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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

765 replies

FreckledFrog · 22/09/2017 21:46

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?

OP posts:
etoiledor · 22/09/2017 23:49

Today's gorgeous underused name is tomorrow's top 10 name.

StepAwayFromCake · 22/09/2017 23:49

We didn't intend to pick popular names. We chose names we liked, and only discovered just how popular they were when we went to register them. By which time we'd been calling the dc by that name for a few weeks and it was theirs.

Subsequent dc, we checked first!

KERALA1 · 22/09/2017 23:49

Come on! In dds class at one point one third of the girls were named a derivative of eve. such bunching in particular names why all choose the same ones?

GreatFuckability · 22/09/2017 23:50

Yanbu. Thousands of lovely sensible names yet the majority pick the same 10. I have a dull common name my dds don't

Is that actually true? That implies the number of babies with top 10 names is bigger than the number of babies with ALL other names put together

etoiler there are 65 million people in the UK. the most common name of all is I think David Smith and there are 'only' about 6500 of them. so its highly doubtful.

ElspethTascioni · 22/09/2017 23:51

WHy are people equating "not top ten" with "younique"?! There are hundreds of lovely classic names outside the too hundred which in no way can be classified as "younique"!

KERALA1 · 22/09/2017 23:54

Well anecdotally my father had the same name as 75% of his friends similar age and class.

Just seems really dull to choose a top 10 name and to always be name surname as I was - appreciate I will be hated by all the eve Amelia Olivia and grace mothers but that's my opinion sorry!

paxillin · 22/09/2017 23:55

WHy are people equating "not top ten" with "younique"?! There are hundreds of lovely classic names outside the too hundred which in no way can be classified as "younique"!

Because today's lovely classic name outside the top 100 is tomorrow's top 10. You don't know until years after you named your child. The only way to prevent this is going yoonique.

KERALA1 · 22/09/2017 23:58

Yes but if you ahead of the curve you don't face the 3 in every class everyone's bored of it vibe.

That said am slightly pissed that dds name now entered top 100!

GreyBird84 · 22/09/2017 23:59

With my DC's i have one name that's in the top 10 & one that's not even in the top 100.

I love them both.

Here's my first ever biscuit OP Biscuit

DiegoMadonna · 23/09/2017 00:01

The number 1 boys name (Oliver) was given to 1 in every 52 baby boys this year. The number 10 name (Oscar) was given to 1 in every 90 boys.

So even using a top 10 name does not mean your child will be in a class with tons of other kids of the same name. Even the number 1 name is statistically likely to be only one of 2 or 3 in his entire year, depending on the size of the school.

So basically, it's not that big a deal. And I say this as somebody whose kids both have names outside the top 300.

MsPassepartout · 23/09/2017 00:04

Yanbu. Thousands of lovely sensible names yet the majority pick the same 10. I have a dull common name my dds don't.

Is that actually true? That implies the number of babies with top 10 names is bigger than the number of babies with ALL other names put together.

Well, the most popular name has been given to something like 1% of babies born last year. Even if the same was true for every top 10 name (and it won't be for the lower ranking top 10 names), that's still only 20% of babies with top 10 names. Hardly a majority.

etoiledor · 23/09/2017 00:04

My DC have names that were about 40-something in the list and are now 20-something.

I think it's better to be realistic about how many other people are likely to be choosing each 'gorgeous but underused' name for exactly the same reasons you are, and therefore how pointless it is agonising too much over finding a name that isn't too popular.

At the end of the day if you like a name for itself that's all that matters.

etoiledor · 23/09/2017 00:07

That said am slightly pissed that dds name now entered top 100!

That happens to so many people - maybe it's because my kids are now a bit older but I've seen so many names that seemed nice and original and not too common shoot up. It really is pointless trying to hit some sweet spot of a lovely name that hardly anyone else will think of - if it is a good name, other people will use it too.

Most of us aren't being half as original as we think we're being.

OneFliesOver · 23/09/2017 00:09

YANBU.

