I have a very popular name, it has never been an issue.

[ToTiredToBeWitty]

Why do some believe popularity is a bad thing in a name choice? My name clearly ties me to the late 70's/early 80's.

I have always shared my name with other people in my class/activity and it has never once bothered me. People know how to spell my name when I say it.

My surname, on the other hand, is an 11 letter bugger which no one knows how to spell and I have to say every single letter every single time. Drives me crazy.

My conclusion is that its easier to live with a popular name that everyone knows how to pronounce and spell than an unique name that everyone goes 'huh?'when you say it.

What do you think?

I have a very common first name (and so does my husband), so we chose underused classical names for our children. At school/uni/work there were always a couple of people with the same name! And in one of my children's class there are 3 mums with my first name. But I like my name as I was named after my grandmother, so it is very special for me.

hmm.being practical and easy for others to spell isnt top of my list when thinking of names,i just tend to go with ones i like.But im not that kind of person in all ways i guess.

I had a,not unusual,but not common name,and i liked it.i think there is a balance,having a name that wont mean you are one of ten gracies/olivias/amelias/esmes and not having a made up name!

It depends where you live, and where you end up living, too. I could call my DC the no 1 name on MN/in white m/c circles and almost guarantee they wouldn't share it with anyone in their class, purely due to the ethnic makeup of where we live.

"think there is a balance, having a name that wont mean you are one of ten gracies/olivias/amelias/esmes and not having a made up name!"

Exactly. And most names (by number) fall into that category. Seems a shame that over 10,000 babies get the same 2-3 names when there are SO many lovely underused names available! You don't need to make up any new names - there are enough beautiful names around, outside the top 100 or even top 500.

My first and middle names are very 80's think sarah/claire/louise types, i've always had more than one of me in school etc but as an afult very rarely meet another me.

My surname is scottish but not a mac name, i actually really love my full name - my parents are idiots but i'm glad i'm not a sharlene/sharmaine/kylie etc so i've that to thank them for at least!

Df has the same name as a beach boy/bay city roller/sone other old band member i can never remember which band - he is ungoogleable to google me you'd need more info than just my name because it is popular thankfully

It depends where you live, and where you end up living, too. I could call my DC the no 1 name on MN/in white m/c circles and almost guarantee they wouldn't share it with anyone in their class, purely due to the ethnic makeup of where we live.

Exactly the same here. I could my son Jack and almost guarantee he would be the only one.

harbinger no, not gertrude or anything like that hah! But thankyou for reminding me it could be worse .

I suppose I wouldn't mind an uncommon name if it was actually recognised, but half the people I meet have never heard of it, and assume my parents wanted a Brian. At least my dd has a lovely normal name she will (hopefully) thank me for!

Different strokes for different folks though, would be boring otherwise.

Unusual and difficult to spell don't always go hand-in-hand though. My dd has a name which is not very commonly used, but people don't seem to spell it wrongly. Whereas there are lots of very commonly used names which either have lots of variant spellings or that people often spell incorrectly.

My name was/is fairly unusual among my peer group, though I've known a few people of a similar age to me with the same name.

It seems to be very popular at the moment, I can't go into a playground, school or shopping centre without hearing my name shouted by some harrassed-looking parent (sometimes several times). I always jump and look round, because I'm used to my name being unusual, so I think I'm being called. I actually thought my son's teacher was being a bit rude and overly-familiar, bellowing my name out at me from the other side of the room, rather than coming up to me and calling me Mrs [surname] but she turned out to be reprimanding a girl in his class instead

At one point I knew &/or knew of three Andrew Smiths.

If I had a sur name like Smith or Ryan I would be more inclined to give an unusual name.

When my friend's baby was born we were going for a walk with him in a sling. He wasn't registered. He was ten days old. His name was (not this but you get the picture) John Ryan. We saw some graffiti under a bridge 'John Ryan was here'. She took a photo of it and put it up on face book. Some people honestly just don't care if the name is popular! If that had been me I would have wondered if that wasn't a sign that I should pick an unusual first name.

