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Baby names

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

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Original poster

Would you pick a name in the top 200??

110 replies

nappyaddict · 04/09/2012 08:50

I've heard a few times that names in the top 200 will date and be the next Sharon/Tracy/Kevin/Trevor etc, unless they are timeless classic names that have remained in the top 200 over decades.

Do you agree with this?

Did it affect your choice of name?

If you liked a name and then found out it was in the top 200 would you change your mind about it?

OP posts:

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0lympia · 04/09/2012 13:34

I think that the speed a name races up from 200 to top five is far more significant. JMO

ellangirl · 04/09/2012 13:41

Sorry, that only tells you how many were given that name, not ranking. Top 100 are given in the other tables though.

LettyAshton · 04/09/2012 13:58

Recently I've encountered two baby Stanleys. So even if you pick something you think is completely out-of-fashion, the idea must have subliminally lodged in your brain and in that case it has lodged in other people's, too, giving rise to a glut of your carefully chosen name.

dilys4trevor · 04/09/2012 13:59

We chose a name for DS1 which is very popular among adults around our age (in our 30s), but very uncommon among young children (the name is John).

We chose it because despite having known of/met about 100 Johns across my life so far, neither of us had ever met one we didn't like and I love the simplcity of the name (I think it is quite beautiful). And yes, I do like that I have not met another child under ten with the same name. It turns out though that it is around number 100. So, even seemingly very unpopular names can make top 200! I guess I would try and avoid top 20 but if I really liked a name I would still go for it. I have seen people look actually quite gobsmacked when I tell them his name. Most assume it is a family name we got saddled with or at least a shortening of Jonathan (it isn't). I'm proud of it and would have called them both John if I could (we called DS2 Albert)!

Thre is a regional thing to consider. So a name can be top 50 and you never meet one. E.g. I bet most of the Johns that were registered live outside of London (where the fashionable names are all the rage).

I do think 20-something Noahs and Evas and Oscars will know alot of other people with the same name years from now, but I don't think it ever bothered the Sarahs or Matts of this world.

dilys4trevor · 04/09/2012 14:01

...and if the name suddenly became really popular I wouldn't 'go off' it.

MammyToMany · 04/09/2012 14:03

My ds3s name isnt listed in the top 1000 names.

Ds2s name is between 50-60 in the top 100

Ds1s name just says 200+ on the list

tara0202 · 04/09/2012 14:13

rezzle thanks for the link. That is interesting. When I was pregnant I wanted to look for names that were not in the top 100. DD's was 140 odd the year she was born. DS though is top 100 but not top 50. Boys names are so much harder in my opinion. It is just my personal preference that I didn't want my children to have very popular names - especially since I married DH I have a very common surname!

Mintyy · 04/09/2012 14:16

Roffle.

I'd hazard a guess that my dd's name was outside the top 100 when I gave it to her 11 years ago. Now it is number 2.

It really does show when people are trying too hard to be original with names.

JiltedJohnsJulie · 04/09/2012 14:18

Yes we did with DC1. Its a family name on both sides and although it was popular then and more so now, I don't think we've made a mistake. I have a very popular name for its time and there were always 5 of us out of a class of 30 at school and there are 3 at work. DS hasn't got another in his class and there are only a couple in the school.

Don't know where DDs name is in the list but I've only ever met one other in 5 years. Just picked it because I had loved it for years, popularity didn't bother me too much, although had it been in the top 30 I might have thought twice.

sonnieboo · 04/09/2012 14:22

" but I don't think it ever bothered the Sarahs or Matts of this world"

Well, it certainly bothered me at school and at work, always being known as little Sarah or Sarah.surname initial....because there were so many of us. I was always envious of my friends with more timeless names that only belonged to 'them'.

lynniep · 04/09/2012 14:24

honestly, I didn't even look. We chose a name that we agreed on for DS1. There was only one. For DS2 I chose it, and DH couldnt think of anything else, so he said fine then...

lynniep · 04/09/2012 14:26

Oh I just checked. His name was #12 on the list in the year he was born. Thats interesting because he is the only one in his class (43, but of course about half are girls)

BringBack1996 · 04/09/2012 14:35

DS2's name has been in the top 10 for the last 16 years, according to the link, but when he was born it was just 'him'. The name we were going to call him is outside of the top 200 but didn't suit when he was born. DS1's name is more timeless like DS2's, but I imagine DD's name will date, even though we didn't know anyone with the same name until she started primary! A variation of her name is now the most popular in the country.

