popualrity vs attraction?

[theGrapeGatsby]

after viewing the new baby names app which shows popularity trends . i've been wondering at what level of popularity people would ditch a name they loved in order to find a less popular name even if it meant choosing an alternative name which they liked/loved less .

so if you loved a name would you use it regardless of popularity or if not what level of popularity would be a deal breaker ?

for me no matter how much i loved a name in the top 100 .i really would avoid it now no matter how much i adored it ? personally i'd rather be in the bottom reaches of the tables but dh is much more boring conservative , so the dc's names are around the 200 to 300 mark.
having said that if a name though rare or very rare now had been wildly popular at any time in the past 50 years i'd ptobably avoid it ,for example john and susan are now unusual they have been so popular in the past they still feel well used , no matter how attractive they are as names in their own right .

if you have older dcs has the way you feel about name popularity ,do you worry altered now that baby name statistics are more accessible? .do you worry more now about names perceived rarity .

It is a beautiful name (the lead, right?)

yes strawberry that's it

I remember meeting a little Ava about 9 years ago when expecting my first child. Who would have known it would become so popular? Ditto with Florence. I remember the first little Florence, Freya, iris and Isabella I met around the same time. All extremely popular now.

My DD had an unusual name when I gave it to her. Now it is really common with children about 3 yrs younger

You cannot always tell a name is going to be so zeitgeisty.

Two of my children have top 10 names, not the most popular though and I'm a bit sad about it but we didn't like any others so that's what they got.

It doesnt really matter to me if a name is POPULAR (as I would hope that people would like the name I chose, and more to the point I would hope that DC would like the name I chose for them) but I don't want the name I choose to be too COMMON. I've been gravitating to names just outside the top 100 that people still use, and like, and are maybe peoples 2nd or 3rd choices, but that aren't too "of-the-moment" or too "out-there".

Lockets - DS1 was going to be Thea but he was the wrong flavour for the name sadly. (Sadly not because he was a DS ,but because I didn't get to use the name)

If I felt a name was coming into vogue, I wouldn't use it although I know it's easy to get things wrong. I'd have no problems with a name that has always been around. I like things that seem to be able to stand the test of time.

There is apparently a pattern to voguishness (sp?) People regard their parents and grandparents generation as having old fashioned names but find the names of the generation before that attractive. So names like Iris and Ivy and Arthur and Albert are currently back in fashion.

I'd never avoid a name because there are loads of them, not if I loved it. My dd2 has an exceptionally popular name, as I've said on MN loads before she started nursery school last September. She is the only one out of an intake of over 50 [shrugs] There are three or four doubles so to speak and they are all names that are mentioned on MN as being slightly less popular.

Its just luck, I know a woman who chose a name that was way down the stats for her son and moved next door to a child of roughly the same age of the same name - they will end up at the same school.

Honestly if I loved a name I would just pick it, I don't get the obsession with being slightly sad if your childs name is very popular.

I'm obviously ahead of the times naming my kids, as apart from DS2 I chose names outside the top 100 and now they are all in there! I still love their names though, and they're not that popular that there are loads of them around (they are all the only ones in their schools with the names, even DS2)

I chose unusual names deliberately, but the only reason is that I just wasn't keen on any of the other names. If say, DS5's name had been in the top 10 I'd probably still have chosen it as I love it so much.

Oh praise be, it's been a long day and I honestly clicked on this thread thinking someone was going to name their baby 'Popularity' or 'Attraction'

Popularity does put me off a name, especially if it's in the top ten. If I really loved a name in the top 100 I would use it, though. Often I find that while the top 100 contains perfectly nice and serviceable names, there are lots more out there. A certain about of rarity does attract me.

with our oldest we liked one name and it went onto the top 50 list that year. It did bother me and still does that she has a namethat we can get stickers for in book shops. However when i step back from that i still adore her name and i do not regret using it. (Phoebe)

our other 3 have names not on top 100 list but we didnt check we continued to go with names we simply liked.

You can't future proof a name.

What is just outside last-published top 100 today (they're published 6+ months in arrears) might already be in the 50s, and by the time time the list that has it in the 50s is published, it might be in the 20s or higher. So your carefully selected name might be the 'oh it's pretty but just so so popular' name by the time your DC is 3ish.

So go for what you find most attractive (or the most attractive from those you and DP agree on).

It's where it's popular that is the kicker though.

Edith, but you can reduce the risk by avoiding names that are ALREADY very popular. Yes, there is no guarantee that they'll not enter the top 100, but at least there is a chance that they won't.

To me, the attractiveness of a name does depend somewhat on how widely it is used (how popular it is) as a name that is already very widely used loses it value as a name (in terms of identifying someone). But then I have a very popular name and hated being known as little X or X surname a lot of my life.

Interesting. For me, the attractiveness of a name depends on the combination of consonants and vowels. I like the sound of certain letters more than others and I like three syllables more than one or two.

Re: popularity, I'm enough of a snob to want to avoid certain names or names with certain associations.

DH and I have chosen for our DD a name that a) we both love, b) is meaningful to us and c) isn't completely ridiculous and likely to cause bullying/teasing at school!

Our DD has a hyphenated first name, which we fully expect to be dropped to just the first name, the first of which was my great-great-grandmother's name the second of which is my mother's first name - also a family name, every woman in my family has had this name at some point through their name.. As far as I'm aware the first name isn't 'popular' or 'top 10' although a very similar deviation (one letter difference) is to my knowledge. DH and I don't care, our DD is who she is and regardless of how popular, common or otherwise her name is it's special to us and we hope it'll be special to her

TheGrapeGatsby Sounds exactly like my name! I'm 23 and my parents chose me a biblical name, on a TV show in the mid-late nineties a character was born and named this, since then it's popularity has spiked! I know many people with this name, but most of them are at least 10 years younger than I am!! I absolutely love my name and the reasons behind my being named that - regardless of how many other people are now called this who I am is unique and I definitely feel that the name belongs to me! P.S Isabella is a beautiful name :)

blondie exactly how i feel about dd1's name i sometimes wonder how much easier naming felt 20 years ago
dd5 not isabella but very similar but slightly less popular

frikadelen phoebe is really lovely it was dd4 ( our angels) name still love it despite it's popularity and really struggled with dd5 to find anything that felt as lovely .