Chosen baby name: Rare? No, not any more!

[arabellaandbaby]

Hi All

I named my baby girl (who is now 9MO) Isla, thinking that it was rare. I even googled it before we committed it to the birth certificate lest people think it strange for a baby of no Scottish heritage, or in case it was considered strange altogether!

Since she was born though, I have come across 7 Islas in the nursery, playgroups and mum and baby groups, all around the same age as my DD. Before my DD came along, I hadn't heard of any Islas at all, and I know of so many young babies.

Anyone else out there who was trying to avoid their child having to potentially share a name with 2 or 3 other children in their class when they start school, but in fact, it seems to have gone the other way already? Similar to the Sarahs, Emmas, Rachels, Lauras, Louises etc to name a few in our generation?

My dd is one of 4 children with the same name or derivative in her class. There are only 20 children in the class, so it's a crap ratio!

Luckily my dd is the only one who still uses the full version of her name.

I wasn't trying to choose an unusal name, and I never even considered whether there would be others in the class with the same name. I liked the name (still do) and don't really care that there are others.

Eva - named in June 2008 and thought it was fairly unusual. Now seem to be loads of Evies around(fewer actual Evas fortunately). Hope she won't be the seventh Eva in her class when she starts school in a couple of years time!

It's a minefield. When all my three were born we didn't have the benefit of internet polls etc, we just had to go by what we knew and hope for the best. I managed to stay reasonably exclusive with my fist DS, very exclusive with my 3rd, but the 2nd has turned out quite a common name - the only one I cam across of his age group but there are loads and loads about 4/5 years younger than him.

Don't worry - Isla is a very beautiful name, and no-one else will give a stuff anyway!

I was desperate for DD's to have rare names.

Imagine my joy having named DD1 Ella, at discovering that every other female child is called Ella.

Nevermind, if you really like the name it won't matter (after about 3 years ).

That is exactly why you should choose a name you love rather than a name to be 'different' or 'unique'.

I had a similar thing with my DD who is now 9. Her name was so unusual at the time that I got asked several times if I had made it up. I now know at least 5 in just our local area and it seems to still be popular with babies.

DS1 had a rather normal traditional name and we have never met another!

DS2 got another tradtional name but his is more popular. TBH I am not bothered, I like it!

My daughter is called a v close variant of Isla but with a slightly different spelling. We are Scottish living in England, so I also thought it would be a bit unusual. Did not really look at the name stats before she was born in 2008, although probably would not have made much difference as that is the year it massively jumped in populariy from about 60 something to 30 something so could not have predicted. I blame Isla Fisher! It is very annoying, I agree, I have since encountered quite a few Islas but I think this is partly because I am primed to do so and partly because when I tell someone her name they always feel obliged to tell me they know another Isla (probably as until recently it has been quite unusual).

It is something that bothers me though I know it shouldn't although my partner thinks I am being ridiculous and says he would not have agreed to anything else anyway. I didn't really want her to end up being called the noughties equivalent of Claire or Sarah, but I think there probably are more names around these days as people try to be original so even with quite popular names there are not always going to be lots in one place.

I have always known lots of Islas! I would never have considered it rare. I'm not a Scot and I don't like in Scotland.

I gave my DS a name I thought was very common, because of family history and because I loved it. I havn't met any others, despite it being top 20.

Agree with cece, that is exactly why you shouldn't choose a name to be unique.

Isla is a lovely name though.

Even if it´s rare at the time it might not stay that way.

My teenagers have rare name for their ages, but according to MNers, the names are now no "common that they are chavvy".

Neither are in the top 100, though.

We picked names we liked. Other children having the same name doesn't even figure. In my youngest son's class there is another child in his class of 27 with the same name and there are also 3 boys with another same name.

I don't know anyone else with the same name as my daughter or anyone else with my name. At my secondary school I was the only one with my name out of 1600 pupils.

I didnt pick my childrens names because i wanted to be different but at the same time i did deliberately chose names that i thought weren't so popular because i was one of 7 Joannes in my year at school.
My eldest daughters name Paige has remained less popular but my second daughters Imogen has become popular and when she started nursery about 8 years ago now there was another 2 in her group ! My sons names Owen and Kyle have remained fairly unpopular (aparently a lot of people think Kyle is a chavvy name so that maybe why,but he's the only Kyle in his school .
We named our last daughter Summer in the hope there wouldn't be that many only to find she'll be starting school with another 2 Summers...so i guess sometimes its just one of those things. Our son who's due any day now (he's overdue) will have a very popular name, Benjamin James...but we're all out of name ideas now and for us agreeing on one was an achievement in itself !

Imogen had been my favourite girl's name for years and years. I gather that last year it reached 32 in the "charts". Having said that, we haven't yet met another at any of the groups she goes to.

Again, we'd both really liked Arthur for a long while (very fond of Arthurian legend etc) and now that appears to be getting more popular. Although that could be a good thing in some ways because lots of older family members were a bit iffy about it.

And having said all of that, my original given name which I changed by Deed Poll nearly ten years ago was a name which was VERY rare for someone of my age and which I hated. So I deliberately switched my middle name to be my first and took one of my Mum's names as a middle instead.

We called my dd what we thought was a beautiful, classic but unusual name 15 years ago on Tuesday. For the first year or so there were raised eyebrows, 'Oh, how lovely, I've not met one of them before"s "She'll be the only one in the class with that name"s and so on and so on.

The name? Grace!

That and Ella were two family names which I'd sort of held in reserve until about 5 years ago, seeker, when they became ubiquitous!

Well the upside is that being more popular she is less likely to have to spell it every time.

Though saying that I have one of the most common names ever but because of the variations still have to spell it out.

I think it's quite a good cautionary tale to people not to get overly hung up on whether their baby's name is 'common' or not. You can't always predict the zeitgeist (although isla has been popular where I am for several years...).

I loved Grace and Ella. Had those as names since I was a girl, too! My sister had Ava as 'her' name, thinking she was being really There are three at DD's nursery.

sorry, meant to say Sis thought she was being 'retor' and cool.

I absolutely love the name Ella.

I´ve only known one.

She would have been in her 80s now, so unusual for that age?

I'm surprised at that, herbietea, I thought it had been fairly consistent until its recent popularity?

It always seems to happen like that, like a pp said your ears will 'prick up' when you hear 'your' name and people always react to my dd's name by saying 'oh I know someone who called their baby that' oh really? how...erm...interesting to me! I was well aware that it was just outside the top 30 when I chose it!

If you want an unusual name for our childrens' generation you need to use something popular in ours - Claire, Susan, Victoria, Charlotte etc. You can bet your bottom dollar there won't be many in your nursery !

You'd just have to be careful which one you choose, Fibilou - like I say I think that may have been my parents' tactic and I loathed the name they chose!

Ah maybe. I've definitely known a few. Not many, admittedly, but some (my age and a little bit younger).