Popular baby names you're bored off...

[flowerygirl]

I swear every child under 5 I've met in the past year have been called Jack or Isla. Failing that, Josh or Isabelle.

Lovely names but so bored of them. Anyone else bored of any other names?

sooni - - nope, just don't know a single one. I don't know any Jacks or Olivers either. But I do know of 2 Manons. And a Thorin.

I reckon a lot of parents round here are MNers, I think there's so much bending over backwards not to give your child a popular , dull , boring name that in fact those names end up being no more popular than any other name.

Hmm this interesting as I was put off by my husband's recent suggestion of Lucas as too popular but no one's mentioned it (well apart from being popular in Australia).

I was bullied for my unusual name, that's the reason I selected common names for my children. I think people under estimate how much children are desperate to fit in with their peers

I think people are different – some are desperate to fit in, some aren't, and this may be influenced by parents too – so, for example, if you were bullied for your unusual name, you'll think of fitting in as a good thing, and maybe your kids will pick that up too. (Not judging that btw - I just think not everyone is the same.)

I have always been a bit eccentric and was bullied a lot, but not for my name, which is kinda dull. I am happy with not being a fitter-in and would have loved a crazier name tbh. It follows that we gave our DC unusual names, but they seem to like them. They are not big on fitting in, maybe because they're influenced by their parents to a degree.

Obviously, that could change and I could end up with teens who resent their names, but you can't predict that kind of thing.

People are lumbered with the name their parents liked, it's the same for everyone.

This whole 'fitting in' has imo very little to do with your name but your personality. Kids are pretty accepting of different names and to most it's main function is to identify their friends.

I think some of you are overestimating this function of a name. In reality, it mainly serves to identify you. YOU make your name, not the other way round imo. I know very cool and less popular boys named Jack just as I do ones named Carsten or Cassian.

To me, a very imporant criteria in choosing a name for my kids is that I love it and that it identifies them clearly (esp as we have a common surname).

haha I have 4 DC's.....3 of the names are mentioned on this thread, the other ones name took a slagging on another thread

I am a little bored of the names around at the moment but I think we are on the cusp of a new selection coming through perhaps names from the 70s gasp.

I chose family names which has kept my little ones in good stead as they have all been the only ones in the school by that name. Even the Head teacher commented on what a lovely name my daughter has. Not particularly unusual names either; not twee or ephemeral, just solid names.

"I think people under estimate how much children are desperate to fit in with their peers"

Yes, they definately want to fit in and be popular. But in my experience, this this doesn't come from being Jack A, Jack B and Jack C! On the contrary, this comes from their personality, perhaps their hobbies, the clothes they wear, the way they look perhaps and imo having a 'cool' name can help!

I certainly did not particularly like having a common 1970s name and was envious of some friends with beautiful, exotic sounding names.

I have one DC with a top 20 name and another with an extremely rare, nowhere near top 2000 name.

This makes me both wacky and unimaginative?

"Made up - Elijah and Isaiah?? Never heard of a book called the Bible then?"

I suspect you are missing my point!

Sometimes people try too hard to have original names which result in children wishing they didn't have such unusual names.

The poster I was referencing infers a lot of inverse snobbery with her comments.... Her friends all have children with weird and wacky names, so does this mean my friends who have kids called Jack and Amelia are unimaginative robots?

Bet some of these kids with the unusual names grow up wishing they were called Dave lol.

I have aspergers and stood out like a sore thumb anyway, so I think that's one reason I played safe with my own children's names, My unusual name was just one more nail in the coffin, in terms of being different. I think having a different name is fine when you're one of the cool crowd, not so good when you are the class odd ball.

Elijah and Isaiah are far more common than Dave where I live :o

I actually know two Odin's...one with a Thorin for a brother :)

I really like Dave. This generations Dave would stand out from all the Alfie's and Jacobs.

I agree Kerela! I like a Dave

I'm sure all the Johns, Davids, Roberts, Marks and Pauls will come into their own again one day as a name that's unusual!

Peter I love peter.

Note I do not and will not be having a boy so no vested interest in these names!

David would make a refreshing change to all the little Alfies, Archies and Jacks!

That is the point about this thread imo. You don't need to be 'whacky' or choose 'made up' names - it is about giving your child a name that isn't already currently used by thousands others!

And it is not about being different. It is about avoiding the super fashionable (dull, overused) names that will inevitably fall out of fashion again. And it is about having a name that can identify you without adding initals or other adjectives.

Peter and David would be great names for today's babies! But they wouldn't after everyone copies them and there are 1000s out there like there were in the 70s.

Here in Dublin every second child seems to be called Jack or Sophie. We're a very conventional nation when it comes to names anyway. Once a name becomes popular it stays in vogue for years and years. There must be thousands of 20+ and 30+ Emmas and Sarahs around.

I'm quite relieved to have not seen DD's name here yet (although I've missed a couple of pages). It could be described as a 'cutesie' one, ends in 'lie', but it's short/nn for a Welsh name. Her full Welsh name was only given to 33 other babies last year; I think her nickname was around 390th last year for girls? So although not popular, I have a feeling that as people start to shun Lilly/Ellie/Milly/Tilly, DD's will be the next 'lie' name they start on.

After reading all this I'm starting to think that naming my daughter Emily with full knowledge of how popular this name is would be the ultimate rebellion.

Actually, I really love the name Emily anyway.

I also think Isabel, Lily, Olivia, Eve, Jack, Thomas, Joshua, etc., are all particularly lovely names. There's not a Eunice or Myrtle in the bunch! (This doesn't mean I don't get sick of hearing of new baby Lilys, but really the name isn't to blame)

I do think that some of the particularly smug parents who feel they've done their child a service in calling them Ermintrude and Hester won't be quite so smug when every little Boden-clad organic child is called something like that in a few years time

Yes, some might do. But hopefully many others's kids' names won't end up becoming overused. Actually, if we all try to choose less trendy names, then there will never be 1000s of boys/girls with the same names!

but again, not everyone who has chosen a popular name has done so because it was popular or trendy or fashionable. We chose Ella, which we hadn't come across at all before we saw it in a magazine, because we thought it was beautiful. Still do. Had no idea about it's popularity - that didn't affect our thinking at all - didn't pick it because it was trendy, didn't pick it because we thought it was obscure - we just loved it. How hard is that to understand??!!!

I think it might surprise a lot of people that not everyone knows many DC before naming their own. I didn't. I wasn't on MN. I didn't stand around the local school gates listening to names.

Me neither tam. It was only by chance I stumbled across the national stats of names the week before dd born. Have said earlier I strill find it intriguing that generationally we all gravitate towards the same names. My first choice of names when pregnant were Emily and Olivia the same as every other pregnant 32 year old - why?!