to hate popular names

[macbooksticker]

Well I actually love a lot of the popular names at the moment but I wouldn’t use them as I grew up with an awfully popular name in the early 80s and DSD1 had the same issue in the 00s and 10s. We both dealt with our peers calling us ‘ourname X’, teachers not remembering us or confusing us with other pupils with similar names etc.

I just don’t want that for DD. I want my child to be able to be seen as an individual and have a memorable name. DH thinks I am overthinking it as he likes the classic popular names of the late 2010s. AIBU?

My son has a traditional name. I absolutely
Love it and there are no others in his nursery! There’s a few duplicates of ‘imaginative’ names though!!

I read on the news about a couple being forced to change their daughters name through court. She was called ‘Tallulah does
the hula from Hawaii’. I don’t know wether that’s utter madness or complete genius!

I dislike overly common names too but I think location has a lot to do with things too.

Dd1 (8) has a name which is very popular- top 20 I think- and deemed cutsie on the naming board (she was named after DH grandma) but we've only met one other and shes 6 years younger! Lots of dogs though.

Dd2 (2) has an old fashioned top 100 name. I hadn't heard or met any others since I taught a 3 year old little girl with the name 18 years ago. She will be going to school with at least 1 other

Ds (11days) has a name I'm constantly told is popular but neither of us have ever met anyone called it in 40 years!

Gary' is apparently dying out in the UK and there were no new ones recently recorded.

Well, it's one way of ensuring for certain that your kid's name will be 'different'. As will not picking anything ending with the letters 'den ...'

I was the opposite - I fell in love with an unusual name but I didn’t want her to be bullied.

I don't have children, sadly, but I can not understand the absolute determination to call your child something yoooonique.

Firstly, it will never be unique as, unless you want to name your child something horrendous, someone will also have had the same 'original' idea you had anyway.

Secondly, if you get too weird, your child just ends up seeming like a weirdo by default, totally unfair (thank you my self - indulgent and attention - seeking parents).

Thirdly, the only legitimate explanations behind your child's name are (I'm unable to create sub-bullet points) :

You genuinely like the name (without wondering how yoy are perceived by choosing it)

You don't like the name but it is something nice to do with family.

Both scenarios assume that the name won't result in the child being bullied.

Meh, think about people who are really original thinkers, one offs. They are called things like David (Bowie), Stephen (Hawking), Tracey (Emin).

Its really not your name that makes you unique or special.

Popular names are popular for a reason

They’re good names - not vanilla @MsTSwift how rude

My parents named me something normal but not popular in this country. When we moved house, the previous owner's daughter had exactly the same name as me (first and middle!) which is unbelievably strange. I've never been in a class with another of my name, but know that it is getting a bit more popular now (now in the top 200). You really do never know if someone else might live next door and have the same idea as you. Although if you go less popular their is certainly less chance of being"Emily 2" etc

I grew up with a slightly unique old fashioned name before it was fashionable to have unique old fashioned names and I longed to fit in and be a Sharon or a Karen. I gave my 5 kids classic timeless names, perhaps subconsciously for that reason, and they are all very much seen as individuals. It's ridiculous to think that a name would change that.

All my children dont have popular names, but they dont have wacky names either.
We did not choose them because they wasnt so used,but picked them because we liked the sound of them and the meaning.
One of my children is called Anaya and no one has that name in her school.
People always comment on what a lovely name it is and she loves it also so a bonus (at the momment).

I don't have an issue with popular names really. You don't have any control over it anyway. My eldest's name was unusual at the time. It's a traditional name in another European country I have ties to but not here, however I am hearing more and more of it over here so I think it's gaining popularity. My youngest's name is not so rare - old fashioned but climbing the charts - but she was named specifically for the meaning of her name so we didn't really care if it was the most common name around. It's very special to us.

I had an unusual name up until 7 years ago when it got popular, I was about 26. I liked being different but it was a pain having to repeat it over and spell it, I spent a lot of time saying no it's not short for anything. Now its popular enough that I only have to spell it.

I choose names for my children that are heard of but not in the top 30 though ds1 has been in the top 20 a couple of times.

My son is calked Will. Theres is no there Will/William in his key stage let alone year.
There are two called bear and four Freyas

I meet a toddler called darren last year. It really suited him.

I had a unique name.... it meant people never knowing how to pronounce or spell it and never being able to find my name on personalised tourist tat. As an adult I go by a shortened version of my awful name, but I named DD sth very conventional and normal so she'd feel like she fits in which I never did

Names like Will Peter Zoe and Miranda are good examples of underused decent names. Refreshing after all the Finlay’s Dextors and Eves

I'm not a great fan of popular names. The year I named my son (2009) there were 10 boys given that name, and 4 in 2010.

I literally did not waste one second of time looking for a name I liked but was also not too high on the popular list. I do not understand this at all. I’ve never not felt like an individual because I had the same name as a few other kids at school.

All three of my kids have popular names - it that I actually knew that till I looked it up a few minutes ago.

My name was super uncommon growing up but is now the most popular or fastest rising girl's' name in the US. Oh well. I liked when it was different. It suited me. I get tired of hearing every second toddler girl called it.

I named my son James. Not popular where I live. Just super boring and traditional. Works well for me.

I was like this for our first. We went for classic but uncommon (and it's a family name). Then DS2s name was knicked by Kate and wills. Ds3 and Ds4 follow a theme as the other 2 but are less popular. All but ds1 are in the top 30 names. Things change and they get popular. A kid in school same time as me had DS2s name and it was deemed odd for a child then. I was one of 5 in my class in the 80s and 1 of 2 with the same first name and surname with parents with the exact same names too. Freaky coincidence.

Our kids have got "unusual" middle names.

Both of mine have really average names that everyone knows and can spell. one is just about in the top 50, the other ine just about in the top 100. both are the only ones in there school without having an “out there” name

Never give your child a name that is a song title. Or everybody will sing it to them, constantly whilst believing that they are the only person witty enough to do so.

I think common evergreen names such as Thomas are ok especially for boys for some reason. Just don’t like faddy names. DD is only in the top 300 and is just not fashionable but not weird either. I love that she is the only one. Never came across another child with that name.
My boys have got top 10 classic names. Luckily first born ( who is in the top 5) hasn’t got another in his class.

When DD2 was in preschool, there were 15 boys shared between the preschool class and the reception class. (And 25 girls.) 5 boys had the same name. 2 more had a rhyming name. An additional one had a name one letter different. None of these names were top 20. Just a massive coincidence (none had been born in the area either!).
DD1 has a top 5 name. No other in her nursery, her first school, or her second school.

If you give a girl a name with more than 4 letters and a healthy dose of consonants, then you're probably on to a winner against current fashions. The traditional boys names than have followed through the generations for centuries are also off trend without being too dated to a particular
generation.

I don't dislike currently popular girls names in their own right, but given that the majority of primary school class lists are filled with Ava/ Eva/ Evie/Esme/ Ellie/Lily/ Ella/ Amelia/ Olivia and umpteen other phonetically close variations, people who are concerned with popularity would need to avoid short vowelly names. In a way, a class list now is more repetitive than the 80s list of Laura, Gemma, Lisa, Rachael, Lauren etc as the names were more distinct.

Boys names are easier to avoid fashion because there is a stronger list of historic/ multi-generational names to choose from away from the cycles of generational names. Girls have a smaller pool of names and are more strongly influenced by fashion.

They all cycle around anyway. Give it 10-15 years and we'll be beyond saturation point on vowels and the shortened versions of Edwardian names, and the Barbaras, Magarets, Roys and Johns will be creeping back.