Who is still naming their babies Oliver and Olivia?

Some people don't do internet searches to find the top names or consider it at all - which I don't get but those people do exist. In their circles they might have never met an Olivia or Oliver so don't realise it's popular. Also, like others say there's regional variation.

There are advantages as well in having a popular name. People know how to spell and pronounce it and you get your name in those gifts like keyrings, mugs etc - might seem small but it was nice as a child finding your name and getting something personalised. You'll also get more characters in children's books named the same as you. I've noticed Oliver and Olivia come up a lot as well as other popular ones. I guess authors choose them because of popularity.

Personally, I am put off popular names but I'm not someone who has to have a name outside top 50/100. I don't judge others for not being as interested in names, although I am surprised when someone makes a comment about a "rare" or "unusual" name when I know it's top 10.

I also don't think it's accurate when people say this is like the "Sarah" or "Claire" of the past as there's more diversity in names so even the top names aren't as commonly used as names were in the past.

I always think this with popular names. So cruel to resign your child to a lifetime of being 'Olivia H' etc.

That said, it is Amelia down here that is the most popular. Out of the last 8 baby girls i know born, only 2 arent called Amelia or some variation. In my office of 60 people alone the baby girls born this last 18 months have been Amelie, Amelia, Amelia and Emelia. Also have 2 friends who had an Emelia and an Amelia this last year. Both the Emelias have the middle name Grace. One of the Amelias and the Amelie have the middle name Rose.

Because people have different experiences and preferences to you…

I had a very popular name growing up and didn’t like the experience so I want to choose differently for my children. They might like that decision, they might not but all I can do is make a decision based on what I know now.

Yes that thing of everyone having the same name carries on through the rest of your life too. I work with lots of different companies and so have lots of work contacts, usually people in their 30s and 40s - there are at least 10 Pauls and 10 Sarahs!

My name was unusual when I was a child and I never met another one (though it’s a fairly normal and traditional name) - but now it’s popular so I’m always hearing it yelled in supermarkets and parks.

Or Oliver. They are both horrible names imo.

I know@ a few ‘Ollies’ in their 30s, but no children called Oliver.

I know of tons of Olivia’s of all ages from baby to 40-something. It’s a lovely name. Liv is still one of my all time favourite nicknames.

I don't really get why people change their preferences based on popularity. Name your kid what you want. Who cares if there's a lot of them. I know a bazillion Mikes, Andrews, Jennifers, and Alisons. No one has my name and I always thought it made me stand out in ways I didn't like.

I know an elderly couple called Oliver and Olive , obviously not their choice. But they called one of their children Olivia . Strange.

It's only this past generation who care about a names popularity. Up until the late 90's everyone had popular names.
I'm called Rebecca and was one of 4 in my year, there were 6 Emma's, 3 Danielle's, 3 Samanthas and about 8 Sarah's, as well as multiple Natalies, Amy's, Zoe's etc.
It never bothered me at all, it would've bothered me to be that one kid with a weird name that everyone made fun of though.

DD is called Mia, when I chose it 10 years ago everyone told me how popular and overused it was, yet in her school of over 400 she's one of only 3 and is the only one in her year.

I pick a name because I like it, I don't care how popular it is. The only thing that would stop me using it is if a cousin or close friends child had the same name.

I think Olive is a beautiful name, much nicer than Olivia.

Neither are popular names in the (very middle class) are I live. I can think of one Oliver at my son’s school and no Olivias. Round here it’s Sienna for girls, but no particular common boys names. Maybe Alex, a couple of Oscars and Toms. I think these things are very geographically variable.

My Olivia is 16 and she was the only 1 in her primary school. I think there's maybe one other in her high school. The only other Olivia I know is in my 4 year old sons class. My son also has one of the top 5 boys names but there's only 1 other in his school.

My, you have a lot of opinions!

Oliver was popular 30 years ago. The closest year to 1992 on record is 1994 and Oliver was the 23rd most popular name then. It’s been in the top hundred since 1974.

