Why do people give such basic names that will be an administrative nightmare?

😯

Have you met this person? How do you know there's only one other person with the same name combo???

From my experience of working with medical records having what you think is an non 'bog-standard' name is not going to stop you having the same name as someone else.

😂

Say how you feel, don’t hold back!

True though. At what point do you just say ‘no, be more careful.’ I mean if it was Izzy Thomas and Isla Thomas is that ok? Or Izzy Thomson and Isla Thomas? At what point should the school teachers and admin staff actually just take some responsibility and double check which child they are writing about? I mean these two girls had totally different surnames!

Flourbabies by Anne Fine is, I think, the definitive example of this.

Jesus 😂

My friend took an exam when we were in school (10 years ago) for someone in the year above us because there were THREE of them with the exact same name and it was on her timetable 🤣

It isn't the same as the 80's now though because the volume of people using Noah and Olivia is much smaller than the volume of people using Claire or Kelly back in the 80's.

Statistically, a Noah may share a name with one other boy in his class but it would be very unusual now for him to be one of 3 or 4 Noah's in one class.

First name initial. Obviously we don't all have the same first name in the cult I've created

So you are advocating that, due to human admin cock ups, parents should name their child according.

Why not numbers?

I have the same first name, no middle name, and last name as my mother and sister.

No bailiffs or other admin cock ups in 54 earth years.

Being called Tom Smith is going to be a major win against people tracking you online.

I would honestly rather this than having to keep spelling my name every time I introduce myself.

There are a much more diverse range of names.being used now too, that repeats are very minimal.

It is very tiresome that so many posters insist on applying a false dichotomy to this discussion. There are literally thousands of name options on the spectrum of popularity between Oliver and, for example, Merlin.

The people denying this always be an issue probably don't have really basoc names! My name is a name that there were about 3 of in every class during the 80s (Louise, Kelly, Claire etc) and my surname is a colour.

The attachment put on my wages by a random court wasn't the only issue I've had due to this just the biggest ballache!

I've also had debt collectors phoning me for debts that are someone else's with the same name and date of birth (not actually turning up though thankfully!), and an ongoing saga where Virgin Media kept emailing me to say they were installing my broadband at an address I was planning to move to but didn't- a year later, me cancelling, and them sending more appointments. Turned out someone with the same name as me (and there's lots of us!) had bought the same bloody house as we nearly did and was trying to get Virgin installed and I was scuppering her plans by cancelling it 😅
She was probably also cursing our name then!

Also, Esmeralda Smith or Phoenix Smith is hilarious )))

I've heard someone who called their kid Ikea. To me, any Emily, Elizabeth or Emma is way better than Dove, Cesca, India or Enema )))

I LOVE ordinary traditional names, no matter now common they might be. Lovely. When I see people on here considering "original" names I always think of Kath and Kim )))
"Eppo'knee-Rae"
"Tiramisu, that's nice"
"Michael Jackson called his kid blanket. Blanket? Oooh, that's nice."
"I heard some great names at the hospital - Catheta Enema for a girl, or how about Lupus for a boy? And Italian names are so cute, how about Cardio for a boy?"
"Tifany spelt Typhphanniii"

I think most people try to avoid overly popular names but it isn’t always that simple. DD’s name was popular in the 80s (she’s less than 2) but it’s having a bit of a surge not due to anything with popular media (that we’re aware of anyway), it just seems to be a name that is coming back round.

How much pandering do you suggest should be done in order to make admin idiot-proof, though?

Parents don't have crystal balls, and the likelihood of your child running across such a crew of slapdash, borderline illiterates in the same school are very slim.

If it's a name they love, they shouldn't avoid it. It can also quickly change and suddenly, the name you picked out of the top 10 is a top 10 name the next year.

and like I said before, less people are using top 10 names now anyway so the stories of 4 Jack's and 6 Emily's in one class as an example is far less likely than what it used to be with Michael's and Sarah's of the past.

OP has been given a ridiculously hard time and I agree with her. The kind of administrative issues she describes are not as rare as many seem to think. In my last school there were two children in the same year group with identical names (first, middle, and surname) and mirrored dates of birth, eg 06.05.12 and 05.06.12. The Google ‘findability’ criterion is a strange argument. In academia, medicine, law etc it’s incredibly important to be easily identified by your name for the purposes of citations. I know several academics with very common surnames who were careful to give their children two middle names for exactly this reason.

I’m afraid I will never understand why parents with the surname Smith would name their child Oliver or Olivia. Sorry.

@ThatFraggle , because they didn't read the OP properly.

I get what OP is saying.
I have a common first name and my maiden name is uncommon.
Then I got married and ended up with a very common surname.

I share the exact same name with someone in my department, overtime was claimed by myself and she got paid for it instead of me.

I would so much rather have a traditional bog standard name than one of the ridiculous made up names that some people suggest on Mumsnet. There were a couple of children in my daughter's class at primary school with really unusual silly names and they were teased mercilessly. I've also never understood the point of having middle names.

Two anecdotal stories on a social media forum does not in any way prove your point. I didn't say it was impossible, I said it was unlikely - because the bailiffs would have to fail to carry out a series of other checks to make sure they had the right person. And it's easy enough to complain about them if they don't rectify the problem, same as energy firms etc.

Also, let's say I agree with you, theoretically. The common names change every season - so I might think I was giving my child an uncommon name and then boom! A million kids in the same class with identical names. It happened the year my DD was born - this was quite a few years ago now. Lily is her middle name, and I'd been planning to use it for her first name. Then all of a sudden, a ton of Lily's started springing up everywhere. There were four girls called Lily in her nursery class! If I had given birth six months before, I would have called her Lily and then she'd be in a sea of other Lilys!

It would just be an absolute ball ache to try and figure out exactly what names to avoid because it will constantly change. And in my opinion, totally unnecessary as any "admin difficulties" will be a) pretty rare, and b) easily rectified.

The only time I concede you've got a point is for multiple generations living at the same address with the same name - grandfather/father/son. Creditors might not spot the DOB difference if the name/address matches.

Also, we're discussing a very Anglicised version of names - there are some communities where it's much more common for people to have identical/family names. I don't see oodles of complaints about incorrect bailiffs, admin errors etc.

The whole idea that someone might avoid a name because of some potential admin cock-up in the future is honestly quite amusing. But I don't mean that unkindly, genuinely! I mean, everyone picks the names for their own DC - so just use whatever criteria you want. I don't know what went through some of the celebrities' minds when they picked names like bloody Apple, North, or Brooklyn - so you know, horses for courses and all that!