Page 4 | Name popularity

toastofthetown · 2021-10-18T14:23:15+00:00

Inspired by the 2020 ONS release. Oliver and Olivia were the most popular names for the fifth consecutive year, but that doesn’t tell the whole story at the top of the charts. Increasingly parents are moving away from the most popular names. The number of babies called the Top 100 names has dropped 7% for each sex since 2019. Since 1996 it's a 39% drop in babies given names in the Top 100. Looking at the Top 10 there was a decrease in 8.5% for boys given these names compared with 2019 and almost a 10% drop for girls in the same time. Rosie entered the top ten, but there was actually one fewer Rosie born in 2020 than 2019. Would you avoid a name just because it’s popular? What would you consider too popular to use, or does name popularity not affect you at all?

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Original poster

toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 18:10

@Bitofachinwag

Where can you search for particular names not in the top 100 to see how many babies were given that name?

This is my favourite name website. Plots out all the ONS data year by year to help visualise name trends. names.darkgreener.com/#

The raw data is here. If you click on either 'Baby names for girls' or 'Baby names for boys' it will have a list of name data going back to 1996 with various tabs with different information in each one. On the more recent sheets it's Table 6 with the full list.
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/babynamesenglandandwales/2020/relateddata

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Original poster

toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 18:07

@SummaLuvin

I also think, regarding popularity, too much focus is put on current and recent popularity by MN, not longterm historic. Your child will only be in year group limited situations until 18-22 maximum. After that in the working world they will be mixed in with all other generations. My name is a medium-used classic and while I was the only one in my school year, since working there have always been at least 1 other, upto 4 others with the same name at a time. That's something I will be taking into consideration. E.g. Shannon is very uncommon now, only 15 born in 2020, but when mixed in with older generations suddenly seems a lot less unique.

I agree with that. Names which are very generational tied (like Janet) are likely to be less of a problem, as numbers are limited due to the name fading out, but for something like William, yes it's only 20th in the and Theodore is higher but William has been in the top 50 every decade since 1904, so they are everywhere.

Another popularity point I don't think people think about enough it how much names sound like other popular names. Eliana might be outside the top 200, but with six El- names in the top 100 alone it doesn't sound so distinct.

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Bitofachinwag · 18/10/2021 18:07

Where can you search for particular names not in the top 100 to see how many babies were given that name?

SickAndTiredAgain · 18/10/2021 18:06

I get this perspective, but almost all names date to a certain extent, so I wouldn't let that worry me

Yeah I think there are a small number that don’t date. I’ve looked at the graphs on the ons website and you can search by name and James has just dropped out of the top 20 for the first time since 1904 (the start of the graph) so seems fairly timeless. I tried a bunch of other girl and boy names that I felt were fairly constant in their popularity but nothing came as close as James.
It’s a very interesting website, but annoyingly the graph only includes names that have, at one point since 1904, been in the top 100, which doesn’t include my name.

KirstenBlest · 18/10/2021 18:00

@SummaLuvin, Shannon was very popular in the early 2000s, so a Shannon born now would name-wise be about 20 yrs older than she really is. It was a celebrity-inspired name at the time

If you love the name, use it, but also consider the child. Ageism is rife.

DressedUpAtAnIvy · 18/10/2021 17:58

My son was the first of his name registered in the country. Yesterday we met a baby [hisname].

Original poster

toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 17:55

@dreamingofsun

we chose a fairly unusual name - think bottom of top 100 and our child's godparents used it for their child.....so u cant necessarily win and maintain uniqueness

I'm not obsessed with uniqueness. I know someone with a Balthazar who moved areas to find another Balthazar in her son's class. That kind off thing can happen. It's more of a saturation issue. With a popular name you are more likely to have one in your class, another in your dance school, another at swimming, then when you go off to university and work you'll still be surrounded by people with the same name as you. It wouldn't bother everyone, but I was in my twenties before I could stop being Toast Surname in pretty much every situation and it did bother me.

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KirstenBlest · 18/10/2021 17:54

@summ

SummaLuvin · 18/10/2021 17:49

I also think, regarding popularity, too much focus is put on current and recent popularity by MN, not longterm historic. Your child will only be in year group limited situations until 18-22 maximum. After that in the working world they will be mixed in with all other generations. My name is a medium-used classic and while I was the only one in my school year, since working there have always been at least 1 other, upto 4 others with the same name at a time. That's something I will be taking into consideration. E.g. Shannon is very uncommon now, only 15 born in 2020, but when mixed in with older generations suddenly seems a lot less unique.

RuthW · 18/10/2021 17:47

@sexesam

My daughter's name is well outside the top 100 (or was when she was born) I think 300 and something. But there is another in each of the 2 school years below her now. We chose the name for our own reasons but it's not a native name so knew it wouldn't be popular. I am not surprised the number of kids with he top 10 names are lower than historically. I think everyone is trying to find something a little bit different from every one else.

Same with me. It's now in top 15 24 years later.