I agree with this. My surname & first name combination is so unusual that if you google my name, pictures of me come up and phone numbers/addresses etc. I work in a call centre and I hate hate giving my full name out because they could find out so much about me
I have given DD a top 100 name and she has DP's surname which thankfully is much more common than mine

I have a super popular name and it drives me up the bloody wall. I hate being one of a million people in any given situation with the same name.

If there's a parent at the school who we don't know we now assume that she is also called this as everyone else seems to be...

Depending what area you work in, being 'findable' on the net can be an advantage. Also, assuming you've got nothing to hide (or not silly enough to post personal things on the internet), what's wrong with being identified? Isn't that the whole point of naming someone or something?!

If you WANT to be findable :-p online just add in an extra name. Claire Zita Walker. There you go.

I don't get the sheep mentality of everyone choosing the same names. Choose something easy to spell and pronounce etc etc by all means, but why the same name as countless others the same age?? It seems like every forty something man is called Dave or Steve, don't get the appeal at all.

Feta I don't think people sit there and think "I know, I'll call my baby Dave because someone else did". They do it because they like the name.

Same way that you might buy clothes from the high street - millions of other people will have the same but it's not about being a sheep

Also like it or not, names come with pre-conceived stereotypes. Sad as that sounds, it's true.

Personally I would prefer to be called and to call a child something original over something popular or ordinary. The reason being I prefer being a bit unique and feel when you have a baby the one thing you can put your stamp on is the name. However I'm not talking about ridiculous names like Apple or something made up like Malaraciavaila. I prefer to be original but not silly, for instance my name is Eve, which is more popular now (grr) but wasn't at the time I was born, it's unique enough to have put me through horror in school and to make me really proud of my name now, and everyone says how lovely it is.

I wanted nothing but a name like Jessica when I was being teased in primary school, but now am glad I went through that and glad I have this name over something I would now find boring.

Having said that there are some normal names I just love, but would not use. Such as Rachel, Rebecca & Laura. The girls name I am choosing for my (future) girl is the name of my other half's mother, it's Maltese and I have never, ever heard anyone with it except his mother. It's a lovely name, unfortunately I can't share it as I want it to remain unique.

But for a boy we are going for Aurthur, on his request. I would usually be against this because it's too ordinary, I don't even like it but our surname will be Daly so I couldn't resist

"Feta I don't think people sit there and think "I know, I'll call my baby Dave because someone else did". They do it because they like the name. Same way that you might buy clothes from the high street - millions of other people will have the same"

If you want to wear the latest fashion as everyone else, then fine, at least you can change your wardrobe. But even with fashion, not everyone has the need for the latest ugg boots or whatever else happens to be 'in'.

Naming your child should not be influenced by what names are trendy - not only will a fashionable name go out of fashion again, but he/she will likely have to add some sort of modifier to the name to identified.

Agree with others who feel that there are thousands of lovely, perfectly normal, easy to spell/pronounce names outside the top 100 fashionable ones and life would be more interesting (and easier!) if there was more name diversity!

but he/she will likely have to add some sort of modifier to the name to identified

Adding a modifier never bothered me a jot.

"I think its pretty impossible with boys names though. It either seems to be over used or wacky. Is there a medium ground?"

Yes, I think there is. How many little boys, for example, do you know with these perfectly normal but not overused names:

Carson
Tristan
Magnus
Robert
Magnus
Quentin
Johnny
Patrick
Michael
Conrad
Raphael

I only know one bananaramma.

But I wouldn't use

Cormac
Quentin
Raphael
Conrad
Patrick
Magnus

As I don't see them as traditionally English. Which is important to me as dh and I are both English.

I don't think names are popular for reasons of fashion. My comparison was a poor one. They're popular because people like them. I have two DCs each with names in the top 10. However I didn't think "let me check the top ten". I didn't know - I just went for them because they're lovely strong names. People over think it sometimes. Pick a name you like. End of story.

we intentionally chose names that were well known but not in the top 40 or so. we didn't want our children to be know as big x or x + surname. we obviously liked the names as well.