Are popular names really all that bad?

My new neighbour has a daughter called Kylie. I knew before being told, that she was born in the second half of the 80s. My neighbour said she was the only Kylie at her graduation ceremony. Fair enough, there aren’t that many Kylie’s. It’s just that virtually Kylie I’ve ever heard of was born in that era. Along with all the Kayleigh’s.

I have a Noah and I'm a teacher... I've never taught a Noah in 16 years and we also have no other Noah's in schools or friendship groups!

I fell in love with the name after Ryan gosling in the notebook!

The primary purpose of a name is to identify a person and distinguish him/her
from others. If your child ends up being one of four or five children in their school year with the same first name, then I’d argue that you haven’t done very well in this regard.

One of my old school friends is called Laura and she dislikes having to share her name with so many of our peers. Another school friend, Victoria, chose an unusual spelling of “Vicky” to distinguish herself from all the other Vickys.

I agree that you can’t always predict which names will be duplicated in your child’s peer group. In DD’s year, there are no Olivia’s, but there are four Amelia’s/Emilia’s and they are always known by their first name + surname.

I’m not really judging - my own DD occasionally gets confused with another girl who has a similar name - think Anna and Hannah or Jenny and Penny. And both of their middle names are Rose!

One possible consideration not mentioned is that the name may date quickly and therefore identify you as having been born in a particular era. E.g. someone called Karen, Julie or Debbie was probably born in the 70s, someone called Hannah or Laura was probably born in the 80s. Whereas a less common name is arguably less likely to be associated with a particular generation. Although not necessarily and these things are obviously very hard to predict.

What I really wouldn’t want to do though is choose a name which peaked in an earlier generation (e.g. Barbara, Susan) so that everyone assumes before meeting your child that they’re much older than they actually are.

I would have loved to have had a popular name growing up. I have an unusual name and I've hated it my whole life.
I chose 'popular' names for my children who are now teens. They have never been in a class with anyone else of the same name. I really don't understand why duplicate names bother's people.

Just pick a name you like. Use it. Who cares if others have the same name?

Every girl child in Scotland is called Isla these days. So what?

If I had a pen and paper at the moment I’d be inclined to do the maths on the groupings of similar names and see how many of those 300,000 girls born this year were called the likes of Eve/Evie/Eva/Ava/Aoife etc.

I was an 80s child and out of my friendship group 4 of us have the same name and 3 another. I really wouldn't worry.

Both of my children have really popular traditional names but they are the only children in their year at school with the name. I like classic names though as they never go out of fashion and I didn't really care if there were loads of other children with the same name.

Two of my friends did too

We called them by their first name and different middle names. Rachel Louise and Rachel Elizabeth.

Me too! My parents gave me a ‘classic, timeless’ ugly name; all I wanted was something fashionable and a bit pretty!

Me, dh, dd and ds all have incredibly popular names for the years we were born. Dh and I have at least 3 friends each with the same names as us. Dd and ds also - several kids in their classes and school years with the same names. I've never had a single moment's worry about any of it. When you think of all the things that matter and that you have to worry about, this pales into absolute insignificance.

I am pushing 80 now.When I was at school in the 1950s all girls born in December tended to be called Carol, Christine or Mary.Boys born in that month were almost all Christopher, Joseph or David.In my class there were four Carols, three Christines and a lot of Marys.
My own name was popular of the time but not in the top ten, you hardly find it in it's full version now, but it is quite popular in one of it's shortened forms.

My children have popular names and have only had one or no other children in the class with the same name. My son was in a class of 30 with 5 Sophie or Sophia which wasn’t the number one name that year.

When analysing ONS type lists, you should group similar names together to work out how likely a child is to share a similar name. Eg Eve/Eva/Evie/Ava/Evelyn because they sound similar so prone to being misheard by the kids.

One of my best friends in secondary school had the same name as me. Literally the same first name AND surname. We coped 😆

When my son was born 29 yes ago his name wasn't even in the top 100 (not the reason we chose it!) and in year 7 there were 3 in his class! (4 in his year group). It's a fairly popular name now, top 20 I suspect

Popular names means lots of people like them. This sounds like a good thing to me? We chose names we liked, not bothered where they were in the top lists. I only know my son wasn't in the top 100 cos I looked it up when he went into year 7 out of curiosity.

I'm with you, such a small amount of kids get given the top names these days that I really don't think popularity is a massive issue. Days of 3+ kids in a class with the same name are all but hone now. If it happens, it's more fluke than inevitably and can happen to any name in or around the top 100, not just the top 20.

Parents to be remember the days of each class having 4 Sarahs, 3 Michaels, 2 Davids etc but it's really not like that now. You're more likely to have a class of Harlow, Wyatt, Xander, Ocean, Lyra, Everett, Jasper, Nova, Otis and Ophelia etc as everyone strives to be different these days (and those parents are likely to be far more pissed off at a duplication that parents of Olivia, Ivy, Noah, Archie, Amelia, George, Theo, Isla etc, who were probably half expecting that it could happen).

I only tend to mention popularity as a 'negative' on here if it's in response to someone who is considering something currently very popular, despite saying they want to avoid popular names, as I'd assume they had no idea and would appreciate me pointing it out. Personally though, I'd much rather pick something I love even if it was statistically high up.

Why does it matter that another child has the same name? I’m curious because I’d have definitely preferred to have been one of several Lauras or Kates or Rachels than my own ‘unique’ name. It’s actually got some strengths to it but as a teenager I was just desperate to blend in a bit and people making a fuss over your first name is really not conducive to that.

My son has a popular name but he was the only one with that name in a school of 450. He then moved to a tiny school of 60 and there were two others with the same name in his class!

I agree that they’re popular for a reason - because lots of people like them. I’ve got a popular 60s/70s name. It’s fine. Easy for people to remember and makes me laugh when there are three of us sitting in a row at meetings.

I would just go with the names you love. I've only ever known one Amelia in the many years it's been popular, so as you say it's not a given. Just depends how much it bothers you. I have a child with a top 30 name and she's the only one in her class.

It's always been a problem! I'm in my seventies and there 5 Susans and 3 Jennifers out of 60 in my year at secondary school. Also 2 Beverlys, 2 Penelopes, 3 Patricias, 2 Marys, and even 2 Brionys. We managed.

I think it's the similar sounding ones. Eg Amelia, Emilia, Amelie. If you added together the Amelia's and Emilia's they would be wayyy more popular than Olivia.

Equally, the absolute army of Evie, Eva, Ava, Isla, Ivy names. They all mould into one.

My son has a name that has been top 10 for the past couple of decades, he’s the only one in the entire infant class, and there are doubles of other much less popular names so you can’t always guess it anyway 🤷🏼‍♀️