Most common boy name suggestions on MN

I've met a Kit

Aw my 3 year old is called Jude

He is the only one in his nursery class and
a lot of people we talk to say it's a lovely name.

We wanted something that is known but not over used. And something that suits a baby, a boy, a teenager and an adult/older person.

I think people forget this when naming their kids.

There is one poster who always suggests the same boys' names:

Quentin & Reuben

Arlo is weird - I had literally never heard of it until about 6 years ago, then I saw a (not very well known*) blogger name her child Arlo and assumed it was a made up name, then it started appearing everywhere and now there are hundreds of them!

• • I mean, I don't think she started the trend or anything. It was just the first time I'd come across it.

*its

I have a 12 year old jude. I didn't hear anyone else suggest it. I just liked it's simplicity. The only thing that mate me question it was a) there was an awful character in the Archers called jude at the time and b) I think jude law is a bit of a knob. So those 2 things made me question it. Then I realised it was the only boy's name I really liked and so glad I went with it as I still love it now and it suits him really well.
I never liked 'Arlo' type names.

It irks me when a poster says they and their partner have a shortlist of 3 names but couldn’t decide.
Then posters completely ignore it and post a ridiculously long list of dozens of names that are completely random and include names of the opposite gender.

Pretty much every second boy I meet is called either Isaac or Finley at the moment so I think those are definitely trending! Also Ellis although I don't see that much on here. I have yet to meet an Ezra. It does depend on area though I suppose.

Or seeing that this thread is about boys' names maybe

hipster middle class - Ezra
academic middle class - Magnus
traditional middle class - Henry

MN generally suggests names popular with the middle classes. There are sub-sections of course. It might be:

hipster middle class - Astrid
academic middle class - Thea
traditional middle class - Florence

Anything that sounds too working class gets a 'my dear, you must consider how that name will be perceived when they're an MP/high court judge/blah blah blah'.

Anyone said Oscar yet? Margot gets a lot of hype.

I don't know many little boys called Atticus, Kit or Quentin in real life...

Maybe they're gaining popularity?

I think these are typical popular names OP. But you can check that on Dark Greener.

Sebastian is very popular @Lilaclavenders

Jude was being suggested on here 14 years ago when I was pregnant with DS1 :o

Sebastian and Quentin often come up....

I only know a couple of young ones, so they're both not that popular in real life.

Sebastian and Lucy always pops up on here. I notice because to me they are horrible due to personal associations.

I think Reuben is a popular one on here, along with Roman, Rowan and Rory. Reuben is often written as Ruben or Rueben. Reuben is ok but I think it's a bit wet-sounding.

There is usually a need to have a BC name for when little Ted/Theo/Finn/Kit is a High Court Judge., Head of MI6, PM or whatever

babes = names

Isaac and Finley were popular in my London circles when my DS was born 18 years ago.

I think posh, twee babes like Kit and Pip are very MN, though .

I’ve never met a young Rowan and think it’s incredibly wet , so the MN love is mystifying.

I find Mumsnet tend to suggest names that weren’t popular when they were at school as though name trends haven’t moved on since then. Arlo, Felix and Hugo are nice underused names… Tastes seems to skew conservative / aspirational. Middle names seem to be a direct choice between James and Alexander.

I think there is value and asking randoms what they think of a name, as your child will have to tell it to everyone person they meet so having a basic barometer of views is useful. Not that you have to take into account any of the feedback, but for example parents might swerve on the name Myra if they were had been aware of the Hindley connection. Having more information is always useful. I’ve been hanging around name forums enough to know how my top choices are widely viewed, but I love names so enjoy having conversations about them.

Many of those names are trending in popularity. It's not just a Mumsnet thing. Check names.darkgreener.com/
I think people are simply more likely to suggest trending/somewhat popular names than obscure/cultural names or dated names. E.g. if someone's looking for boy name ideas on Mumsnet, I'd be more likely suggest the likes of Jude/Isaac/Theodore rather than Vitaliy/Arkadiusz/Guilherme or Barry/Keith/Ronald. That means that everyone's choosing from a pretty small pool of names, so the same names are bound to come up again and again

Quentin always pops up on every single boys' name thread, which puzzles me as I've never met or even heard of a single Quentin in real life (not including Quentins Tarantino and Blake obv)

Of the names in the OP, to me Jude and Kit are in their 30s!