Opinion on popular baby names

I think all the Top 10 names are just so boring, it smacks of “have no individual thought, need to follow the herd” every time.

I think it’s annoying being Evie B or Noah J, so I avoid the top 10 if possible

Grew up with a ridiculously popular name (in my area) and hated it.

Think "Emma" or "Sophie"

I never had the issue of there being more than one or two in my classes but there were loads around in activities and groups I went to.

Not a fan at all.

My kids have reasonably unique names, or they were at the time of birth but are rising in popularity now (6 years later). Still, rare to hear someone of their ages with the names which I like.

My name is really common (at least two of us in very school class/friendship group) etc but I never really minded it I think because there are more common names in my age group (three or four in each class) and it doesn't date me age- wise. Don't love it though. My kids have more unusual names but there are more names used in their age groups so fewer repeated names.

DD1 has a very popular name (always in the top 5). I just remember when we were choosing names, we'd tossed several names around all pregnancy but not settled on any really and then a week before my due date my husband mentioned the name and even though it's of course a name I've heard many, many times in my life and had never previously considered using, it was like I was suddenly hearing it for the very first time and hearing what an incredibly beautiful name it was. And that was what I wanted to call our baby there and then, we both just knew it was the perfect name for her. We agreed to keep an open mind and just toss it into the hat with the other 2 or 3 names we liked and see what she looked like when she came out. When she was born, the midwife asked us if we had a name picked out, DH and I looked at each other and absolutely no discussion necessary, we both said the name. She was always that name.
We meet other children with it from time to time, though there aren't actually any others in her nursery with it. It doesn't bother me. It's a popular name for a very good reason. It is just beautiful.

And my name is a longer, less common version of a popular name (think Lilian for Lily) and as a child I was always known as the longer name and hated it. I wanted a nice normal name that was always available on the tacky souvenirs you get but alas, my name was never there. As an adult I'm almost exclusively known by the much more common shortened version and it feels much more like me.

DD2 actually has a slightly less common name and in some ways I worry that she will, like I was, be dismayed at never finding her name on a keyring haha.

There were 4 of us in the 80s with my name in my primary school class and my best friend through my 20s and 30s had the same name too. Never bothered me one bit. Love my name.

My son has a very popular/common name (Charlie) and while I love the name, I really regret it. It doesn't feel like his name, and I wish we'd chosen something a bit more imaginative.

He's only a baby still, but hopefully he likes it when he's older!

My DD has what many would say is a popular name, usually in the top 20 for the last decade. But we only ever meet the odd other person with the same name despite living in London where she goes to a 3 form entry primary. Regardless, i absolutely love her name, I think it's beautiful and would not bother me at all if we meet more girls with the same name.

My DS has an unusual name, have only ever met one other with his name. I think it's a lovely name, but sometimes think we should have maybe called him something more common as his name is so often mis pronounced.

I’ve always loved the name Oscar but discounted it for DS because it's become so popular in the last few years. The name we chose for him is pretty uncommon (around 350ish in the charts) but increasingly being suggested on here; we actually met another one in the park the other day!

I don't regret not choosing Oscar, but I do regret that it's become so popular that I didn't, if that makes sense.

I have a popular 90s name, and I’ve always been happy enough with it - although I have noticed now that I don’t meet any babies today called that, so it probably dates me a bit! I think the most important thing is that you like it, so if there’s a name you love and it’s popular, I don’t think you should feel a pressure to rule it out on that basis.

I have a quite unusual and old-fashioned name. I'm happy with it.

But I have a friend who has a really common, popular, name. Her last name is very common, and both her first name and her middle name are common. The whole combination is common! Many women have her exact name.
She told me that she didn't mind this at all, mainly because she really likes her name.
But also, she said that her very common name makes her hard to find on the Internet, which can be a good or a bad thing, she thinks it's a good thing! She said that you have to know "something else" about her to be able to find her online, you can't just search her name and find her immediately. I had never thought about it that way before.

Husband and I have the top two names for our birth year in our home countries; I really disliked it growing up, husband didn’t mind. My name doesn’t have any common nickname options so it was always name + surname initial or just my surname until I got a completely separate nickname in my teens. Husband knew multiple with his name and they all went by different versions of it. We’re actively avoiding names in the top 20 now (which is a shame when our favourite is Theodore).

