Names whose popularity mystify you

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I feel I must be showing my age because I don't understand the popularity of Fern/e. I don't hate it, I am just amazed at it's immense popularity. Why do you think it has caught the zeitgeist at the present time?

Imogen and Arlo are two I just don’t get.

Tyler is nice as a surname but I don't like it as a first name.
I don't like hyphenated, joined together or two names as a first names.

Oh I didn't know Fern had become popular. Relieved my OH vetoed it for one of mine, I really wanted it. I love it.

I think Evelyn, Olivia are really ugly names and both so ridiculously popular.

I don't particularly like Imogen or Arlo either but I like Brian.

I think it's easy to see the phonetic connection between Olivia/Amelia/Emily which are all in the top ten. Some sounds seem to become extremely appealing within a generation.

Absolutely stunned to see Noah is no.1 for boys though. Had no idea it had reached those heights.

Monumental - I know a Quim! He's Spanish - well, Catalonian - and the pronunciation is different. . But yes, first time I saw it was written down

All my kids' names are in here
Ho hum

Any name in the top 10, especially girly names like Ella, Evie, Emily, Sophie etc they are so boring and done to death now

Atticusss can you explain the appeal? Not meaning to be sarky just genuinely interested. As I mentioned in OP it's not that I dislike it, it's just not a name I expected to be so appealing to so many parents right now.

Posted too soon. I think Ethan and Daniel are ugly too. Names like Ella, Elsie, Milly/ie, Mia, Mila and Isobelle/Isabelle etc are just so so so DULL that I can't understand how they are chosen so much. Not ugly at all just no appeal as there are so many. If you like popular names then it's best to pick something timeless I think.

I've just looked it up and it's not popular at all! It's not risen, still unusual. Why do you think it is? How many do you know and how old?

I like it because I like nature names that aren't too flowery/girly. I just think it's so cute be also quite cool.

Another one who doesn't understand the love for Louis and thinks it sounds a bit wet. Also makes me think of Louis Walsh eurgh

I also don't get the popularity of Mason or Jackson

Amelie - so twee, ugh

Olive - not pretty

Surnames as first names: try-hard

Oliver - I mean it's fine, but why are there just MILLIONS of them? It's inoffensive but I don't get why people actively choose it.

Thing is, with your first you often don't live in a world of kids and babies so have no idea what is popular and new names take a few years to hit the top of the charts.

I remember my mum saying when she named my brother in 1971 she knew nobody with his name. Took him to nursery and there were two more!

My sons name is mentioned here, by youngest sons hasn't. I don't really dislike any names tbh. Maybe Persephone at a push if I had to choose a name that I really just "don't get"

It's not a case of not liking it's more when a name comes out of left field and storms the charts. That seems to be generational and part of the zeitgeist.

The oddest ones I've come across have been Bert, Barney and Teddy. The first two strike me as incredibly strange to name a baby, the third wasn't short for Theodore and I actually feel sorry for the boy when he grows up as his only alternative is Ted, which is not an attractive sound to me.

I remember a MN thread where all the posters were living the name “Nancy”

I can’t picture a baby Nancy, or a name more middle-aged and unappealing.

Err loving

Nancy hasn't been used for a long time so you could see it sounding fresh. While in America it was very much a name popular in the early part if the 20th century (Nancy Reagan cones to mind) so dated there. But they do like Betsy even for babies!

All those elderly people with 'antiquated, musty, old names' were babies once too.

Of course they were, but they were very elderly when I was a younger person. It's all about the connections we make isn't it?

I went to school with a boy called Jason and a girl called Yvonne. Both were perfectly regular names and common enough at the time but both were bullies and now I have to take a deep breath and stick a smile on when I come across people with those names.

I know quite a few Barneys.

Forgot, also Barnaby as well as Barney.

Atticus. It was nice as a name for Jean Louise's father in TKAM but I don't understand it's popularity.

The two names as first names used to be popular in Victorian times.
Often the first son would be named after the two grandfathers, first daughter after the two grandmothers and other children after aunts and uncles. When the names of cousins were the same, they would be given pet names. Anne could be Annie or Nancy, Mary might be Molly or May, Margaret could be Daisy, Peggy, etc.

Edith has got to be the worst name of all time, one of the worst of the granny names and I keep hearing of poor kids saddled with it