Name popularity

I'm definitely concerned with popularity, whether it makes me snobby or not! My own name was very uncommon for my age group where I grew up in Canada, and I loved it. Only to move to the UK as an adult where we're a dime a dozen. It did rather take the shine off a bit. 😆

That said, I'm not sure whether popularity would actually keep me from using a name I otherwise loved. I've not been in that position as, like someone upthread, I don't tend to gravitate to the currently popular sounds. For girls especially, I dislike longer, liquid, soft vowel-heavy names and tend to love clunky consonants, plosives, Scandi and Germanic influences. I think those names are starting to become trendy, so perhaps in 20 years I'll love the top ten names!

I named my daughter (7mo) something I've always loved in the 800s. I had others on my list ranging from just inside the top 100 to the 200-400 sweet spot, and some outliers in the 2000s. I just picked the one I liked best.

In general I'd prefer to steer clear of anything top 100 or likely to go that way (you can't always tell but if something is 100-200 on the charts and the graphs indicate a sudden upswing, I'd avoid).

As the OP points out, a far smaller percentage of babies born now are given a top 10 name than they would have been 30 or 40 years ago so using a top 10 name doesn't necessarily mean your children will be known as Oliver B or Olivia S throughout life

When I was at school in the 80s there were multiple Sarahs in every class at school (there were 3 in my primary class of 30 so 10% of the year!), most classes also had a Nicola, Joanne and Helen too. You do get multiples in a class now but you wouldn't find the same name replicated in every single class.

90% of boys were one of Dave, Andy, Steve, Chris, Robert, Richard, James/Jamie, John/Johnny, Paul, Mike, Nick

My name was constantly in the top 10 throughout the whole of the 1970s when growing up. I was the only one in my secondary school which had over 1100 pupils. In my workplace I am only 1 of 2!
I think it depends where you live.

I have sort of changed my mind on this.

The problem is that you cannot gauge how popular a name will become.

I purposely chose an "uncommon but not unusual name" for DD1 (it is number 300ish). For DD2 I scoured literally thousands of names. We eventually settled on one that was a lot more popular but not a top 10 name. Then it shot to being a top 10 name.

I have made peace with this on the basis that it was the only name I actually liked and even though it is top 10 it doesn't actually mean it is as popular as it might have been in previous years, because of the proliferation of a wider choice of names.

Now I read threads like this and think avoiding a name only because it is popular (if you otherwise really like the name) is quite snobby!

The only issue I see is that certain popular names will likely become dated (but not all - really just ones that are having a "moment" e.g. some of the more timeless top 20 names were popular 30 years ago too...)

My DS’s name was always my top choice of boy’s name - he’s named after a character from a favourite book when I was a child. The name hovered towards the bottom of the top 100 and Sod’s law, suddenly became wildly popular the year he was born, and has increased in popularity every year since. There were 4 at his nursery, although not all using the same shortening, however there’s only one other in his school. Even the most popular name doesn’t really apply to that many children.

*did choose

Interesting!

I wasn't too bothered about whether a name was very popular (Sophie was on our shortlist) but having said that i think one of the things that unconsciously pushed us towards the name we did chose was having never met another person (adult or child) with that name. So she was a brand new person with a brand new (to us at least) name.

There is a lurcher round the corner with her name but somehow that doesn't count 😂

Whereas for boys the equilvalent feels somehow a bit dated: Julian, Cecil, Claude, Anthony

Personally I don't at all find those names dated. I find them refreshing sounding - classic but not overused.

Similar names would be Raphael, Christopher, Quentin, Marcus etc

There are hundreds of lovely names outside the top 500 for both boys and girls imo.

*madness should say names!!

In the boys list I know all of them except for Jack and Harry, but the only ones who I know more than 1 of are Muhammed and Oscar. (Not counting grown up Olly's of which I know several).

I've always wanted to use Sophia. It wasn't that popular years ago but now it's so popular I couldn't possibly use it. I chose a less popular name and I love it.

We have a boy due in a few months and I'm stumped for names. We haven't even started a list because there's none we like.

I try avoid top 50 names. Also it wouldn’t bother me if a name I chose later became popular as even if it later became dated and stuck to a period in time your child would still be seen as belonging to a group younger than them and so not old fashioned for them.

