Who is still naming their babies Oliver and Olivia?

My daughter is 9 and had 3 boys in her class of 30 called Oliver though one has since left so only 2. The Olivia I know are my age.

They are nice names and not everyone is bothering by how popular a name is

I have a ten year old Olivia (Liv) who's the only one in her class. There are however 3 named Emily, 2 named Grace and 2 Lillys.

Why does it matter if it's a popular/common name? I personally find all the unique/weird names quite strange really and quite attention seeking by wanting to be different.

The good thing about "timeless" and classic names is that they don't define you by age/generation nor in other negative ways, i.e. defined by your parent's favourite actor/pop star/footballer which indicates a particular "type" of character or person, often not for the good!

That is so funny! 'These people' who don't google how popular a name is. That's quite a shocker!

I was was one of those, but to be fair at the time, I existed but the internet didn't.

Why would anyone care or be put off by it being popular? They are nice names.

This is how I feel about some names, Sophie or Alex for example. Might as well have just gone with 'baby' for the amount of thought that took.

Oh, come on, Sophie, Alex and Oliver / Olivia aren’t that bad, even if you do think they’re a bit boring and ordinary.

Incidentally, there are some parents out there who have actually registered their child’s name as ‘Baby’. As a name, that would stand out more than Sophie / Alex / Oliver / Olivia.

names.darkgreener.com/#baby

I have a 30 year old Sarah. There was one other in her primary school. And I'm not aware of any at secondary, though there might have been. One of her teachers was Sarah.

I'm quite surprised at Oliver's alleged ubiquity among men in their 30s and 40s. There was one in my primary school in the 80s - a place of very typical/conventional name choices otherwise - and it was felt to be a very unusual name indeed.

These threads always amuse me. Names are popular because more people like them.
I didn't give popularity much thought when I named my babies. I went for nice names that i liked the sound of. They happen to be fairly well used 'classic' English names.

An unpopular name is one that other people haven't given their child because they don't like it. So I'm not sure that it's necessarily a good thing. But each to their own.

I had a childless auntie who declared that children should be given numbers till they could choose their own name. Maybe she had a point 😂

I quite like Olivia and Oliver. Both were on my list. None of my children had either in their class.

for some people popularity of a name isn’t in itself a negative thing

I think some parents don't know about popularity and it doesn't occur to them to check. Also, when you Google "baby names", a lot of the websites that pop up are US-based like Nameberry so I can see some parents mistakenly looking at American data and thinking Oliver isn't that popular.

Or simply they don't mind. If Olivia's been your favourite name since you were twelve and you can't imagine using anything else, then you're probably going to overlook the popularity.

I have a niece called Olivia. I've never liked the name for some reason. I don't like the O at the beginning. I don't think it's a pretty name at all. Oliver is alright. But yes I don't know why anyone would name their kids the most common name either! It seems a waste of a name!

It's funny how Olive, which is essentially the same name, sounds so different and almost "out there" comparatively. (Hate that as well!)

I have an Olivia. I was reluctant to use it because it was so popular but then had second thoughts because it’s a lovely name, it goes well with her siblings names, and so what if it’s popular? She’s the only one in her year level at school, I do hear it in other year levels but then what does it matter? So we used it and have no regrets as I still love the name.
I also had a poplar name growing up in the 80s and I was one of 6 of us in my year at school but I didn’t care my name wasn’t unique at least everyone can pronounce and spell it.

I know a few people who have named their babies Oliver or Olivia. I think they're both nice names but I was put off by their popularity.

It matters to the person whose name it is. I don’t know any different than my popular name but I still have an opinion that I don’t like it.

It doesn't really matter, does it? You grow up and that's your name and you dont know any different.

And when you're an adult, nobody cares either. I don't wonder how many other Helens or Sarahs there are and let that influence how i feel about my friends & colleagues.

It literally only matters to the parents at the time of choosing! It's another judgy mechanism we choose to use on other parents. If we're dicks

“But it got to the point where each time I met a new Sarah, I wondered how her parents could have been so unoriginal.”

when naming my children, I have no consideration at all to whether other people would think I was being original or not. I just don’t care. Maybe they were the same

Neighbour’s kid is Ollie and to be frank, it doesn’t suit him as he is v quiet and reserved. Ollie is a big personality name. For someone with charisma.

I think of Olivers as being quiet, middle-class and studious. No idea why!

Anyway, I definitely find it off-putting when a name is very popular. I crossed Maya and Amelia off my list for that reason. The main purpose of a name is to distinguish one person from another.

When I was growing up, many of my peers were called Sarah. It’s a beautiful name and I love the sound of it. But it got to the point where each time I met a new Sarah, I wondered how her parents could have been so unoriginal. They might as well have named her “Girl”.

The question “why would you choose such a popular name” could easily be flipped to “why wouldn’t you choose a name you liked just because it’s popular?”

I don’t have an Oliver or Olivia but I’m also not hung up on choosing a name based on its popularity or luck thereof. My children both have reasonably popular names. If I think they’re nice names, chances are loads of other people will think so too, I know we all like to think we’re not influenced by the culture around us and make our own decisions freely but that’s just not the case generally

You can't always tell how popular a name is going to be either.
A friend named her DD Luna, she wanted something unique and unusual, 9 years later it's in the top 30 U.K. baby names.

Actually I can think of one downside of my son's popular name. In primary school, I'd sometimes get beautiful drawings sent home that I knew my X wouldn't have done as, like me, he has zero artistic talent.

Meaning that the other X's parents must have had lots of crap drawings with people's arms coming out of their hips rather than shoulders. And we're not talking just in the first few years...