Are popular names really all that bad?

I agree with this, nothing wrong with being popular but then people say they are going with e.g. Willow to be 'different' (fwiw I think it's lovely but no longer out of left field!)

Anyway, thanks ONS for keeping us right 😁

DD has a name that has been top 20 for the last 25 years or so, but we had no idea - I had only been living in the UK for a couple of years, didn’t know any children, it didn’t occur to me to look at the ons list because I didn’t even know it existed, plus we picked a name that was not on our shortlist after she was born and we looked at her, so probably wouldn’t have known anyway. We love her name still. But, most importantly, she’s 15 and I asked her what it’s like having a very popular name. First she looked at me like she’s never given it any thought whatsoever, then said it’s absolutely fine and she doesn’t mind.

I'm 50 and my name is Megan which wasn't a very popular name when I was a child. I never met another one.

Now there are tons of Megans. There are another three in my office. I really like being Megan S. It feels a bit like being in a club. I don't see the issue in it.

There are 3 Amelia’s and an Emilia in my daughters school year of 40. It happens.

Isabella/isabelle are extremely common. just in my office, 3 ladies who had babies within 6 months of each other all called their baby’s Isabella all with the nn Bella.

as someone who grew up with a popular name and being one of 5 in a class with the same name I was never giving my kids a popular name. Personally I think the top 30 names are mostly dreadful names anyway

My DCs names have been top 10/20 for more than the last decade. Neither had another with the same name in their class at primary. There was never more than one other child with the same name in the whole school. My eldest is at secondary and there is one other with the same name in their year group. There seems to be so much variety if name choices now that duplicates are less likely. I'm a primary school teacher and rarely have duplicate names in the same class.

My DC love their names. I was the only one in either my primary or secondary school with my name and I hated it because I was very shy and felt like it made me stand out.

We had four Gillians in our class of twenty six at secondary school. Three of them had surnames that began with the final letters of the alphabet so as we were seated alphabetically at single desks, they were all in one row front to back. We thought it was quite cool as I remember and it didn’t seem to bother them.

Religion wasn't really founded on equality. I'm a Christian and Mary was only around to have the baby boy and become the man.

I'm not sure why that's odd? Culturally, a lot of Muslims use Muhammad as a boy's first name in honour of the prophet. A lot of these will actually call him something else - and some may even have multiple sons called Muhammad. There isn't really an equivalent for girls, so girls names are much more diverse - obviously Maryam and Fatima are particularly popular as the table shows.

What I find odd about the 2022 ONS list is that Muhammed is the #2 boy name but there is no equivalent girl name(s) at the top of the girl list.

I gave my son a name that fewer than three children born in his birth year had.

Yes, I was one of six girls of my name in a class of 30 throughout primary, and it was a name where there were always two or three others in all settings. It made me feel completely generic, not like an individual. To the point where I still remember the first time I automatically turned in the street when someone shouted my name, and by then I was in my 20s and living abroad where my name was unheard of.

I don’t think it matters - it’s very random which names will double up in classes - my son has a top 5 name and is the only one in his school, whereas there are two boys in his class with the same name from outside the top 100!!

As previously mentioned, just watch for “hidden” popularity in the stats, eg all the different versions of Isabel / Isabelle / Isabella / Isobel actually make it much higher in the charts than it looks. Whereas a name like George looks high up in the charts but only has one spelling and no similar names, so is actually less likely to double up with something similar.

I suppose if pressed I'd say I find it a bit basic bitch having a top of the list popular name but then realistically I tend not to think much about it because these things can be family oriented in terms of loved lost relatives or whatever.

I just went through the top 20, and in my child’s year group of about 50, only 5 children have a name in the top 20. None are duplicated. The only repeat name across the year group is ranked around 70 (and it’s used 3 times!). There are lots of short girls names ending in ‘a’ though.

There were 208 boys with my sons name in Scotland in the year he was born, it was in the top 100 but not top 20.
Turns out 4 of those 208 are in his class in school!
He also went to nursery with a boy with the same name who ended up going to a different school.
It's total pot luck.

