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?

The top 10 is usually just taken from names published in birth announcements. So a snapshot of the middle class

The other has a top 10 name as a middle name - it didn't even feature way back then, but was common within our family and I wanted to give a nod to it.

give me Oliver or Amelia over any 'youniqye' name any day!

Oddly enough, it's possible to have a name that isn't close to the Top 100, but isn't in any way "yoonique". Heck, there's royalty with my daughter's name, that's how classic and "normal" it is. It's still several hundred down the popularity charts.

Top 10 is from registered births

Obviously Mohammed would be first- those unoriginal ordinary Muslims! Get a personality guys

I much prefer unusual names, our toddler's name is about 800th on the list!!

That's because you're normal Dixie 😂

I had no idea if my DD's name was in the top 10, 100 or 1000 names when she was born in 99, I just really liked it!

Surely part of the practicality of naming a child is knowing whether they're going to spend the rest of their life as Sophie C or Will G.

Anyone who has a very common name will always be known with an added initial or part of their surname.

According to ONS there were only 14 girls named with my name in the year I was born. 1 of the other 13 was in the same class as me at school! The only other duplicates were 2 Sarahs and 2 Emmas.

The top 10 is usually just taken from names published in birth announcements. So a snapshot of the middle class

No, the top 10 is taken from the births registered at the registry office. They've looked at the names given to some 696,000 babies born last year and ranked all those names to get the top 10.

I had an Amelia in 2008 - it's in the top 10.

She's 9 now.

She's never met another one.

Would I care if she had?

No.

Why did I call her that? Because when I was at Uni I worked in a call centre and sat opposite a girl called Amelia. If ever anyone asked her name she used to say "my name is Amelia" and I always used to think how pretty it was.

That's it.

I like it.

I think people who purposely go out of their way to choose a 'yoo-nique' name overestimate what a problem it is for those who have a common name. It's a non issue for us. I only fret about it because of people who don't have a child with a popular name imagining what an issue it must be. It's really not. If you're happy choosing an unusual or less common name that's great. It doesn't really make your child anymore special though whatever you like to think.

My DD is called 625sfecdbsh and there are 4 others in her class.

Yanbu. I wouldn't used anything in the top 100 when I had my dc's.

My real life name is so common. There were four of us in most of my classes in secondary. And there's four of us in my office. And babies are still being given the name! It would be nice to just be known as Meglet, not Meglet A. My dc's probably won't get personalised stationery in gift shops but at least they won't confuse teachers / friends / employers.

I like the privacy from googling it will give them.

I think that's a definite bonus to having a popular name.

My 2nd DC was born in 2010 and their name isn't in the top 100.

I chose it because I heard it when I was doing work experience in a primary school when I was 15 and loved it.

Still love both my kids names.

It's also a fairly female thing - can't imagine too many Stephens or davids or johns getting stressed about how common their name is?

At home, though, they aren't known as Sophie C, are they? Or in the family?

I've just asked my Sophie C (not same name obviously) if she minds being called her name and an initial at school, she said she's used to it, it's no big deal, all the teachers do it and that she wouldn't want to change her name as it suits her.

It's just not a biggie to some children (or parents). She has a beautiful name that suits her, the fact that one other child in her class has the same name doesn't make it less so.

No, the top 10 is taken from the births registered at the registry office
No, births are registered at a register office.

Why does it matter to be known as Sophie initial or Sophie surname? Really. Why? Usually only when people are talking about them and it can be an advantage to have people know your full name.

Half agree. I don't know why you would want to name someone in the say top 5 or 10 unless it has real meaning/family name. It's not that hard to know what's in the top 10 it makes the news every year and is in the front of most of the baby name books. I wouldn't say I went unusual with names but I was conscious to go outside the top 20 and avoid anything increasing in popularity as I didn't want there to be tonnes of them.

Er? Are you being weirdly pedantic wishonalist?

Ds1 has a very unusual and uncommon name. Dd has a very common name. Ds2 has a recognisable but not terribly common name. We chose the names because we like them. It was only afterwards we realised they were particularly unusual or common.

What MargaretTwatyer said
(Great username btw )