SummaLuvin · 18/10/2021 17:40

we chose a fairly unusual name - think bottom of top 100 and our child's godparents used it for their child.....so u cant necessarily win and maintain uniqueness

this is what sort of sucks about stats - probability is meaningful and helpful to some extent, but it's also not. There could be only one other baby called the same name all year, but just so happen to be in the same class as your child. Or you could choose number 1 name, Oliver, and find they are the only one in class, like others on this thread.

Blubells · 18/10/2021 17:34

we chose a fairly unusual name - think bottom of top 100

Anything within the top 100 is still fairly popular.

I consider unusual names ones that are used less than say 50 times per year.

dreamingofsun · 18/10/2021 17:32

we chose a fairly unusual name - think bottom of top 100 and our child's godparents used it for their child.....so u cant necessarily win and maintain uniqueness

Mondaynightnamechange · 18/10/2021 17:32

I thought I was avoiding a popular name, however when I looked at the county breakdown it was actually the most popular for the year before, however this was only 5 in total.

Blubells · 18/10/2021 17:29

I have a fairly unusual name and gave only met one other in my life. I really like my name.

Blubells · 18/10/2021 17:27

My son has a name so unusual the numbers weren’t individually listed in the ONS for his year of birth — is it three or fewer?

Yes I think the ONS list of all boys names in a particular year include only those names that were used at least 3 times. I think it's yo do with anonymity.

My ds was one of 23 in his birth year and I thought that was few, but less than 3 is really few!

CaffiSaliMali · 18/10/2021 17:18

My name is relatively unusual in England where I was born and grew up, but is a perfectly normal name in Wales.

I've only met one other person with my name and I'm in my 30s. I like that so would want to avoid a very popular name for my own DC.

However, I'd also like to use a Welsh name and am not particularly bothered if they are popular in Wales, if anything it could be a bonus as it means their names won't sound strange when visiting Wales. So I'm bothered by popularity to an extent.

SummaLuvin · 18/10/2021 17:12

@Blubells

Names that become popular quickly often fall out of fashion again and can start to sound dated. That's another reason to avoid very popular or fashionable names.

I get this perspective, but almost all names date to a certain extent, so I wouldn't let that worry me. There are two ways to avoid a name dating with surety, and neither appeal to me.

choose a snooze fest name from the royal list - Catherine, William, Henry, Victoria...
choose something so wacky and bizarre that it is completely unique

For me popularity is far more important that dating. In my year group of circa 170 there were 10 Thomas', and 7 Hannahs, and multiple other names with many duplications. I would choose Claudia (which isn't that popular or trending up, but may date due to similar feel to other popular names of the time, so my daughter is more likely to be only one is class/year group) over Elizabeth which is timeless but a higher chance of duplication.

I also find the difference in options for boys vs girls interesting. I wonder if it links back to sexism of expecting men/boys to be 'strong' and 'traditional' and 'reliable' meaning girls names are given more freedom of expression.

eatingforfive · 18/10/2021 16:32

We named our daughter Violet. I felt it was timeless, fairly popular, but not a top 10 one and wouldn't have hundreds of other kids rich the same name!

grafittiartist · 18/10/2021 16:31

I used a really popular name- suits him and I love it.

Clandestin · 18/10/2021 16:26

@PanicBuyingSprouts

I think of head-turning names of names like Sarah. I was in a shopping centre once and someone called out "Sarah!". Several women turned round

I too have an equally "head-turning name". My DM showed a stunning lack of imagination when she names us.

Exactly. There were six girls with my name in my class throughout primary, and I still remember the moment when, living abroad and aged 25, someone called my name on the street and I actually responded, knowing I was the one being called.

My son has a name so unusual the numbers weren’t individually listed in the ONS for his year of birth — is it three or fewer?

babybath · 18/10/2021 16:25

It's hard. My baby is no70ish at the moment, but have a feeling it will shoot up in the next few years. You pick an unpopular one and find others will do the same and bang.. going unpopular isn't a dead cert.
Go with what you like

Synchrony · 18/10/2021 16:21

I think I am disinclined to choose a very popular girl name simply because I don't like soft vowel heavy names, and that's what happens to be popular right now. If I liked two names equally, then I might possibly go for the less popular one.

With boys, I don't care about popularity because I like so few boy names anyway! If I had a son I may well call him a top 5 name as I love it and very few others.

PanicBuyingSprouts · 18/10/2021 16:07

I think of head-turning names of names like Sarah. I was in a shopping centre once and someone called out "Sarah!". Several women turned round

I too have an equally "head-turning name". My DM showed a stunning lack of imagination when she names us.

CRoberts1 · 18/10/2021 16:04

Here's a user-friendly guide to baby names, broken down by local authority. It also details all 200 top girl and boy names from 2020 - hopefully it inspires some.
www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/family/baby-names-2020-map-of-top-baby-boy-and-girl-names-in-each-area-of-england-and-wales-as-ons-reveals-rankings-3423357