Why did you (if you did) choose a popular name?

I used popular names all three times!

With DS1 & DD they were both names I had loved & dreamed to using since my teens. DS1’s name was also my grandpa’s name who died when I was 4. The year DS1 was born, it was still a relatively rare name for a child. Almost immediately after it took off dramatically & the country was then full of them .

DD’s name isn’t quite so popular but was top 20 when she was born & I think it probably still is.

DS2 has the only other boy’s name DH & I could agree on. It didn’t really matter that it was the second most popular name the year he was born as it was the only contender & we both loved it (and still do).

Out of the three, only DS2 has had friends or classmates with the same name.

We do need edit... none of my children are called Sophia! Mehhh still a lovely name though.

And yes I was one of 3 with the same name in my primary school class. 2 more in the other class.

I really liked the name Sophia when choosing a name 5 years back. When I saw it in the top names list for 2016 I was really surprised, it did put me off. I choose something else, but mainly as we were having a surprise and needed a boy and a girls name, so went with names traditional to a county my DH has connections to instead. I had a boy!

My best friend then gave her DD the middle name Sophia and I've since made a good adult friend named that too, so when I had my 2nd DC Sophia last year, Sophia wasn't even on my mind! Things change.

Because we honestly just really liked the name and didn't like any others! It really didn't bother me that the name was really popular!

DS (3) is Alfie (Alfred) - we chose it as couldn’t agree on a name, so we each wrote a list of 5 names and it was top of both our lists. Turns out, both our paternal grandfathers were called Alfred, so that sealed the deal - and my son suits it so well, he couldn’t be called anything else. I haven’t met another Alfie yet, and expected to meet loads.

Expecting DS2 and we seriously couldn’t think of a name or agree on anything at all. Then one day we asked DS1 at dinner what baby in mummy’s tummy was called, and he threw his arms up and shouted “OLLIE!” - goodness knows where he got it from, but it’s stuck since that day - baby Ollie (Oliver) is due in April, and I couldn’t care less that it’s popular

We’d like a third (well... we’ll see how we feel when we have 2!), and have since agreed Thomas if we ever had a third boy, or Genevieve for a girl.

My DC don't have very common names because my DH wasn't keen so we had to compromise, but I like really like them, especially for boys. Some of my favourites are James, Edward, Thomas, William and Emily. I like them because they are timeless, and they aren't going to become the next Barry or Kevin. If a name is 'a bit different' then there is a good chance that it will become tied to our era. That said, there are names lower down the top 100 which I would call timeless (what we were aiming for with our compromise!), and names higher up which are fads, so it's not a hard and fast rule!

Because I didn’t know. I had only been in the country for a couple of years, wasn’t familiar with parenting forums so it was me, DH and a names list. The only criteria, other than both of us liking it, was that it was something my Portuguese-speaking grandmother could pronounce without issues. We have achieve that, so I’m happy with the choice. With our surname being fairly common too, I often say we gave her the gift of anonymity. She loves her name, but she can always change it later if she feels like standing out instead, I wouldn’t be offended.

As an aside, after I have discovered parenting forums I often wondered if I should have swapped her first name-middle name combo the other way around because of the popularity, (middle name outside top 1000) - but now she’s in secondary school, has no one with the same first name in her form, and sits next to someone called her middle name, so it’s completely random who you’re going to meet/be in class with/work with in your life.

I actively chose popular names for my DC. I have an uncommon (although not outlandish) name and as a child, I never came across anyone with the same name as me. I was very shy and hated anything that are me stand out. I felt "unfashionable" when all my friends were Claire/Catherine/Amy etc.

I looked for names in the top 30 and chose ones that ended up being in the top 10 for their birth year. They have come across others with their names although they are not especially common, even for top 10. The eldest is the only one with that name in the whole primary school and the youngest has one other in the school, though not the class.

I think that popular names now are still used less commonly than when I was a child. I am a primary teacher and almost never have two children with the same name in a class.

Liked the names.
Had some personal connections to them.
High chance (true) everyone would know how to spell it.
Uncontroversial.

DS2 has a top 10 (probably top 5) name. When I was pregnant I totally vetoed it. It didn't even make the "short list". Being so popular was one, although not the only reason.
And then he was born. And I looked at him. And it was so obviously his name that it may as well have been tattooed on his forehead.
And weirdly he's never been in the same school year, let alone class, as another one. Although we've met a few older and younger.