Tillyscoutsmum · 04/09/2012 14:40

DD was named after my grandmother. It would have been her name pretty much regardless of popularity. It was outside the top 200 in 1996 but is 80 something now. DS is in the 400's. I've never met another of either name so far (but know of a few on here).

whippetwoman · 04/09/2012 14:48

My name is the 2nd most popular girls name for 2011. I am 40 years old. I was the only one in my school with that name and for years I never met another girl/woman with my name. Now it's very popular, as is the name of my brother which for years was just as unusual. It has taught me to just go for a name you love as you can never predict how popular a name might become. All three of my DCs have top 100 names, chosen because I like the name, not for popularity or lack of popularity. You might just find that your carefully chosen name becomes the Olivia of its day afterall.

dilys4trevor · 04/09/2012 14:51

Sorry sonnieboo!

ColouringIn · 04/09/2012 14:57

Nope, chose a name I liked for DS and stuck with it, the popular baby names thing would never have entered my head. His name is in the top 10 and is a common name....he is named after a great grandfather.

Psammead · 04/09/2012 17:05

I prefer to stayout of the top 50, but often that's because we know someone/I have taught someone with the name.

DD1's name is around 170, DD2's name is around 270. I can see it becoming much more popular over the next couple of years due to a celeb using it.

nickelcognito · 04/09/2012 17:06

DD's is 148, apparently.

the name I chose for a boy is usually top 10 (James)

both timeless classics, i think.

3boysgirlontheway · 04/09/2012 17:14

We have a very unusual surname, so we wanted names that were not very popular but, at the same time sounded good with the surname. DD's name is the only one in the top 100, in fact it is in the top 50 in the UK, but, she is called after DH's Grandmother so even if that name was number 1 we would still have used it.

We are in Ireland, the name isn't in the top 100 here at all.

ItsaTIARA · 04/09/2012 17:19

My two are solid top 100 (one is top 20) but they've both been solid top 100 for decades if not centuries, so while they will bump into a lot of other people with that name, they won't date.

And the advantage of calling your DS eg James, is that if somebody called James runs amok with a machete, or is busted for child pornography, then the name is sufficiently well established that it won't get stigmatised by an unpleasant primary association.

madwomanintheattic · 04/09/2012 17:28

When we chose dd1's name, no one had ever heard of it. It didn't appear on any lists, so being a bit PFB, we went with it, to baffled faces all around.

Within three months of her birth, someone in the media had a dd and used the same name, caused a huge surge, and I think it's been top twenty ever since, and universally loathed on mn. meh. Don't ever think you're being original.

With ds1 we just gave up and chose a top ten name.
Dd2's is a European version of a classic.

It's all trends, however unique you think you are.

Melindaaa · 04/09/2012 17:29

Two of my children have the current number one names, Amelia and Harry. The others are Ben, Jack and Joe so all quite popular. We didnt want our children to stand out with odd Christian names - our surname getslenty of comments as it is.

gutzgutz · 04/09/2012 17:31

DS's name is now number 7 in popularity (Jacob) and was, I think, number 12 when born. However, it is the anglised version of his great-grandfather's name (Yaacov) so a link to his 'other culture'. Incidentally in Israel it is considered really old-fashioned and religious so it raised a few eyebrows from the other side of the family!!

I still really like it and despite it being so popular haven't met any of his contemporaries with that name. I suppose my point being that there are often other reasons why people choose a name.

Hulababy · 04/09/2012 17:32

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest where DD's name came/comes in the top xxx baby names lists. I chose a name I liked and a name that hadn't already been used in my close family and friendship groups. Nothing else was particularly important to me.

Names in top xxx are there because lots of people do like them, so I can't see why it would be a bad thing to also choose one.

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