How popular is TOO popular?

[FredFlintstonesSister]

I'm 30 weeks pregnant with my first baby (a girl) and DH and I are just getting round to the name talk. We are finding it quite difficult to agree on anything, but have both liked several names that turn out to be in the top 100 (Scotland). Obviously going for number 1 means she is likely to know/ go to school with others with the same name and we would like to avoid that but what if the name was at 35? 70? At what stage does it become TOO popular?

My parents gave me an "unusual" name, which turned out to be less unusual than they thought. The year after I was born it was in the top 20, the following year it was in the top 10, then the year after it was in the top 3. It then dropped like a stone.

Our kids have classic names which were in the top 20 when they were born, and have remained in the top 20 ever since. DS is one of three in his school, but has only ever been the only one in his class / cub scouts / etc. DD likewise is one of 4 at her school, but the only one in her class / brownies etc (600 pupils in the school).

Mind you, my name was really unusual when I was named...it's now in the top 10.

Our rule was no top 20 names but you have no way of knowing if your choice is going to be a good one in terms of numbers.

DS1's name doesn't feature on the list in the UK but DS2 has a mid 20's name and there isn't another one in the school. On the other hand, there are 4 Charlie's in his year despite it being only 2 places above him in the rankings and none of the no.1 name

The other thing is that the rankings are done at the end of the year so you could have a surge in the popularity of a name which you won't know about until long after you have adopted the name so it is best not to get too hung up on it. For example, George was no. 12 last year in the rankings but I bet it is higher this year with people naming their child after the Royal baby. Nobody could have predicted that until the name of the Royal baby was announced and the effect on popularity won't be known until the ranking for the year are done though.

It is probably best to just chose what you love and hope for the best.

My parents gave me an "unusual" name, which turned out to be less unusual than they thought. The year after I was born it was in the top 20, the following year it was in the top 10, then the year after it was in the top 3.

I think that used to happen to most people to be honest. Our parents didn't have such easy access to the births stats that we have, and there would always be hundreds of babies born with the same name while their parents were all convinced it was unique and they'd thought of it all by themselves without realising they'd been subtly influenced by the same things as everyone else! Even when my first and second child were born there was no access to this data on the internet. It was just a case of picking a name and hoping for the best.

At least now you can check really easily and accurately and watch for patterns of names going up and down the chart, pluse ven if you don't look at the official stats MN is a brilliant barometer for telling what's likely to become too popular.

I wouldn't worry about the popularity thing. My dd has a top 3 name and we have yet to meet another one - she's 5.

The reason the names are popular is because they're lovely!

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/aug/12/baby-names-2012-england-wales?CMP=twt_fbo

This doesn't have 2013 on it but you need this tool! It shows you charts of how popularity as developed for a name over the years. Personally I would avoid anything which has a really steep sudden increase over recent years eg look at the graph for Ava!

I named ds before I knew anything about names lists / popularity lists. Turns out it must have been the most, or in the top 4 most popular names for his year.
He's never been in any group (playgroups, swimming lessons, classes, Scouts, etc.,etc.) where he's been the only one with his name. In junior school, there was a boy in the year above, and a boy in the year below who both had the same firstname ^and surname as he does. On one Scout camp, there were 11 dc, 4 of whom were girls, leaving 7 lads, and 4 of those 7 shared his name.
As a result of this, dcs 2 and 3 were given far less popular names.
That said, dc1 isn't phased by it, but I do get confused when he tells me he's "going round to Jack's" (for example) and I know that could be 1 of 5 places, as the name was so popular 18 yrs ago.....

I think I probably have different thresholds for boys and girls--with my daughters, I didn't want to breach top 100 for girls' names (like other pp's, I wanted something classic and well-recognised but not ubiquitous), but for boys I'd be more inclined to throw popularity concerns to the wind in favour of a good strong classic that won't date (love the name Thomas, even though it's top 10).