My eldest daughters class had three Edwards and two Olivias.

my youngest had three Matthews, two Emmas and two Jennifers

We used the ONS data to avoid too popular names for our baby.

Not because of Olivia funnily enough, but got thoroughly sick of how many Evies and Millies we knew. It almost felt like a given that a baby would get one of those 2 names a few years ago.

I liked Leo but there were 3,465 born in 2021 and that was too many for me. We chose a name that everyone knows, can spell and pronounce very easily, but were less than 40 born in 2021. Each to their own though

Just counted and I know 28 Olivers.

and 3 Olivias

So multiple kids in a class with the same name definitely still happens even though it shouldn't according to statistics.

Yes, it definitely still happens. I’ve seen that before in my own DC’s classes. As I said, names aren’t evenly spread throughout the country.

But the duplicated names aren’t always the popular names, where you might expect to see multiple children with that name every now and then.
One of my DC’s was once in a class with 3 boys called Rhys. That name was ranked down in the 120’s for the birth years of the class. And we’re nowhere near Wales, if that makes any difference.

My sons' names are probably in the top 10 most popular names every year. It doesn't bother me as I like them and they're not really ones that date.

I have to confess to a reverse snobbery about unique or unusual names which can come across as a bit try-hard. Each to their own though, it would be boring if we all picked the most popular names.

Me too, my name was not popular when I was in school, and I was teased for it. Funnily enough, 10 years later it was popular. I would much rather have had a more 'ordinary' name.

Oops, sorry, the comment about Lily and Eve etc. was directed at another user.

You hear that a lot but we still had three Olivias in a class of only about twenty kids recently. So multiple kids in a class with the same name definitely still happens even though it shouldn't according to statistics.

Olivia is more popular than Lily, even with spellings combined: namenerds.blogspot.com/2021/12/2020-names-in-england-and-wales-grouped.html

With the nickname thing you just never really know. I've never met an Eva or Evelyn who went by Evie, it was always the full name. But I did know an Ariana who went by Ria which people wouldn't really expect.

I agree, if people like a popular name they should use it. Isabella is on my list and I love it.

Personally I sort of get Oliver because it's really handsome and fun to say and there are hardly any boys names I love anyway. With Olivia I'm very tired of it but I remember that I liked it a few years back. I think it always depends, if you had lots of Olivers in your own class at school already you are less likely to pick it. Husband likes Emma but I can't get on board because I knew so many and it feels tired.

I always wonder this but then I am the type of person who likes unusual names and a name being the most popular puts me off. But some people don’t care or actually like it. I think fashion in culture (i mean everything, not just clothing fashion) is very powerful and loads of people will go along with what they think everyone else thinks or likes - and that affects everyone to some extent.

I remember when it was Jack for years and then someone would have a baby and call him Jack and I’d think “wtf, why yet another Jack to add to the pile?” But I guess it appealed to people because it was popular and so “felt right”. Or of course in some cases people have other reasons like it’s a family name or they always planned to use it.

it does seem weird how Olivia has taken off though as it seems quite a niche name to me. Before it was popular I’d associate it with an eccentric aristocratic old lady.

I don’t think that having a popular name is such a terrible thing.

Plus, the popular names now aren’t as popular as the popular names of 30+ years ago. There’s a much wider range of names used now.
Take Oliver / Olivia - in 2021, less than 0.7% of babies born that year were named Oliver. Less than 0.6% of babies were named Olivia. There’s been times in the past 20 years where the number of babies named Oliver has been over 1% (but still less than 1.2%).

Names aren’t spread evenly throughout the country, so there’ll be a higher frequency of Oliver/Olivia’s in some areas than others, but even so - those percentages are small enough that a parent considering names doesn’t need to worry about every other child they meet being called Oliver or Olivia.
And incidentally, Oliver’s dropped off the top spot now. It was the 2nd most popular boys name in England and Wales in 2021.

Darkgreener is an interesting website if you’re interested in name trends in England and Wales, as it’s got ONS name data from 1996 onwards to look at.

names.darkgreener.com/#oliver

Why are you so bothered? My Ollie is 27. There were no there's in his year at school.