Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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

73 replies

Harriebabe · 26/08/2011 14:41

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!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
EttiKetti · 26/08/2011 15:43

Freya
Isabella
Ruby
Lucy
Alice

Jack
Daniel
Harry
Charlie

NotJustKangaskhan · 26/08/2011 15:47

Having different colour options is a great idea. My daughters (and I!) greatly prefer when their things are different colours.

Tommy · 26/08/2011 15:49

too many of
Olivia
Imogen
Grace

Daniel
Thomas

newpup · 26/08/2011 16:46

South West can not move for:

Ella
Evie
Daisy
Lily
Grace
Molly
Olivia
Freya

Scarlett and Lottie getting very popular too.

Boys - Charlie
Finlay
Archie
Thomas
Jake
Alex
Harry

Hope that helps.

Harriebabe · 26/08/2011 17:11

All of these really do help, thank you - have noted lots of Freya's, think that one is worth a go!

The ages of the children usually range from birth to about 8 I suppose, as after that they are more interested in characters from tv etc. rather than the cute animals, butterflies etc that we put on our plaques - and we obviously can't reproduce Ben10 or whatever the favourite girly thing is!

Usually we make them with a border, so use two colours (for girls it's very often cream/pink or lilac/pink or green/pink but for the stall we're thinking of using a cream middle for both boys and girls and then top and tail with other colours. Thank for so much for your feedback - we will now consider, what, green? Red? Yellow for girls? Primaries or pastels?

OP posts:
FruitSaladIsNotPudding · 26/08/2011 17:15

Ella, Evie, Eva, Ava, Isla, Amelia, Emily

Harry, Dylan, Thomas, William, Charlie

mathanxiety · 26/08/2011 17:18

How about a bit of multiculturalism?

ragged · 26/08/2011 17:20

Just look at the baby names lists in recent years, you don't need to ask here?!
Although credit for doing SOME research.
There is a cute model lorry for sale at lots of adventure/animal theme parks we go to. All the names (mostly boys) are like 40-50 yrs ago popular. Kevin, Ian, John, Trevor (I kid you not). Not a Kai, Dillon or Joshua in sight.
I still suspect those toy lorries really are targetted at men age 30-60.

Not that names may matter...
DC4 recently bought (very insistent this item and nothing else would do!) a little soft plastic bath duck with the name "Eleanor" on it, at a Norfolk adventure park. Is very very fond of it.

DC4 is a 3yo boy called "Michael" Wink.

IamtheSnorkMaiden · 26/08/2011 17:22

I'm in Cornwall. Common here are:

Oliver
Freddy
Tom
Connor
Cayden/Kayden
Callum
Elliot
Jack
Joshua
Archie
Finlay
Olivia
Kelsey
Lauren
Lily
Matilda
Libby
Evie
Maisie
Sophie
Lucy
Isobel

MsChanandlerBong · 26/08/2011 17:43

Ragged I love that your little Michael is going around with an Eleanor duck! What a lovely, independently thinking, spirited little boy he sounds Grin

Cereal · 26/08/2011 18:08

Can you make individual letters and glue them on to make the names?

mypersonalfavourite · 26/08/2011 18:29

Loads of names are shortened to Millie.

UrsulaBuffayHere2Help · 26/08/2011 23:38

Do you take orders at the fair and send them out later? Just have some on display, then you can still sell them.

mathanxiety · 27/08/2011 02:36

I have a mental image of a 57 year old man begging his wife for a toy truck at a park -- "But look Gloria, it has my name on it. Can I pleeeeeeeeease have it? I'll eat all my broccoli and take a bath without being asked...."

KenDoddsDadsDog · 27/08/2011 07:45

Abby/ Abigail
Amy
Imogen
Gracie
Finn/Finlay
Max

RustyBear · 27/08/2011 07:53

Ragged - actually I reckon asking on MN probably does count as doing research - asking the target market!

chickydoo · 27/08/2011 07:55

We have lots of

Florence (4 in one class)
Ellie
Sam
Alice (3 in class)
Harry
Katie
Matilda X lots
Olivia
James/Jamie
Tom/Thomas
Zac X lots
Lottie

FellatioNelson · 27/08/2011 07:57

Well if it's multiculturalism you want, just plump for Mohammed. Judging by its place in the rankings (as well as the place of all its spelling variants) life for teachers in schools with high proportions of muslim children must get very tricky indeed.

aStarInStrangeways · 27/08/2011 08:26

Milly/Tilly/Matilda
Isla
Teddy

If I were buying, I'd be much more tempted by bright primary colours than pastels. Especially for girls - I hate it when 'boy' stuff comes in primaries and the equivalent 'girl' item Hmm is only available in pallid pastels. Not aimed at you btw OP, just went off on an ELC tangent there.

ragged · 27/08/2011 10:02

Aisha, Amina, Fatima, Raj -- on the multi-cultural theme. Could go for surnames, too: Johnson, Patel, Gill, Singh, Husein, Osama, Hassain (too many spelling variants to cover).

Harriebabe · 27/08/2011 11:06

Thanks for your suggestions Ragged. I'm glad I asked here and also took a look at the stats. - surely it's best to do as much research as possible?! I've had lots of suggestions for names here (eg Freya and Matilda) that don't yet appear in the Top 10 ....

Yes, we do take orders at Fairs and always have done in the past, but some people tend to want to walk away with something, rather than having to wait. Each of our plaques is hand painted and decorated and the name is written (rather than letters stuck on) so during busy times people have to wait a couple of weeks.

We just thought it would be nice to make some "ready-made" to display, as well as all the other one-off items we currently sell.

We will also take along some blanks so that we can write the name on there and then, which we've also done in the past.

And great, will make some primary coloured plaques for girls too. :)

Thank you all for your brilliant advice and suggestions :)

OP posts:
Cereal · 27/08/2011 11:56

Good luck, and let us know how you get on - would be interested to know! :)

ThePosieParker · 27/08/2011 12:04

Freya.

winkle2 · 27/08/2011 12:07

What about some European names like Cristiano, Katerina, Maria?

English names like Elizabeth and it's variants like Eliza, William.

Modern names like Tyler, Amelie...

Popular modern Indian names like Dylan, Jai, Reuben, Layla, Leila.

I'm Indian and i never got anything with my name on it! So consider us non-English people please!

winkle2 · 27/08/2011 12:08

I meant William as a name and not as a variant of Elizabeth!