I don't mind fairly popular traditional names like James or Daniel so much. But the fad names that become super-popular out of nowhere for a few years before falling out of popularity again do make me suspect that the parents are sheeple. I know a lot of little girls 4 and under and quite literally 50% of them are called Emilia/Amelia (as to which, it is misleading to say that Olivia is now the most popular girls' name - this is true only if you think Emilia and Amelia are totally different names). My friend is a primary school teacher and some years back had a class containing 5 Jacks and 6 Ellas. Have some originality!!

corythatwas · 23/09/2017 00:10

My DM gave up on the name she'd really wanted to give me as too popular: there wasn't anyone with that name in any of the schools I attended: otoh two other girls with the same less popular name as me in the same class.

I gave ds a name from my own country, which isn't even that popular there: there was another boy with the same name in the next street from us here in the UK.

Fekko · 23/09/2017 00:11

Ds was named after my late dad. I don't give a rats if it was in the top 10 or top 1000.

SpareASquare · 23/09/2017 00:14

Meh!
I have 2 in the top 20 and 2 not even in the top 100.
Went with the ones I liked, no regrets. Where they are in a list is a non issue. For me, for them. If any of them had an issue with having the same name as someone in their class, that would be on me. Not for naming them something popular mind you. If they were that precious, I'd be disappointed.
There are studies related to names. Many. I also didn't read those before naming my children because it didn't matter to me, but I think that the parent striving to be 'different' and shouting out 'look how cool we are' are not really always doing their kids a favour. Names can absolutely be a 'negative' thing. You can hear a uneeek name and just 'know'

midsummabreak · 23/09/2017 00:24

Each to their own

PebblesFlintstone · 23/09/2017 00:38

My name is not particularly outlandish but I was the only child in either my primary school or secondary school with it. I was very shy and hated feeling different, especially as I also have a difficult to spell surname. I really wished I was called Claire or Amy so I could blend in with the crowd a bit more.

Both my DDs have names in the top 20. I chose them then checked to make sure they were fairly popular. We certainly come across others with the same name from time to time, which the children are always pleased about, although neither had another child of the same name in their class.

KrytensNanobots · 23/09/2017 00:48

Not read all the replies as it's late/early/I really should be going to bed but YABU.
Do these people not desire some originality for their children?

Not looked at the top 10 of names, but I can hazard a guess that at least one of my two kids has a name in there that is.
As we love traditional names instead of made up names or "yoo - neeq" ones to buck the trend.

CardsforKittens · 23/09/2017 00:52

My kids all have family names and two of them happened to be in the top 20 in the years they were born. On the other hand, there were family names we chose not to use... Edna just didn't feel right. Or Archibald. But I'm happy with the names we did choose, even though they're more popular than I expected.

Str4ngedaysindeed · 23/09/2017 00:53

When I had dd1 27 years ago, her name was really unusual and the boys name we had chosen equally so; everyone was horrified - now both of them have been in the top ten for the past few years!

RebeccaWrongDaily · 23/09/2017 01:00

eldest DC is early 20's.

Their antenatal group were Harry, Josh, Emily, Maddie (madeleine) Ella, Jack, Sophie, Kate, Alex, Lily, Molly, Eve, Phoebe, Isabella and Dan.

These seemed to be fairly 'newly revived' names, but 20 odd years later I am surprised that people are still using them.

sycamore54321 · 23/09/2017 01:08

I have an easily-recognised and known but not overly popular name in my home country. In primary school, secondary school and university, I was always the only one in my name group, with maybe one or two others of the same name in the entire school. In my mid-20s, I worked in an office that had nine women staff. Four of us had my name and we were all aged within about five years of each other. Averages and statistics don't necessarily translate into someone's lived experiences.

I think if you like a name and are swayed not to use it due to popularity, then you are actually more "sheeplike" and not using your own mind than someone who uses it. Neither is bad but I think it is inconsistent to say "I'm so independently-minded" while being so influenced by what others do.

multivac · 23/09/2017 01:15

If only fewer people would pick the popular names!

And also, every school should be better than average...

#govelogic

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