I wouldn’t be put off a name I loved because it’s a popular one.

Theres a much wider pool of names used these days than 30 plus years ago, so compared with their parents generation, a child born now with a top 10 name is much less likely to meet a peer sharing their name.

Of course you do still get clusters of children with the same name, but it’s not all that easy to predict which names are going to crop up in your DC’s school etc.

My DC1 has a top 10 name, but the only 2 children in his class at primary school that shared a name had a name that was ranked around 125 in the baby name statistics for that birth year. He’s now at secondary school, and he’s the only child in his whole year group with that particular top 10 first name.

Nope, I don’t think there is anything wrong with even the most popular of names now in terms of numbers. This isn’t the 80’s anymore when there could be 3 or 4 Sarah’s or 3 or 4 Christopher’s in a class. Now the number one name will still likely be the only one in a class - maybe 2 at most. And that’s assuming your child will even care - certainly with the some of the kids I know, they are happy about it as it means they fit in with their peers 🤣

BUT I think the popularity thing sometimes gets pointed out because so many names are quite similar. Not everyone realises that by the time you add all the spelling variants and commonplace diminutives for a name together ( plus maybe soundalikes or one letter difference names) that the name they thought wasn’t that popular actually has bigger numbers than some of the top names and it could be a shock for some parents who thought they were choosing something more unusual.🤷‍♀️

I also think some people use “too popular” when what they actually mean is too trendy and that’s the reason they dislike the name 🤔 Noah and George are both very popular for example - but one is more likely to stand the test of time in terms of not being able to guess the age of the man. Noah stands out as more popular in their minds because all the ones they’ve met have been their kids friends - not like Uncle George or Next door Neighbour George.

I get what you’re saying about the stats but there are definitely pockets of names, which means a name would be more likely in that area. Our small nursery class of about 15 has two sets of duplicate names. Both names are top 20 but out of the top 10. Plus two sets of names that sound very similar - Leo/Theo.

It matters to some parents because they grew up being one of 3/4 Rachel/Jessica/Jordan/Daniel and they don’t want that for their kids. If it matters to you, speak to your midwife about names she’s seen that year. That’ll give you an indication of what is happening in your area and if your area is full of Octavia, Phoebe, Clementine, Persephone then an Olivia should be fine.

I just wanted to avoid the kind of situation of being one of the 6 Katy/Katies in my year at school. We basically made a decision to avoid anything from most recent top ten of names, not that there were any names I really loved in those anyhow.

It’s just completely unpredictable within a class/school too. My daughters year group (60) has loads of double names: 2 Olivias (of course) but also 2 lunas, 2 Stanleys and 2 girls called robin (not Robyn!) and my daughter’s name is top 100 but nowhere near top 10 and there are 2 of her name too!!

so you could pick a more unusual name and yet still end up not being the only one in a class.

The popular names in my area tend to be the more unusual names. I don’t think you can tell which names will be most common in your DC’s class.

My kids both have names that were in the top ten for the years they were born, but they were the only ones in their year at primary school and I think possibly one other at their large secondary.

Pick names you love.

@Cattenberg Funnily enough I almost used Kylie as an example there. Born circa 1989.

Depends on the era. I’m 60, the Tracy, Debra, Sharon, Julie dominance was too much. Likewise my neighbour (6 years younger) married a Darren with sister Karen and best friend Wayne.

I’m not sure if anything has been similar to that era. With the possible exception of how many Hannah’s there used to be circa 1988-2002.

But ultimately it’s best to just choose a name you like and live with it if it’s popular

I personally find that some names loose their sparkle when there’s numerous children that you know with that name. Couple of examples.. there are 3 Lily’s in dd’s dance school. When dd tells me something about one of the Lily’s, in order to differentiate them, they are referred to as pretty Lily, tall Lily and blonde Lily.

Two Isla’s.. big Isla, little Isla (I also know two baby Isla’s)

Two Jack’s in dd’s primary class, known as Jack B and Jack T.