Is Amelia really that bad?

[FleursDeFilles]

We named our DC Amelia because it worked well with English speakers, DH's non-western background and also my heritage. We get lots of compliments for it too. But then the other day I read a thread on MN about naming a baby Amelia. And it sounds like it's a very overused name. I'm so sad. I really didn't realise it was so overdone and common right now.

YANBU - Amelia is a nice name
YABU - Amelia is a rubbish name

I was at a (fairly posh) school in the 90s and there were two Amelias. One was nice and one was absolutely vile but I still think it's a nice name. More classic than Amelie which got trendy after the film...that's nice too but has maybe peaked (think most British Amelies are teens now?)

No Amelias or Amelies in my DC year at Primary. There are lots of Edie/Evie/Edith/Ava type names. Which are also nice and pleasant but the Emma/Katie/Laura/Rebecca of the current era I guess.

Amelia is a beautiful name. A good, solid name.

The comment about the name being overused is in my opinion true, I loved the name Amelia for a girl but ended up having a boy but we know so many baby Amelia’s in our friendship group and baby classes. Doesn’t mean it’s not a nice name though

I have an Emilia - for similar reasons, we like it and it works well in English as well as our native languages.
I haven’t met another Emilia or an Amelia, despite being told it’s really common. I have met 3 Annabelle’s at baby group which I wouldn’t think was common at all. You can’t predict these things, I wouldn’t let it put you off. I am very happy with my choice.

Why does a name being "overused", "so overdone" and "common" mean that a name is rubbish and not nice?

Really weird attitude. Why do you care more about being seen as unique and above the masses than giving your DC a name you really like?

I named my DC a top 10 name. I didn't name DC that name because it was popular, I used the name because I love it. I didn't know about the rankings and later people kept telling me, as if I had made a big mistake. Genuinely baffling. My DC has a name that I love, why would I care that 4,000 other parents in the country also loved the name for their DC?

All my kids have top 10 names (for their years) and we rarely cross over with anyone with the same name in school year, groups, activities, friends. On day's out we do hear the names a few times but I don't know or socialise with those people so don't really care.

My son is the only one in his year group, activity groups and our friends with that name.
My youngest daughter is the same although at nursery not school but has the same name as a close friend on ours. Very distance friends have a daughter with the same name too.
There is alot more duplication of Nina's and Bella's and they aren't in the top 10 as far as I saw.

Mumsnet is incredibly bitchy about names and you should absolutely stop looking at baby name conversations!

Names are a matter of personal taste. No name will please everyone. A colleague recently gave her baby girl a name that I personally think is genuinely hideous, but I would NEVER say that or judge her for it because she obviously likes it and her baby is no less adorable because she has a name I don't like.

Personally, I think Amelia is very pretty name and also one that works well in a lot of different languages - I like it a lot. But even if I didn't, it shouldn't matter to you! Don't give this a second thought, honestly. You chose exactly the right name for your little girl.

I'm also amused about people worrying about a name being bad because it's 'too popular'. It's popular for a reason, and that reason is that a lot of people think it's a lovely name. There are worse things in life than having a name that most people like. Pretty sure that Jack and Olivia are going to have other Jacks and Olivias in their year at school, but ultimately their names are going to be seen more positively by more people than, eg, Diggory and Clytemnestra's. Prioritising a name that's unusual is totally fine and reasonable - whatever means the most for the parents is the most important thing here - but when people go for an unusual name in the belief that people will think it's nicer than a more popular one, they're definitely kidding themselves.

It's a lovely name but I associate it with the Enid Blyton 'Naughty Amelia-Jane' book series I had as a child so wouldn't pick that for DD personally.

It’s a beautiful name!

YABU - but purely based on the fact you are taking any notice of online articles.

You chose a name you liked; simple as that. Stop overthinking.

It's a perfectly good and fine name 😀

Beautiful name but i decided against it as when my daughter was born in 2016 it was the number 1 girl's name, followed by Olivia which i also loved, but we didn't want such a popular name.

Lovely, timeless name.

My friend's Amelia has morphed in to a Mimi which is cute too

What it comes down to is this: would you rather have a name you, your child’s father and your child actually like, or one that’s considered unusual? Because that’s all there is to it in the end.

Even names that are considered unusual won’t necessarily stay that way. My name was uncommon when I was born, but a celebrity with the same name got big in my early teens, and suddenly it was a really popular choice. I looked it up and it’s still Top 40 now, but nowhere near as popular as it was at its peak.

A very small number of “classics” aside, names go in and out of fashion every couple of decades (and just as there are only a few classics, very few names date that badly). You’d have never called a little girl Iris or Ivy, or a boy Alfie or Archie, when I was young, as those would be considered old people names. Yet now you can’t move for them, whereas the popular names of my childhood (Nicola, Louise, Julie, Matthew, Steven) would be unusual for a baby in 2024. It’s impossible to predict.

It’s a lovey name. I really like it. Just ignore people.

The name Amelia is beautiful, timeless and classic and passes the high court judge test with flying colours. Do not listen to the rubbish on here. A lot of the names lauded on MN are totally batshit IMO.

I mean ... you obviously like it, it probably suits your little girl - why on earth would you let the fact that it's popular make you feel sad about it?!

It's yet another toxic side effect of online life as opposed to real life - it fuels unhappiness and insecurity around even the most personal and innocuous decisions. Unless you want to be one of those absolute tools who feels compelled to saddle their poor kid with something 'youneek' (to show off to the social media sheep herd they're intrinsically part of), why let it affect your happiness with your choice?

I was one of 4 in my class with my name. Nobody mistook us for one another or made any of us feel like a less special snowflake. My son was named after a long-dead relative - we really liked the name and it didn't occur to us there'd be any other kids called the same thing. There were two others just in his pre-school and a shit ton of them at primary and secondary! Sometimes names just have a bit of a moment and it doesn't make a person less of an individual because they're called the same thing as someone else.

Amelia is lovely. Enjoy your little girl and don't worry about it.

It's neither nice or rubbish, to me. It's just a name.

Yes, it's currently popular but that's hardly going to hamper your child.

If you and DH like it, that's all the matters.

Popular names are popular because they’re widely liked, versatile, easy to pronounce and suit many cultures! Amelia is nice. Also, I hardly know any despite having school age children!

I think Amelia is lovely and has good options for shortening too. We had one in my daughters preschool, but none now in her primary school. There’s always a chance of another child being called the same name even if they’re not in the top 100 (which happened to us and really isn’t a big deal!).

It’s lovely Op.

I know two Amelias. They are Mimi and Millie though, only their fathers call them by Amelia.

I know a lot (and similar) for example in 2019-2020 4 out of the 5 girls born to women in our 80 person office were called Amelia, Amelia, Amelie and Emilia, I never understood why it put them off but if it doesn't bother you then it's fine.

😂I want to know all your names now.
MN name threads are ridiculous, unless your called Persephone or Otillie you will never aspire to anything great.
Amelia is a lovely name OP, don't overthink it.

It's better than the MN fave 'Ottilie' by several orders of magnitude, that's for sure...