Opinion on popular baby names

My DC both have top 10 names. I'm happy with them and they like them (they are aged 10 and 13 now). Even though they are popular they don't regularly encounter others with the same name. There is one other with the same name in DC1's year group of 150+ children and one with the same name in DC2's one-form entry primary (in a different year group). I had an unusual name growing up and I hated standing out so deliberately chose quite popular names for my DC.

I have an Olivia who is 21 now. She has never had another Olivia in her class but we have known a few over the years. It doesn’t bother her. When we chose it we didn’t know of any others, despite her being dc2. DC1 has an uncommon name which then became more popular but not top 20, she has known several and DC2 best friend has the same name as DC1. DS has a very uncommon name but his best friend has the same name.
All love their names and none of us regret any of them.

I met a woman the other day who told me she thought she was being really unique with the name Theo 4 years ago, and now there are 2 others in her son's Reception class and she really regrets it. I have no idea why she thought Theo would be an unusual name given it's been right up there in the popularity charts for a while, but I guess some people don't check these things.

Personally, I've aimed for somewhere in the 200-500 range in the charts - unusual but not unheard of. I don't want my child to be Theo P the whole of school.

I would say dont use a common name unless it has a very significant meaning to you and reason to pick it. Dont do it just because you like it, try find a less popular one that you also like.

Its very annoying being one of mane Ev- names, Olivias, Freddies, Charlies etc. Its just too much and the last thing you want is for your kid to be known with the last name/middle name in order to somehow distinguish in a class.

Both of our boys have names that were top 50ish when they were born and quickly rose to top 10/20ish. For DS2 we didn’t know any other children at all with his name - and then there were 3 others in his nursery class. However he’s now the only one in his school year group of 50. DS1 was the only student in his whole school for several years to have his name. Small school, but still.

My feeling is, if you love the name then use it. You may or may not find multiple other children in the class with the same name!

My name was one of the top ones from my era - the Evie of the mid 80s.

I don’t love it. There were always two or three of us in the class, and now it pigeon holes my age.

Not the worst thing in the world, but I’ve given my DDs more unusual names.

It's a shame if you spend your whole life as Olivia B or Evie A due to duplicates in your peer group but it's not always the top 10 names which end up being a duplicate so I would say it isn't worth worrying about unless you know of multiple babies already born very recently in your immediate area or friendship group with the name you are planning to use in which case I would choose something different

I have one of each- dd very very unusual, difficult Irish spelling, people have rarely heard of it even in NI.

Then DS with a mad popular “classic” name, guaranteed one in every school year.

No regrets about either, but I knew exactly the kind of names we were picking.

I do feel sorry for first time parents thinking they’ve picked this lovely, fresh sounding name like Oliver or Evie and then dc starts nursery or preschool and they realise that multiple other parents thought this too!

My DD (15yo) has a popular name. DH and I had always talked about calling our DD that (it's my grandmother's name) and then it suddenly became very popular but we went ahead anyway. There was another girl in her primary class with the same name and a couple of others in her year at secondary.

No regrets here. We still love the name and she really likes it too!

Tough one. I didn’t have a popular name for my era, and my son doesn’t either (partly because I didn’t want to, but equally the name I loved happened to be unpopular). I’m pregnant again and purposefully choosing a name which isn’t overly popular atm (but it might be in a few years who knows!)

i don’t like the idea of my child having a name where he is known as “Timmy H” or “Timmy G” in school, but equally I’m of the belief that you should name your child what you want! If you’ve always loved it and it has personal
meaning, you might regret it.. I couldn’t go through life loving a name then not using it!

i can’t remember the site, but some places list the popular names by area, eg Number 1 in the country might be number 10-20 in the area you live

There’s such a big variety of girls names that even the “popular” ones aren’t that common. Look at the ONS baby names to look at how many girls actually had the name last year. It always surprises me how low the numbers are even for the most popular names.

Use the name you love.

If you love it- go for it regardless. I have 3 DD’s all with names that I’d say are more unusual to hear but I love very popular names for boys like Noah & George and would happily have used them.

I’m one of 3 people at my work with my name (it doesn’t bother me at all) but I was the only one all through school, so sometimes it just can’t be predicted

There were 2 other girls with the same first name as me at one time in my class. I never really thought about my name growing up but I’m 50 now and have decided that I really love my name. Both my dc have traditional, fairly popular names. I like traditional names.

My two eldest have slightly old fashioned names that aren’t very common but not unusual. My youngest is Freddie and I regret that now as he’s one of many. I wish I’d chosen a name in the same ballpark popularity wise as the first two.