’ve met so many of them. If I truly loved Ava then I wouldn’t let popularity get in the way, but I think in various ways, not just names, popularity devalues things for me, always has even as a child.

Agree that a lot of people seem to think that giving their child a name which is unique demonstrates how unique they are as an individual. The rest of us know that every child in unique, whether they're called Jack, Cedric or Amazing'Leigh.

On the other hand, in my year at senior school we had at least 6 Karens, a Carron, Caron and Karyn. In my DD's year, you can't move for kids called Katie or Hannah. So I understand a parent not wanting their child to go through school being Ava B or Katie P.

But there's a whole massive range of names between Olivia and Jack and Sanathareightlee-Jane or Persiancarpet.

In short - unusual is good. Weird, wacky and badly spelled is not good.

The reason the names are popular is because they are nice and lots of people like them.
Statistically, whatever name to chose, they are likely to be the only one in their class/dance lesson/football team/chess club/extreme ironing club etc. Like statistically, they will be the only one with their birthday in the group, or house number. But anomalies are common, so 2 or more children could share in a small group.
My DD, top 5 name... Only one I her school. But at the same time, they were 5 boys in the preschool/reception with the same name, not in the top 50. All moved there after birth, so not a name trend in the area.
My younger DD, unusual name... Shared with two members of staff.

It's unpredictable. So just go for names to like.

I was thinking this the other day and talking to DH about it. Someone had posted about Rosie, which we were going to call our DS if they were girls. They didn't want to use it if it was a 'popular' name. Which I thought was quite sad.

So many people seem to be focused on giving their DC a unique name. As if that will make them unique and stand out as a person. We gave DS1 a bit of a different name, because it was a variation of DH's name (which is also something MN looks down on). But DS2 has what I would call a well used name. Although there are no other kids in his school with the name!

My sisters have unusual names. They've spent their entire lives having to correct people on pronunciation and spelling. For one, their name later did become popular when she was in her 20s. So it just goes to show 'unique' is only at that moment in time.