DH has chosen a really popular name. Tell me it doesn't matter?

[HowAboutNo]

It's a top ten name for our soon to be DD.

I couldn't decide on a name, he came across it and fell in love with it, and I agreed because I couldn't find a single alternative (and still can't). It was so nice to see him so happy about it.

Does it matter that it's so popular? Every other baby is called this atm - though I don't personally know any, I'm sure this will change as I'm not on the mum/baby scene yet.

Will it do my head in? Gah.

Tricky one. dh has a v popular name for his age group and hated the fact that there were always several of them in his class. We tried to pick more unusual names for our dcs as a result.

Dc2's name is insanely popular apparently but we don't know a single other child with that name.

Ds1 and ds3's names are much less popular but we have met 1 other dc1 and several other dc3s!

You can't always know is what I'm trying to say! Names seem to somehow seep into our collective unconsciousness.

Isla is a beautiful name.

How about Iona, instead of Isla.

How about Ayla?

It is really nice though, despite it's popularity. FWIW one of my DCs has a hovering-around-the-top-10 name, the other one's name doesn't ever feature in the top 100. In reality, we know 2 other small children with the less popular name, and don't actually have any other children with the top-10ish name in our social circle (and there is only one other one at DCs' smallish school). The stats don't necessarily tell the whole story,

It is popular but for good reason, it's a gorgeous and lovely name. Even with the most popular names it's really only a small percentage of babies who get the name. Thinking back to my school days we had 3 Rachel's and only 2 of the other really popular names in the class eg 2 Becky's 2 Emma's... And people use a much bigger pool of names now. She still might be the only one in the class! Even if she does meet others with the name it's not the end of the world. If you and DH love it I would just go for it.

Thanks everyone. I liked names along the line of Anna or Kate, but I didn't love them, nothing was 'the one'.

He will not want to change it, so I will have to suck it up.

It's a lovely name. It's nice for a name to have a 'story' behind it- eg both my brother and sister were given family names but my mum chose mine just because it was her favourite name, despite the fact lots of family members didn't. It makes my name feel special to me, despite the fact it was one of the top 1970s names and there are loads of us!

If you love it, go for it.

Ds1 was one of three with the same name in his class at primary but got to secondary and was the only one. It evens out as they get older and the social circle gets wider.

Is beautiful.

It is a lovely name and it is popular for that reason. It will be easy for her to spell when she starts school.

I have three children. In the years that the younger two were born their names were top 5 but we didn't know that and picked them because they were lovely names. They are now only just clinging on in the top 40 names.

DD2 is at senior school - in her year of 200+ pupils she is the only one with her name.

DS is at primary school. In 300+ pupils he is one of 4 with his name but the only one in his year.

Isla is popular because it's a great name. Your dh has good taste so use it and stop worrying!

My Isla is about to turn 4, when we chose the name it was #30 in the UK statistics. Now I know of a few others in our town and one in her nursery class, she likes it that one of her friends has her name! I try not to let it bother me, we picked it because it was the Scottish name we liked the most and still love it and it really suits her, even now it's seemingly much more popular!
(It's spelling is confusing her a bit now she's started learning phonics!!)

I had this exact dilemma with Jacob in the end we went with it cos we both love it and it suits him, we have a very common surname too so he could end up being in a class with someone with exactly the same name!

Ds1 had the number 1 name when he was born 8 years ago (still top 5 I think), but we live in a very mixed area so there is a huge variety of names. He is the only one in his Junior school, and I know one in Y1 and one in Nursery.

I think it's a lovely name too. There is only one round here that I know of.

Not sure I'd spell it differently. I did meet an Isla who spellt it Iyla or something (can't remember) and I just thought it was a bit weird.

I adore Isla! it's top of the list if DC2 is a girl.

when I named DS 4 years ago I thought his name was quite unusual. I have met 5 under the age of 5! 3 of them are in his nursery.

use Isla, it's gorgeous!

I meant to add, it doesn't matter to me how popular his name is now. I still love it! it's popular because it's a great name, just like Isla.

My 2 both have names in the top 20 and I do not think it matters :)

Another one who had a rare name that bizarrely became ridiculously common within 12 months of dc's birth. As a result I feel I've been tricked by the name, and another time would go for something more common at the start and more classic. I love Isla, I'm in Scotland and the only Islas that I know are both spelt that way.

Isla is lovely name

You don't have to 'suck it up', he doesn't get to make the decision on his own regardless of your preferences

It is a nice name, it doesn't matter if it is popular.

I know, but I just feel like I pretty much rule the roost when it comes to most other things , it was nice to see him get so excited by it. And, like I said, I have no real alternatives! I like it, it's just the popularity. I don't know any as of yet, so hopefully it won't get too crazy popular around here.

It's lovely. I don't know any Isla's. Apart from I think one of the Queen's great granddaughters is one.

What about Iona as an alternative? They seem very similar to me but Iona is far less popular here.