four in a class - really?

[mogandthecat]

I've noticed on here that many people seem to dread the possibility that their child may be one of 'four or five' in a class. Just thinking about this when my friend showed me the list for her dd's reception class intake the other day. Of thirty children there were only two names replicated, each with two children with the name (one of these being Ruby, which was the most popular name for the year anyway). When I was at primary school in the seventies when there were probably fewer names used overall there was only one duplicated name in a class of 20 girls (Claire). So, just out of interest, what names are there more than one of in your dc's classes and are there often '4 or 5' of one name or is this actually an extremely rare occurrence?!

Might not matter to you Seeker, but it does to me. I was one of 3 in my class and 7 in my year. I am now one of 4 in my social circle and one of 3 in my family. I have a perfectly nice 1970s name, but I feel very negatively about never being the only one of me.

It makes me forgettable.

It has been a disadvantage at work - if I speak to a supplier or a client and then follow up with an email I have to make very sure they know exactly who I am and when we talked because I know damn well that signing my name on the bottom of the email is not going to help them remember me.

I had a great job once but my shadow on the client's side shared my name and it genuinely made my job harder.

I can't even phone my mother-in-law and say "Hello it's X here" because there'll be a pause while she tries to work out which X I am. "You know, X who is married to your son". It's crappy. And you sound like a fool using your surname to differentiate yourself to close family.

Having worked in a Children's hospital I have seen a genuine advantage in having an unusual name:
"Doctor I have Sarah Jones' mother on the phone" gets a blank look and an instruction to get out her file and he'll try and call back when he has time.
"Doctor I have Halcyon-Fay McPoodlebum's mother on the phone" and he knows who I'm talking about, remembers the child and speaks to the mother.

My husband has an unusual name and agrees it has stood him in good stead. People remember him and a casual reference 3 years later and people STILL remember him and can look him up.

I'm a Megan born in '82 in the US, so there were lots of me. :) I like my name a lot, though.

DS is Sam and there are lots of Sams in the school, though the only repeat in his class so far are two little girls named Kaitlyn. He also has a Kjera and a Kira in his circle of friends, both of which are pronounced Keer-uh.

There are loads of Alex's around. The top boy names in our state are: Mason, Ethan, William, Owen, Logan, Jack, Samuel, Jacob, Jackson, and Carter. For girls it's: Ava, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, Emma, Abigail, Ella, Addison, Grace, and Emily. I know quite a few kiddos with those names. :)

Mohammed (or variations of) - very mixed intake means there aren't lots of children with same names at all which makes life easier....

My dh is a Jason and although he didn't have any duplicates at school at university there were just tons of them in her social group and it really wasn't great as they all got nicknames which were generally focused on some physical feature. I don't suppose the guy who ended up with 'fat Jason' was terribly happy about that. Likewise I know that the Hannah who got 'Little Hannah' at my high school hated it (she was very petite).

A new girl joined my dd's class last year and to start off with she was delighted that she shared her name, but after being called various versions of her name plus some not very nice adjectives she got quite upset about it, and this year she has asked everyone to call her by her full name instead.

I have a very unusual name and it is undoubtedly much more memorable once people have got the hang of it (plus I never get misdirected email, which is a more modern issue if you work somewhere with a firstnamesurname email set up).

I taught a class with four Madeleines.

In a derailiment, something Hilary McKay wrote once was from the viewpoint of a little girl named Molly, which was a duplicate name in her class. She was called "the other Molly" because she was not very exciting and it made her feel terrible. But the heroine of the story started calling her Mollipop and made her feel lovely. It sounds stupid written down by me, but it would make you tear up to read the actual story, I swear.

I really ought to go to bed now. I just really love Hilary McKay.

Me and Sisiter in law are both same surname and first initial, when we were both PG at the same time our notes would regulary get mixed up!

My oldest son is Jack and never been in a class with another Jack. (he's in year 6) 4 Ellies in his class though!!