Because people like them. If you really love a name you shouldn't be put off just because it's popular. With DS1 I just picked a name I loved. Had no idea it was in the top 20.

By accident. It was not that popular when I named her (Ava, she's 17). Now it's absolutely everywhere. I still think it's a lovely name, but would choose something less popular if I had my time again. Sadly I did not have a crystal ball.

The only doubles I've known in the last two years of going to baby groups/nursery etc have been well outside the top 50. Their parents looked so disappointed!

At least if you have an Oliver, you're not going to be shocked if another one turns up at nursery.

I really wanted Benjamin and would have called him Benny for short but was sadly vetoed. I just loved the name regardless of popularity

For me the big driver is if it is a popular classic name like Charlotte or Alice, or is it a popular trending name like Ava or Ivy? If royalty would use it I don’t really care if lots of other children will have the name as it won’t date, but I’d hate my children to be the “Sharon” or “Gary” of the future... as it is my top names are all well out of the top 50 so it’s not an issue but it wouldn’t stop me using a name. Plus it’s almost impossible to predict — all 3 of my siblings and I have names that were really rare when we were born but 15-20 years later were in the top 5...

I have a name that growing up you could never find with things personalised so wanted my children to have those options without being olivia A for example.

Ds has a name that is popular enough but not to popular. Dd 's name is far too popular, as a small child we could not go out for the day without hear 2 or 3 other families calling her name (I think once there were 10 other girls her age at same place about same age). I didn't want to call her that name for that reason but DH just wouldn't entertain another name and at that point we planned a third so I thought I could use it to get my preferred choice. I really wish I hadn't.

I chose the name Bradley which was not common at the time. Them along comes Brad Pitt and then every other boy is called Brad. Happened to my sister too. She called her dd Mathilda. Then Road Dahl book made into cinema hit and lots of girls called Mathilda.

I decided on my DD’s name when I was pregnant with her. Until then I had only met one other person in my whole life who had that name.

Of course, once she was born and I had named her, I instantly met about four other babies with the same name.

How does that happen? I was so sure I was being original!!

I have an Oliver. Only ever had 1 other in his year group and one goes by a nickname and one doesn't. Never really been an issue and it's a timeless name that we love.

There are two Robbie's in my P1 class which isn't even in the top 100 so you never know.

Parents pick from a wider variety of names so you're not guaranteed to be in a class with someone who has the same name.

Between Reception and Y13 my Ds Jack only had at most 1 other Jack and often no other Jacks in his class. (Jack was the number one boys name) On the other hand in primary school there were 5 Sophies and 3 Ellies out of 15 girls. (Chloe was the number one girls name that year. )

I would hear the name Jack in the supermarkets and parks but it's not like when I was growing up and there seemed to be about 10 names that everyone used. I remember 10% of my Sixth form being a Kate or Catherine and that wasn't the number one name that year.

One of my DC has a very unique name. The other has a top 5 name in the UK.
I just really love the name and it had to work in 3 different languages because of our families.
We also dont live in the UK anymore now. When DC was born we knew we would move after 2 years or so and the name isnt that popular in our current country. Its top 100 still, but not top 5.
I think if we had planned to stay in the UK long term we might have chosen a different name, but im not sure.
We didnt have a single child with the same name in any of the baby classes we went to. But there was always a child with our second choice name (not even top 100).

hated the idea of a lesser known name being a duplicate at school rather than a more popular name

This is my thoughts too.

Two of mine have very popular names.

We chose names we loved, didn't care if they were popular or not. Worst case scenario was they'd have another child with that name in their classroom so they'd be xxxxxx surname instead of just xxxxxx. So what?!!

In actual fact neither of them have had duplicates in their class and one of the others with a fairly uncommon name did! But again, so what?

You name your own child a name you like, I genuinely don't see why it's remotely relevant what other people name their children.

Both my DC's first names (and middles actually) are top 20-50 for the year they were born. I knew this when choosing the names. For me it was more important to 1) find a name that DH and I could agree on and 2) for the name to be timeless/classic/not faddy.

Also, in spite of Olivia (for example) being at the number one spot for years now, I know FAR less Olivias than if you put together all the Evas, Evies, Eves, Evelyns, Evangelines, Avas I have met. So to me, Olivia feels a lot more unusual than and of the "Eve names".