I’m in my 30s and my name was top 5 when I was born but the year after drastically fell and continued to do so. A few years later it was out of the charts. It’d been popular for about two decades. So the typical woman with the name is seen as in their 40s.

Honestly, yes, I would avoid a name that was really popular for that reason. I always loved the names Eve and Isabel, but would never use them now--they've just been done to death.

I saw the names today and was struck by the fact that I don't know anyone under the age of 8 called any of them.

The top 10 girls’ names in 2020 were:

Olivia
Amelia
Isla
Ava
Mia
Ivy
Lily
Isabella
Rosie
Sophia
The top 10 boys’ names in 2020 were:

Oliver
George
Arthur
Noah
Muhammad
Leo
Oscar
Harry
Archie
Jack

For me, popularity matters less than if a name is timeless. For example William and Elizabeth are popular but completely timeless and pretty classless (you'd struggle to guess how old a William or Elizabeth are or what their background is). Yes, there are many thousands of them out there so they could be considered "boring". But one persons boring is anothers historical - because they are so timeless, they have a myriad of amazing/interesting namesakes (from Shakespeare to Wilberforce, Elizabeth I to Elizabeth Fry etc), much more so than some less popular names or contemporary Isla and Arlo type ones, nice as they are.

Having said that, I think people are right when they say it seems easier to find a less popular (but still "normal"/historical/well known sounding) girls name which probably won't date - you could go Roman for instance: Julia, Cecilia, Claudia, Antonia etc. Whereas for boys the equilvalent feels somehow a bit dated: Julian, Cecil, Claude, Anthony. Hence why I think Antonia's brother is probably more likely to be William than Cecil (and we aren't surprised/it doesn't seem strange).

To put into context for me: over the past 30 years or so in the UK I've had six different jobs in my career, I've been to university twice, kids through school, large extended family and friend group crossing multiple generations. I don't know any Olivers and only one Olivia. Others may well know lots. But being top of the popular table doesn't mean you're going to meet one every week.

@Blubells @toastofthetown
Yes I realise they've been consistently popular for years. But still only a few thousand out of 600,000 or so babies born in each of those years. So they are very popular names in the statistics tables, but each year that's still only around 0.5% new Oliver/Olivia appearing, alongside 99.5% other names.

On the list published today, there were 3640 Olivias and 4225 Olivers,

But add those to the tens of thousands Olivers and Olivias born during the past 10 or so years...!

Popularity really wouldn't/didn't bother me. I think if you love a name then use it.
On the list published today, there were 3640 Olivias and 4225 Olivers, out of 615557 live births in the same year. So the most popular, but hardly common.

We just chose names we liked for our children. They are the sort of names that have been somewhere I the popular list for ever.
I tend to think that some names are popular simply because they are nice and people like them.
There were two with my son's name in his class and there were other girls in the school with my daughters' names, but not in the same class.
It always amused me when there were several children with the same unusual name. I imagine that their parents hoped that they'd be the only one, but they became popular all at once.
Once a person is out of school it really doesn't matter. They'll usually be mixing with people of all ages and nationalities, so there's plenty of variety.

I did try and choose names outside the top 100 but also didn't want anything too unusual or difficult to spell. My name was pretty unusual when I was growing up (became more popular in my 20s) and having to constantly spell it was a complete pain. Dd1's name was around the 300 mark when she was born and has stayed there, she's now 12. She hasn't had another one in either of her schools or extra curricular classes but I do know a couple through friends. DD2's name was just outside the top 100 and still is, but there is another in her drama class. There is also a very similar name that has been more popular so think more people are called that. I sometimes wish I'd go a bit more unusual with her but she's happy enough.

I would avoid the most popular names like top 5 especially for boys where the names are more concentrated. But I grew up with quite an uncommon name and was always sad that I couldn't get pencils etc with my name on! So wouldn't go too unusual either, somewhere in the middle.

My sons name is always in the top 10 list but I always loved the name, it's not one that ages and I think it would have been daft to choose something I liked less just because of the popularity aspect.

I'm not so affected by other peoples choices that it would push me to think up something bizarre and unique. If I liked something bizarre and unique that would be a different story.

Thanks Toast