Is Arlo too popular?

I'm a vet and I know quite a few dogs named Arlo. It's rising in popularity here for puppy names. Don't know any children though.

I don't like it, but many do. I think it will date very badly. However, I really don't understand the objection to "popularity". Unless you call your child wheeliebin or cauliflower there will be others with the same name - does it matter? They'll still be unique and precious to you.

"Try-hard name" yes because you don't want people to think you gave more than a passing thought to naming your child!

Too popular is entirely subjective. There are enough parents who choose top ten names to keep them popular. Some parents will only look at names outside of the top 50, others the top 500.

It’s worth noting with name popularity that the most popular names are used less often than the most popular names used to be used (73% of boys had a top hundred name in 1996 vs 46% in 2022). The names that were popular when you were at school will have been given to a higher percentage of babies again. So the five Toms in a class effect should be less of a concern these days, as parents are picking from an increasingly wide pool of names.

Name trends are also highly localised. You can look up name data per region, I don’t think that’s super helpful as pockets of popularity are often more local than that. Not sure if you have any friends with babies in your area, but might be worth asking how many Arlos they know.

is a name which rose up very quickly in popularity and may well fall down just as quickly in due course. That means he’ll be tied to his generation by his name, and also due to the two syllable ending in O trend (which I don’t think is inherently bad). But when he grows up and starts work and is in mixed aged environments, he won’t be alongside an existing generation of Arlos, and possibly won’t have more an more Arlos joining him for the rest of the life. Thomas, which is very close to Arlo on the 2022 data, but has been in the top hundred every year since records began will have a compounding effect of many Thomases from every generation which Arlo doesn’t have, which will make it feel more unusual.

The only Arlo I know is a cat. Popularity only tells you so much - all 3 of my DCs had names which weren't particularly popular at the time they were born - and all have ended up in a class with someone of the same or similar name. It's really not a problem

I think Arlo is a good name for a clown, a dog or a horse.

For a child? not so much...

It’s such a try hard name. It screams look how different and unusual we are and is now quite common.

It depends what you mean by "too popular". There are only a couple of thousand out of 300000 baby boys born every year, so probably I per primary school.....

Don't really get what wrong with being popular tho, it generally means people like it.

I know one age 5 and one age 14.
I really like it and Arlo James is lovely.

I know too many Arlos, sorry.

Others like it ..
Carlos
Charles
Heartly
Miles
Arristos
Walter
Wilbur
Arthur

These are some of the funniest names I've ever read. Arlo Valerian. Brilliant.

I’ve never met an Arlo, it certainly isn’t a popular name in my area. It is a hugely popular brand of home security system though, which is what I thought this thread was about when I saw it in trending.

I don’t know any! Maybe it’s quite region specific?

Too popular is hard to define, as we all have different tastes and experiences. What is 'too' popular for some will be fine for others. Some will even find top 100 'too' popular whereas others wouldn't think twice to pick a top 10 name, especially if they don't already know lots themselves as, despite what the stats suggest, it doesn't feel overly popular to them (I am one of those people).

Personally, popularity doesn't bother me too much as days of 3 in a class with the same name are all but gone. People pick from such a wide pool of names now that top 20 now receive less registrations per year than names just scraping in the top 50 use to get when we were kids. Plus there are pockets of popularity, so some names are hardly used in some areas despite being one of the most popular names in others.

However, I do personally try to steer clear of the rapidly rising names rather than those that are steadily popular as they do tend to fall as quickly as they rose and then become synonymous with that era. I do feel Arlo will be one of those. It's come out of nowhere in the last 8 years or so after being used in a Disney film and by a few z list celebrities, rising ridiculously quickly. Will people still be choosing it in their droves in the next 10 years? I doubt it. Whereas names like Thomas, William, James etc will still be up there, as they are classically popular. Nobody could instantly guess the age of your child if you told them he was called one of those names, whereas everyone would know he's a late 2010s or 2020s baby if he's called Arlo. It will date him somewhat. Think 'Charlene' of the late 80s/early 90s.

Arlo is one of those names which many still won't see as overly popular if they don't know many kids under 5s, as that's the age group they're mostly found in currently. If you work with under 5s though, they are ten a penny.

Personally I'm not keen. It just sounds like someone who drops their aitches pronouncing Harlow, which is a real dump. "She's from 'Arlo". Not for me.

I work with children I'd say it's second tier in popularity. So the very popular boys names are Archie, Alfie, Oliver, Harry, Charlie, Noah. There's usually at least four or five in a school year. I'd say arlo is the second group along with Arthur, luca, Lucas, Luke, Kyle. There's usually a couple of these each year.

The problem in my opinion is not just that it's relatively popular, but that it's risen so fast. Names that climb fast usually fall very fast too.

It obviously doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is a name that is going to date massively - in 30, 40 years, it will very much be a 'man of a certain age' name, like Gary or Darren.

This is what would put me off it - not how much it's used, but that trendy pretty much always becomes untrendy.

Jeremy Clarkson has a grandDAUGHTER named Arlo

You know a name is popular when the ‘celebs’ start using it for the opposite gender to normal people

I don't know any and really don't like the name either.

It's awful

I have met about 20-25 and they are all 15 and under.

I work with youth groups so meet a lot but if I had to guess a name on approach, Arlo for a boy and Isla for a girl would turn several heads if I shouted them in any group.

I wouldn’t consider a top 20 name (or a top 500 name) just because for me it fails at the primary purpose of a name - to identify and differentiate you from everyone else.

Oh and I love James! Gorgeous name and even more lovely that it’s a family name too. I don’t know any Arlos (I have a 3.5 year old) so absolutely use Arlo James if you love it. They’re lovely names