To wonder why you would pick a name in the top 10?

[FreckledFrog]

So the latest top 100 baby names have been released this week. It has prompted me to wonder why on earth you would pick a name in the top 10-20 names.

There are thousands of beautiful, unique names out there, yet so many people are happy to pick the same names despite knowing their children will go to school with multiple Olivia's, Noah's, Amelia's or George's.

Do these people not desire some originality for their children?

Am I being unreasonable? I have a very very unusual name and have picked less common names for my children and I wonder if this clouds my judgement?

Just to add there are some pretty terrible surnames.
I'm always bemused when a child is lumbered with its fathers awful surname when the mother had a much nicer surname, especially if the dads ne is one which can easily be made fun of.

Just to add there are some pretty terrible surnames.
I'm always bemused when a child is lumbered with its fathers awful surname when the mother had a much nicer surname, especially if the dads ne is one which can easily be made fun of.

They're lovely names.

I don't get the class thing.
Prince Charles and Oscar Wilde aren't viewed as WC surely

Top 10 are classless.

It's when you get into the world of the "unique" that it gets murky.

Tealdeal747

Those lists say more about you than about the names.

Charles is MC
Charlie is WC

Places like Eton are full of boys called Charlie!

Agree about 'murky' unique names.

In my job I come across 30 different primary aged children every week.

My ss has a name that might have been just in the top 50 when he was born. Fifteen years later it's on the top 20 and my ds goes to nursery with two. How can we predict these things? People choose a name they like.

Having had to spell out my surname on all occasions (and people still got it wrong!), I was delighted to become Mrs DH. (Bert will shout "bingo" at this point, but it is not one word of a lie!). As a result, I've always thought it is pretty miserable for a child to have a first name that a literate person cannot spell easily and without clarification. So I'd say much, much better to be Olivia than Destinee-Starr on those grounds alone.

Agree with Bertrand that names are a huge class signifier, though....

Places like Eton are full of boys called Charlie!

They are. But their birth certificates will often read along the lines of Benedict Charles StJohn Surname. They are unlikely to be "just" Charlie.

Generally i agree that a middle class Charlie would be a Charles.

"Bingo!"

Bert

I agree with you op! I have an unusual name-never met another. I like being unusual! I don't understand why parents don't want to give their child their own special name. There were 10 girls at our first toddler group 9 years ago. 8 of them were called Lily. This is in a small village!

And yes to names being a class signifier! Absolutely agree!

Most people are ordinary so it isn't a surprise that that is what they aspire for their child, too.

Yes, this. My DC all have unusual names, but I want them to have interesting lives and achieve greatness and I felt that unusual and aspirational names would help facilitate this.

Disclaimer: those who have read my other thread will know that this isn't quite going to plan

You can definitely predict these things!

I had a sense of which names (although they were out of the top 100 at the time) were going to sky rocket up the charts. Consulting name charts only corroborated my sense. so I guess I just knew. 15 years ago when I had a big bump, Amelia and Ruby weren't that high up the charts but it was just obvious somehow (?) that they were headed way up the chart. I don't know how I knew this though. It's just a zeitgeist that some are really tuned in to and I find it hard to understand how it's not obvious!

When I was pregnant with the twins we really struggled to come up with two boys names - I can think of a hundred girls names I love but I found boys names are either dull or complete hipster nonsense. Some of the more unique names I see popping up on announcements on Facebook make me do a hard eye roll to be honest - naming your child Wigbert or whatever is a pretty nasty thing to do in my opinion.

I definitely do not want my sons to be ordinary, but I also don't want them to be the subject of ridicule and eye rolling because of their names. I think it's definitely more difficult with boys to get away with unusual names. My two have names which are definitely in the top 50, one is probably in the top 20. I went to school with 2 other girls with my name although each spelled differently and it never did us any harm. In my current mum circle there are four named Florence, three named Reuben and two named Luca but none with my kids slightly more traditional names so picking a less common name doesn't protect you from this!

eg, in 2002, the name Isabelle was only at number 47 but it had risen 12 places from 2001. Most names go up or down a few places. To go up 12 places is a sure sign it's going to make it to the top five names.

Zoe, Phoebe and Lydia were names that I identifies in 2002 as being popular yes but their movement up the charts was slower than the other popular names I liked. I wasn't trying to ensure my child never encountered another child with the same name! I didn't want that either. Just didn't want child to be Sarah B. In the 70s everybody's name began with s. Siobhan, Sinead, Suzanne, Sarah, Sharon. Or a kuh sound. Claire, Karen. If somebody went rogue with a 'fancy' name in 1970s it was like Corinna :-p

Or Serena!

In the 1970s, Corinna and Serena were very ooh la la your parents had notions (while still conforming the popular kuh or ess sounds)

Interesting how name trends change. No Simon, Neil, Stephen, Duncan in the top 100 showing you don't have to go for an unusual name to be different and a lot of parents are trying to be different from the names of their generation but all picking the same different names, like Noah.

I was surprised Andrew wasn't there but I see it is in the top 100 Scottish names, albeit in the 40s.

The only name i wonder why people are still using is Jack. It's so unoriginal, flat and dull plus there are millions of them it practically just means boy nowdays IMO.