Do you think people tell fibs on here?

[ZeroTolerance]

I'm always reading posts where people claim to know lots of children with fairly obscure names. Names way out of the top 100. Others say they know "literally" dozens of Harrys and Amelias. Can this be true? How does one meet so many children anyway? Unless you're a teacher I suppose.

I often feel this section of MN is a bit surreal. Are people being honest or are there other agendas at play?

Yes I do agree! Loads of ottillies, kit, tabitha, atticus, miraculously appearing :/

I think they are telling the truth, I'm not sure why they would bother to lie. I think the number of kids you know largely depends on how many kids (and how old they are) you have. For example, I have only one child who is 6 months old. Prior to that the only other children I knew were friends kids and a couple of nephews/niece. I would have been able to name maybe 20 children's names. My circle if you like is quite small, but it has grown due to that. I know a handful of parents from baby groups etc. Fast forward a few years and I can see how that would grow.... Imagine when you have more than one child, and they start school, start going to parties, join cubs/brownies etc. I can see how easy it will be to be able to reel off 60 odd names per child before you know it!

I think if you need strangers to validate the choice of name you give your child then there will be some piss taking.
So, yes I think there is fibs.

I think different areas have names that are more popular than other areas. I know a lot of Children with names like Amelia, Isla, Olivia, Harry, Archie, Alfie, Charlie (over 5 of each) but know no Kit's, Ottilie's.
With Facebook you tend to see a lot of names of people you know too.

I think as mentioned above is quite easily to know of names even if you don't actually know child.

Ie if you have a 1 year old, you might know say a 1 year old called Amelia, who has siblings Harry and Saskia. You wouldn't actually know the older two children nessesarily but friend with 1 year old is likely to mention them at various points.

I would vaguely know loads of children - at least to the level of being aware of names.

Baby groups I have attended, across two towns. Actual friends and family. Children from pre-school. Children in dd's school. Siblings of all of those children. Friends of friends.

If any have unusual names, those will stick.

I don't think that I am unusual given the ages of my kids.

There are quite a few Kits at my DC's school (aged 10 and under)

I don't really think there would any point in being untruthful on a baby name thread. You either like names and say accordingly or you dont like them and say accordingly.

What could a more sinister agenda be?

I think people do probably exaggerate. It's human nature. Dd is friends with four Sammys, for example, which feels like absolutely loads, so I would probably say on a Sammy thread that there are tonnes around. But four isn't that many really, is it? It's just a few. But it feels like loads in a small circle of friends.

Intrigued as to why people might lie?

If i know 2 of a kid with X name it starts to feel very popular to me. Still only 2, obviously.

I think there's a lot of... optimistic representation, shall we say.

'Liars' is a bit str

Oops

strong

If I had a child with a very cool name, and saw someone considering it on here, I'd be tempted to diss it or say it is already overdone, so that my darling didn't end up being one of many.

Just saying.

I think some posters are genuine and some are lying for various reasons:
because they want to put OP off a name they have earmarked themselves in case it becomes too popular; for mischief; for spite because someone is choosing a boys name and they only have girls or vice versa; because they are trying to out-posh other posters; because they are trying to out-educate other posters (eg on the meaning of names, presenting rare and obscure names that have actually been hastily Googled then presented as casual general knowledge).... a plethora of reasons really :)

I had no idea baby names was such a den of deceit and dishonesty .

Maybe they just exaggerate. My dc's school is full to bursting with Lily-Mae's and Ruby-Mai's and Daisy-Mei's...

...See? :)

Really? I can't see why more than a handful of slightly odd people would have any of those rationales. I'm sure that there is exaggeration about names being over used (I bet no-one knows literally dozens of children with any given name, even teachers), but beyond that why would anyone be that bothered enough about what a bunch of strangers think about their opinion, especially given that everyone posts under pseudonyms. I can see why someone might lie for any of those reasons at say a local mums and toddlers group, but on Mumsnet it just seems a bit pointless.

Oh and I couldn't list a single recent baby name now my children are in secondary, but when they were younger I probably was aware of a fairly large number of small children - two classes, brownies/cubs, siblings etc. Adds up pretty quickly.

I do sometimes wonder how often when 27 people rock up claiming to know a child called something outlandish how many of them are referring to the same child iyswim

HeyJudith, yes, those were my thoughts too.

I know it's just a bit of exaggeration when people say "I know loads" - I might even do that myself. It's when someone says specifically that they know 3 Tabithas and 4 Claras under 1. I'm not saying they don't but those names are actually quite rare, both around 170/180 in the name chart.

The comment about showing off what a clever dick you are rings true too, like the posts slagging off a name and ending with "...oh, but perhaps I've studied too much Latin..." Trouble is, these casual observations really get into your head don't they? And are not necessarily part of the real world.

By the time you have 2 or 3 DC in school, you'll know an awful lot of children. Not well, perhaps not even to pick out of a crowd, but there they are on team lists and school newsletters and class lists etc. Add Scouts and sports clubs, friends and family and it adds up rapidly. Especially if you then add in the names you see only in Christmas cards, maybe the children of your school/college friend's and current/former colleagues.

And it only takes a couple of mad hippies in that circle to get some pretty eye-opening names.

I've been volunteering, then working, in a junior school for about 20 years now. With an intake of 60 per year, that's a lot of names...

I should think I must have got to at least a dozen Jacks and Thomases by now and nearly as many Sams, helped by 4 in one year group

Though we've never had a Ruby, and we got our first Jayden this year.

Yes, fair points. I can see how the numbers quickly multiply once you have a couple of children in school.

I don't know but when I found out I was pg we had Oscar picked out for a boy, told the UK was overglowing with Oscar's & that it was common & chav!!! Didn't turn us off just found out we were having another dd a few weeks ago & the 3 names we are considering Daisy, Florence & Matilda are just saturating playgrounds & perches around thr country too!
Incidently when we were trying to decide in Dd1s name(Molly) it was the same story Molly's were taking over the nation!!!!