My name was ranked number 3 when I was born and it was the most popular name in my school year. I like the name but didn’t like it being popular however things are a bit different now. I’ve looked at the number of babies born in my year of birth with my name and if you compare it to today there are so many fewer by quite a lot.

What I dislike like most about my popular name was that I was named it just before it sunk in popularity so most people with my name are older.

Mine both have names which have been popular for centuries. No regrets at all. Oldest goes by a diminutive and has never had anyone else with that form of the name in his class or any group or club. Youngest there was a spike in popularity so often hear it when out and about but again never had another in his class.

DD1 has a Top 20 girls name, one other in her year group but not her class and a couple of others in the school. Fab name though and really suits her, no regrets.

DD2 has a Top 50 name, we knew no others with name when she was born though. then DD1 started school and there's one in her class and one in the other class in her year group... we thought she was fibbing when she told us there were two girls with DD2 name at school :P DD2 is in nursery now and the only one with her name in nursery so far.

Love both names and don't regret either! They love meeting people who have the same name as them :)

I would go for whatever name you love regardless of popularity. Naming a baby is such a special thing to get to do - what’s the point of not going with whatever make you really love?

When I went into halls at uni, we had 10 girls on our corridor and 7 of them were called Sarah.
Inevitably none of them were ever called Sarah, they all had nicknames.

Similarly when I went to the parents meeting for my ds secondary (middle class grammar school) the list of class names literlaly went
Oliver
Thomas
Tom
Oliver

repeat, repeat

I aimed to avoid that. As pp said I chose recognised but not highly popular names.

BUT ds's name is a family name, and he would have had it no matter what. It was in top 500 when we used it. Within 3 years it was top 50. You can't always tell.

I have a name that was very popular when I was born. People probably almost always roughly know my age without meeting me.
That doesn't particularly bother me but I don't like the fact that it was fashionable for a short time and will probably never come back into use again.

Mine have names that turned out to be very popular. It wasn't deliberate - we picked names we liked.
The names are classic ones, so haven't dated too badly.

I have a feeling that OP's baby name is Evie

I was one of 5 in my class at school so it was important to me to give my children more unusual names. My ds has a name in the top 200 but in the two years before having my dd I got so annoyed by people commenting on the name and asking if they had misheard etc (it's a fairly normal biblical name, just a little more unusual) I went for a much more popular name for dd (top 30). I love it too but she has two others in her primary school and we often meet others whereas my ds is always the only one. I love both names but my ds much prefers his more unusual name.

My dc have top 20 names. At primary school there was another child in ea h of their forms with their names (and they also had a child with each other's names in their classes). So DD was "Jane C" in a class with "Jane B", and DS decided to be "Thomas" at school, in a class with "Tommy", and remained "Tom" at home.

No regrets, no problem.

My daughter has a popular name and I still love it. It suits her down to the ground. I didn’t know any when I picked it but there ended up being 4 in her year group with various spellings. It’s really impossible to tell what will be popular in your area. Olivia has been top for years but the only one I know of is in her 30s. My friends kids are in in different years in school and not one has an Olivia in their year group. Yet everyone says how popular it is.

If you love the name use it.

The top/most common baby names are actually pretty low numbers anyway. The variety of baby names in use has drastically increased; so whereas in the past the number 1 name had loads and loads of people using it, nowadays the number 1 name has much lower numbers so you are pretty unlikely to have duplicates anyway.

I would go ahead if the name is important to you, and goes will with your surname. I would just be prepared for her to use her middle name as well if she is one of several, but you won't need to cross that bridge until school.

I think teachers tend to call out duplicates by their last name initial, eg. Tommy G and Tommy S, and it can stick. If you have a quick and easy middle name, she can add that on once she hits school if there are others.

And really, this will only be a small portion of her life, so I wouldn't worry about any duplicate names.

I think it depends - is the name popular now but "classic", along the lines of Charlotte or Emily? Or only popular in the last few decades so with the potential to be more faddy - like Isla, Ava etc?

I gave my son a popular but very "classic" name and have no regrets - and we haven't met any others his age yet at toddler groups, so probably he'll still be the only one in his school class even if there are lots of others in the school. But some of the girls choices I liked had the potential to faddy (ie. date badly) on top of being popular which personally worried me more.