My younger son is Harry and in Y1. He has always shared his name with another Harry or Harrison.

When I was at school I always shared my name With 4 or 5 others- Catherine/Katherine/Kate/Katie.

Based on my area Ellie/Ella/Bella , Sophia/Sophie, Harry/Harrison, Callum, Liam and Connor are super popular.

I've had 3 Rebeccas in a class... I've had 5 Thomases (was very handy since the odds were the child talking was 99% likely to be one of 'em... probably since none of the others could get a word in edgeways) - that class also had 3 Matthews (with varying numbers of Ts). Jacks - only had a couple, Lukes - had a couple of classes with two Lukes in.

There were 4 of us with the same name (Elizabeth) in my class of 24 at primary school. The teacher said that she would call us by name and then the first initial of our surname - but there were then two Elizabeth B's and two Elizabeth S's. So we were known as Elizabeth, Libby, Beth and Liz.

At school and uni there have always been lots of Katherines in my year group (but not always the same spelling)

Seeker, how can you say "it doesn't matter" ?

I work as a teaching assistant and can tell you it is a pain in the xx to have two or three kids with the same name, worse if they share the same surname initial. It is a pain for us teachers and most kids imo prefer to have their 'own' name.

But it doesn't stop at childhood. We recently had our bathrooms renovated and the tiler, the plumber and the electritian were all called Steve... very confusing!

I think we sometimes forget WHY we name a person (or a thing for that matter) - it is to identify someone or something, not really achieved by choosing a name already used by thousand others.

It didn;t matter to me in the famous 8 of 13 class.

I changes the spelling of my name to drop the e so I always got my homework back and that was that really.

Sister's two best friends had same name (Nicola) as her and that killed nobody either.

I did find it bloody annoying being one of several (at least two) in my class at school (very popular 70s name). Even now at work customers/colleagues don't remember me easily and I am envious of those with more unique (by that I mean nice normal name just not as overused as mine) names. No, Peachy, it doesn't kill anyone having to share your name, but it makes life that little bit harder/tedious imo.

This problem has caused me quite a bit of grief this pregnancy..(I'm 35wks with my 4th.. a boy.) hence we've chosen a SERIOUSLY unusual name for our son that we also think is lovely and that can be shortened to a more normal name that's currently in the top 100, (though not top 50 at the mo!)
Has given us so much grief as my oldest two Daughters (who are 13 & 11) were named Sophie & Emily and since Emily started nursery and I discovered she was one of 4 in her group..(one of 2 Emily A's!) I've regretted the decision. We were going to call our Son Alfie after DH's Dad but once I realised it's in the top 5 in the UK I changed my mind!

in dd's class of 23 there are 3 x Corey, 2 x Megan, 2 x Ellie, 2 x Daisy 2 x Jessica and a Mali, a Mille and a Maile

when ds was in nursey ('05 - 06) there were 4 x Cameron

sleepy womabt - I'm Alice and when I was growing up I never met another one!!!!

There were two taliesins in my ds's preschool.

Gosh that made me laugh.

4 Sams in my team of 8 at work!!! You get round it by giving them other descriptors - supply chain Sam, PR Sam...but can't be very nice for them!

5 Ellies in my 7 yr old dd's class. When i was at school in the 70's there were 5 Dawns and when my mam was at school in the 60's everyone was called either Christine or Susan.

in the 80's i should say

There are 5 Sophias in my Dds class and to make it even more confusing 2 of them have the same surname too!

Really, 5 Sophias and two of them with the same surname ...I bet that can get confusing!

And 5 Ellies in Fifi's dd class - really, or are you guys making this up?!

Nope tis true. They are all called Ellie then there surname initial. Luckily my daughter has a really uncommon name

I guess either your parents give you a name that identifies you or your friends/colleagues have to do the job for them - adding a modifer to your name if it's already used by lots of others - little Ellie, big Ellie, mean Ellie, nice Ellie etc.