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?

Summer that is true!

I find it very difficult to read and comment on posts where people write one thing and it turns out they mean something different.

I mean a name that was thought about, had meaning, some significance to our family and the non conformist people I hope they will be...not a name chosen from an approved list.

And I find aggressive posters very tiresome. Have a lovely weekend all! Over and out.

I mean a name that was thought about, had meaning, some significance to our family and the non conformist people I hope they will be...not a name chosen from an approved list.

First of all, why didn't you write that?
Second, I don't think people choose names from "approved lists", although in fact, where I live there is such a list.
Third, what makes you think that other parents don't think about the names they give their children, consider their meaning or significance to their family? Some popular names now were also popular when the children's grandparents were born. See a pattern there?

And, again, how do you think a name will make anyone more or less conformist? In fact, I suspect an unusual name will make a child want to blend in more, given that they will attract enough attention due to their names. And that a child with a very common name will want to get noticed more.

Aggressive? Sure.

Summers At one stage it was popular amongst parents of Indian origin to give their DCs British first names because they thought an Indian name would hold them back in life which is quite sad really.

I read about this in the recipe book 'Cooking with Mummyji' by Vicky Bhogal. She also mentions her sister's name is Karen.

I also have a work contact called Steve and after corresponding by email setting up appointments etc, when I finally met him in person, I admit to being slightly surprised that he too was of Indian Heritage (his last name was obviously 'foreign' but not one I recognised from anywhere and not one that was a common Indian name such as Singh, Patel, Bhogal, Chaudry etc).

I have a very common 1970s name but I was still the only one with that name in my primary school and I think there were two of us in the secondary school. I think I was a victim of what notafish describes as 'lumbering your child with an outdated faddy name or catching the end of popularity'

Everyone else was Sarah, Joanne, Clare, Karen, Vicky, Tracey - there were loads of those.

I think to pick a top 10 name shows a very obvious need to conform. Or a lack of imagination. I haven't ever understood it to be honest

Does it? Really? i find your attitude peculiar...

Lweji stop being so aggressive 😂

People keep talking about you-neek names versus top 10 names - this just isn't the comparison.

For me the common traditional names like James are not an issue, but there are so many faddish names, especially for girls. People saying that they "just happen to like the name" don't stop and think why it is that they just happen to like a name that nobody else liked 10 years' ago but everyone loves now.

And in my experience people with top 10 girls' names actually think they are being original as the names weren't popular in our day. My gazillion friends with Emilias/Amelias announced the name as if they had invented it.

My experience was totally different Daisy. In fact, my husband is called Oliver. It was thought of as bit posh boy rugger bugger in the 80s but not unusual at all

I suspect it's mostly people who are very average who find the need to name their children something unusual.

I think to pick a top 10 name shows a very obvious need to conform. Or a lack of imagination. I haven't ever understood it to be honest

I picked DD's name in my first year at prep where I started age 9. Sadly I wasn't able to predict the future fashion of name choices

I'm having a nightmare with this, we picked out George as a name we liked ages ago as it's my grandfathers name who died when I was young. Now we still want to use it if this baby is a boy but I don't want him to be one of hundreds in his class.

Barbaraofseville, i do know indians who gave english first names but because they are christisn rather than Hindu but then again they usually have christian surnames. But of a shame if they are given an english name so they 'fit in'.
My ds is half Indian and we decided that as he has a Hindu surname he would have a Hindu first name. He is 12 now and he never asked why we didn't give him an english name, and he is the only one we know with his name prob because we live in a primarily white British part of UK

Bubble Yes, I'm sure there will be an element of the sort of area you grew up in and the sort of schools you went to that affected the names you were familiar with - exactly the same as today. I went to a rural primary and a large northern comprehensive and there were no Olivers there.

I think to pick a top 10 name shows a very obvious need to conform. Or a lack of imagination. I haven't ever understood it to be honest.

Why don't you read the thread then? Plenty of people, including myself, have explained why they picked the names they did.

It's also been pointed out that there HAS to be a top 10 and probably no one ever has picked a name purely because it's currently in the top 10.

YABU. Not everyone reads or cares about the top 20 names! I have a really unusual name - I have never met anyone with the same name in all my life. My husband and I chose names we both liked for both my son and daughter. After they were born I discovered their names were in the top 20, but it would not have changed our decisions if I had of realised before we named them.

I mean a name that was thought about, had meaning, some significance to our family and the non conformist people I hope they will be...not a name chosen from an approved list.

The top 10 name we picked for our DC is one that was thought about, had meaning and had a great deal of significance to our family.

I'm a bit unclear about what is meant by non-conformist, but there's plenty of examples of extraordinary people who were given very ordinary names, so I don't think it likely that having a top 10 name will hold my DC back in life.

My parents are retired teachers. Without exception, the kids they taught who were given "yooneeque" names hated their names and asked to be called something normal instead (e.g. Tron, named after the shit 80s computer/VR film, who asked to be called Steven).

Popular names are generally popular because they are nice names.

If you are worried about your kids name being too popular, then pick a name that is uncommon but still a genuine name. Names tend to come and go in trends - hence the current popularity of very old fashioned names like Ivy and Elsie that had been very out of favour for a long time.

I'm currently pregnant with my first child, so discussing names a lot. My favourite boy name is very popular (top 20), my favourite girl name there were only dozens of people given that name last year.

Suggesting I desire "ordinariness" for my child is therefore ridiculous. We just happen to really like those two names. It goes without saying that whether this baby ends up being a boy with a very popular name or a girl with a rare name, I will want them to be happy and successful and encourage them to express their individuality. I just don't think their name needs to be unique to do so. 😊

Not your child why would you care? You can name your children however you like. With my children I didn't even look up names to know what was popular versus what wasn't. I just made a list of about 10 names for each gender that I quote liked and once they were born we went through them and decided which one we liked best. Not sure whether they were popular or not but neither of my children have children in their class with the same name. They aren't unusual names either.

The name tables list names with different spellings as different names, so a name that generally only has one spelling, for example, Oliver, can actually appear higher than other more common names.

I thought I was having a girl and had some ideas but had a boy who was v poorly and given hours to live, we chose a name quickly that we liked and had family connections but only after he was getting well and we registered did we know it was a top 10 name! He has been one of three in a class and now only one in whole year group. His name has variations so never an issue. I have an unusual name that I spend my life correcting and/or spelling 🙄 My friends daughter has an unusual name and hates it so is changing it to Mary! I think you can be whatever you want to be but a name may effect (rightly or wrongly!) how others initially judge you....a judge called Chardonnay et al 😉

I picked a name that was in the top ten at the time. I loved the name and dd suits it perfectly. There isn't another one in her class, although she was upset by this in reception as there was a 'set' of Lilly's and Jessica's - kids are funny.
I remember my friend trying to put me off the name but I went with it. I think they're common because they are nice. I think who cares? I also think there is this competition to have the most unusual name now and that there are some very odd names about in an effort to be unique. 🙄

I think YABU. I don't understand why people go out of their way to give their kids unusual names. My DD has a traditional name and my DS has an unusual name. I didn't pick either for either of those reasons just because I liked them. I really couldn't care if there was 100 of them at the same school or not.