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?

notanotherNC

Is it Nigel?

I would say so, I have only meet a couple of people in my life with the same name as me and I'm not a big fan of it. Also the point you make about people desiring originality for their children, Hello ! Your bringing a brand new person in to the world, how can they be any more original than that ? Finally having an interesting/unique name does not make an interesting unique person, I have meet some people with unusual names who to be honest have been unbearable and some people with names like Matt for example who light up a room. Basically what I'm saying your child will be original for their own personality, the morals and characteristics they take from the job you do raising them and no name will ever be a substitute for that.

DD's name only just made it into the top 200.

DS's name was in the top 5. Obviously knew it was popular but really didn't care!

I really don't get this angst about having a Top 10 name. All the girls in my class with a popular name wanted an unusual one. I have an unusual old fashioned name and always wanted a popular one.
Pick a name you love or more importantly you think your child will love and don't worry about what everyone else is doing!!

I think it's hard. I like Ella for dd (15) and had hardly heard it then but there are 4 Ella's in her year group now. The name I chose was unusual then but becoming more popular now.
I think you should choose s name based on how you like it, not its popularity though saying that I do feel a bit meh when another person has a newborn Emily or Riley x

I have an uncommon name. Hated it as a child and all the questions that went with it.

Both dc have very simple traditional "top 10" names, although there is a family link, I think I liked them for being so ordinary and "plain"

Do you realise that until post ww2, the range of names used was v small indeed. I read in a textbook about social anthropology that in 1900, 70% of english men had one of 10 names ...john, henry, george, william etc. Everyone survived that era.

I think it is best if people choose whatever they want, but consider that their child has to deal with the name forever. So unpronounceable, oddly spelt or fashionable fusion names may not be great forever. Just needs some thought so no one is spending their life explaining their name or feeling wierd about it.

(disclaimer: I have a common name, esp popular in 80s when i was born, I have never minded. My two boys have top ten names (not sure if current top ten) and I am fine with that.

Lots of traditional names date. Richard for example.

But that's because they're all Dicks.

lol

I've actually met a few Richard's who insisted on being called Dick. I really struggled to understand that one.

Bet you Richard will be rising back up the charts within the next 50 years or so though.

Is it really ANYONES business except the parents ?? Wow some people just seem to want to be in everyone elses business. I have and will always love love the name Sam ...if we were to have a girl she was going to be a Sam ...Birth Cert Samantha...if we had a boy he was going to be Sam ...birth cert Samuel. So sue me Samuel has been in the top 50 (in and out of top 10) for decades, DON'T care. As it stands we have only come across 5 other Sam/Samuels in 13 years obviously they are all in some other area of the country.

I was going to say YABU... but then, we all judge names. I inwardly groan when I see hyphenated names. Your pet hate is just really common names.
My DS has a pretty common name. I just love the name. Also it's a traditional name that falls in and out of fashion a bit but shouldn't date too horribly the way a Jackson, Harrison, Archie or Alfie presumably will.
We never put too much thought into it really. It just felt right. Still does.

Don't want to totally out myself but it was a girls names. :)

I agree. Cant understand why you'd choose a name hundreds of kids already have tbh but each to their own....

I have a common name (for 80s girls) but I still never got my name on a mug because it's spelled with a -y not -ie. Bitter, me? Now I work for a global company, and there are four of us with this name, all with the -y spelling. It's so weird!

I married into an extremely unusual surname, so I don't mind too 10 names, as it's one name that DC won't have to spell or have people pass comment on: "oh you're called George? How common" - no, it will be comments on how unusual his surname is, and where does it come from...

DD's name was 120-something the year she was born. This year it's up to 80-something. She's 7, and gets annoyed that she can't find her name on anything (I can relate), and she loves coming across other people with her name as it's such a novelty and she feels like she's in a special club.

I haven't got a clue what I like for DC3. Ranking in the tables doesn't bother me particularly, but I don't think I'll choose another top 3 name if I can help it.

I think it's the safe name gang that are being judgy. Anything outside of the top 20 is apparently odd and hard to spell.

In my forty plus years on this planet I have only ever met two other people with my name and they were both significantly older than me. Having an unusual name really hasn't affected my life either positively or negatively at all.

if my daughter hears her name on TV she thinks she's famous lol

I picked my 6mo name (Amelia) as I love it. I have an unusual name with a spelling that causes a lot of confusion over getting it spelled correctly and then people looking st it and automatically seeing a different name. Annoys the hell out of me. My fiancés surname is very unusual, his family is the only family in the uk with it. We wanted a familiar name where she didn't have to spell it all out constantly. And I'll reiterate, we love the name. You are being unreasonable as it bears no difference on your life at all what others call their kids, but it does make a difference to the person called it!

I in fact never even heard my name on anything until I bought my daughter a random barbie dvd from a charity shop and the barbie princess had my name i as a full grown adult actually got excited that I was a princess in a barbie movie lol

I have a George.

It's traditional, a nice name. I don't care it's in the top ten. These sorts of names last a lifetime and never go out of fashion- there's a reason the royals use these sort of names.

Some of the unusual names are passing trends that will sound silly in ten/twenty years time and won't suit a fifty/sixty/eighty year old in my opinion.

it's not worth trying to stand out for the sake of it.

My DCs both have top 20 names. I picked one because of a family connection and one just because we both liked it. They are both good solid names that shouldn't date too much and are easy to spell. We have a surname that ALWAYS has to be spelled out so I thought that was enough for them to deal with. I think it's funny that people think a name being popular is just so awful. Yes it's a bit of a pain if there are 2 or more in a class but it's really not a big deal and you can't predict that it won't happen with a less common name anyway, unless you pick something completely out there/made up.

I would never choose a 'unique' name.
Classic and strong name is what i think is timeless. There is nothing ordinary about it, quite opposite i would say.
I quite liked the study about the baby names presented in Freakonomics book back in 2005, think its still true in 2017.

It's traditional, a nice name. I don't care it's in the top ten. These sorts of names last a lifetime and never go out of fashion- there's a reason the royals use these sort of names

Philip, Albert? George will be the Ian of 2040..

I have an unusual first name and surname and I'm the only one in the UK, possibly the world with the combo. My children all have fairly standard first names as I have spent my whole life having to spell mine, it was even incorrect on the school register so it was wrong on my name peg, drawer etc!

BoysofMelody as mentioned later in the thread my 38 year old husband is called Oliver

His grandad was jack- although as you say, his birth certificate was John.

Sorry, I don't agree. A name like George or Philip has more chance of standing the test of time than some of the more unusual names. And it's not just about that- it's about making sure that a name will suit someone for life, without making them stand out for the wrong reasons.

I only know 2 Zachs, and they are both spelled Zachary 😉