Names that are so popular you are fed up with hearing them please!

[Harriebabe]

Hi - asking for your sensible suggestions please!

My friend and I make name plaques and signs and things for children and around the home and we usually make them to order - hence we often make them with unusual names.

We also do the occasional craft fair and most of what we sell are "one-off" pieces and not personalised but we're considering making a whole load of name plaques that people can buy on the day, rather than having to make an order and wait for their plaque to be made/sent. I also think people are more likely to buy if they can walk away with their plaque there and then.

So! We're wondering which names will sell best?! Most popular in recent years? Shall we make lots of Jacks and Olivias etc?

Can you tell me what names you've heard a lot of recently?? If it helps, we're in the South of England!

Plus, we currently hang them with ribbon or wire but would look to make these all the same - so what would your preference for a name plaque be, ribbon or wire?

(I have two boys - very with a very popular name (Harry) and one with a more unusual name (Jago) - I find things for Harry everywhere ....

Any ideas of advice please? Thank you!

Look on the National Office of Statistics website - they have the baby name popularity lists for the last few years. They also do the top 10 each year by region.

Off the top of my head, I'd say:

Oliver
Ella
Eve
Evie
Eva
Grace
Alexander

A bit of a resurgence of James too I think.

It's a tricky one - depends what your target market is. I was guessing middle class - no idea why

By region?! Fab, thank you - will take a look.

Working in childcare means i hear quite alot of repeated names, what we have double or more at the moment are:

Jack
Chloe
Amelia
Daisy
Alexandra
Jamie/James
Joshua/Josh
Harry

Here are the top baby names in England and Wales for 2010.

www.statistics.gov.uk/babynames/babyname.html

schobe: Eve and Evie, of course! Great suggestions, thank you. We have made lots of Grace's over the last couple of years, that is a must.

Middle class? Not so sure - we generally do hand-made craft markets which attract all sorts I think. We're not expensive but find that people do enjoy spending a little money on their children :)

link that works

Thanks Cereal!

Ellie, Ella, Elle and Evie are names we hear everywhere we go.

Buying something for a small child I would look for wire personally, as ribbon might be a bit dodgy?

Sophie, Hannah, Evie

Joseph, Sam, Theo

Thanks Cookielove - I thought of Daisy too - I think it was popular a few years ago so there are lots of Daisy's just at pre-school or starting school :)

Common names in the DC's classes are Jack, Luke, Tom, Charlie, Sam
Girls - Megan, Emily, Millie, Rachel, Freya
they're all well duplicated

At DD's nursery there are more than one of the following - Lucy, Harry, Lily, Chloe, Ruby, Jack

Hmmm... although they are not toys and should be kept out of reach of the children, I do get your point Tallulah. We do currenty sell them with ribbon but it's such a short amount that it wouldn't fit over a child's head or anything.

So, Evie and Ellie and Ella def. faves I think.

Also, having two boys I'm not so sure, but do mothers of daughters generally prefer pink? Most of the plaques we sell for girls are for pink but we're thinking of using creams/pale greens too as I wouldn't necessarily want pink for my girl?

Is Lucy popular again? I love that name :)

Jack Alfie Eva Molly

I never heard the name Harry around my parts, I saved it for years, had ds, and now it's every where!

I live in South East, Surrey.. v middle class area
Lucy
Issie/Isobel/Isabel/Isabelle
Olivia
Hope
Evie
Grace
Matilda
Martha
Mia
Ellie
Emily
Charlotte
Hannah
Georgia

James
Oliver/Ollie
Jack
Harry
Alfie
George
Joseph
Isaac
William
Alexander
Thomas/Tom

Re: the girl's ones being pink - you may find it's the little girls themselves that go for pink things. If you are making them for babies then maybe parents would welcome a choice of a different colour though.

Firstly, as others have already said, your best course of action is to look at the 2010 (and earlier) ONS statistics - you even get a breakdown by region. Those will be the facts. What we're doing here is just giving you what we think are popular names (but maybe they're just locally very popular).

Names in our class this year (and we're also in the South East) include:
Ella
Isabella
Grace
Sophia
Evie
Alexandra
Marianne

Alexander
Thomas
Quentin
William
Jack
Joseph
Harry
Oliver
Clement

In our area there seem to be tons of the following...
Evie
Eva
Tia
Mia
Mya
Gracie
Hope
Tyler
Josh
Theo
Charlie
Ethan

Hope this helps?!

Great idea to have a non-pink option for girls :) There's already enough pink stuff - this will be something different.

Do you find people mainly buy for new babies? Or do older children pick them themselves?

(I was just wondering if it might be helpful to OP if posters included the age group of the children, or which school year the class is).

FWIW, I think that names with multiple spellings might be a snare (as people would only want the one which is exactly right).

The name I meant to include in my post above - which is found quite often in Ks1 at our school, and which seems to be even more popular with younger children and those born is year is Imogen.

Yes, the non-pink option is a lovely refreshing idea.

I'm in the South West and I know loads of Freyas!! Ava is another popular one too.