How popular is too popular?

[Pico2]

I spent my school years known as Pico X because there was always more than 1 with my name in my class. Though I did go to a girls' school, so that must double your chances if that being an issue.

We are waiting for DC2 to arrive. We really like a top 10 girls' name, but don't want to inflict the same on our baby (who won't go to a single sex school). How far down the list do we need to go to minimise the duplication risk?

Skylark - I know a reasonable number who are my age, it has been at number 1 at some point and now is in the top 10. So I don't think it will particularly age. It is in the top 10 in our region, but not across every region. It looks like about 1 in 200 babies was given the name, so that would be 1 in 100 girls. I don't know how that would compare to the multitude of Sarah and Claires I grew up with.

I have a popular 1970s name there was 5 in my primary class tonnes in my highschool. It didn't really bother me we gave dds names that are ordinary and probably classed as a bit dull but there was nobody in their school years with the same names I really don't think it mattters though call your baby what you like

"There were 4 of me in my school year even though it wasn't a popular name."

That seems surprising! I wonder whether some of us have a different opinion of 'popular'. To me, a name probably popular if it's in the top 100. I think I know at least one of all of them, probably more than one.

Too popular: Amelia, Lily and Ruby used to be the worst offenders but i think they're slowly slipping out of fashion, though you cant step into a primary school classroom without being swarmed by 12 Lilies still.

As for boys, I couldn't be more sick of all the little Alfies running around. Noah is getting tiresome too.