Popularity of John?

[saritah]

We decided on simple, classic John for a boy. We don't like trendy/faddy names and liked the fact that John was around the top 100, so he'd probably be the only one in his class, etc etc. Now I've just seen it's shot up to 56 in the latest Babycentre charts!

In your esteemed opinions/crystal balls is John going to keep getting more popular? It's the only name we really like, but it's bugging me a bit!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

I never understand this popularity malarkey. Just choose a name you love.. which is John. It’s as old as time so it could come back in fashion. I think it’s doubtful though.

Don’t overthink it as it’ll drive you potty.

Babycentre has absolutely no way of knowing what names have been popular in 2017 so those articles are a crock of s**t...the only reliable source is the national statistics and Darkgreener (which uses the national statistics) and it was ranked as 120th in 2016...as it’s not a faddish name I would be surprised if it had jumped that much in 2017!!

That being said, national statistics are not always a representative of your local area...for example I do not know any baby Olivias but I know multiple Harpers and Lunas. So there is obviously no guarantee that there won’t be lots of little Johns. (I actually know a 1 year old John but he goes by his middle name-Charlie)

Go with John, OP

We have a Jonathan and I know one other John (or variant of John/Jonathan) under five. It's a nice classic name and I wouldn't worry too I'd!

*much

I have a little nephew called John. Like you OP it was the only boys' name my sis really liked - it suits him down to the ground. It is a great name!!

It's adorable on a baby, very traditional, which I like. It makes a nice change from every boy in the playground being called Oscar or Oliver!

It's not in the top 100 at the moment, just outside I think. Babycentre doesn't know anything. There's no way it has shot up by that much, it's just not a zietgeist name right now.

I Know about 4 under 10 but quite geographically dispersed. There is 1 in my LOs nursery and none in the local school (London suburb). It’s a great name.

I like it. Much nicer that the names that have only been popular for about 10 years. Johnny is also cute.

I have one, he's 6 and I've yet to encounter another under the age of 40!

It’s lovely. I wanted Jonny for our boy but my other half wasn’t keen!

John's a fabulous name, definitely use it.

I met a baby John at a playgroup the other day and thought it was so sweet and very unusual nowadays. Really don't hear it on children much so go for it.

It's lovely. I know one John who is nine or ten and one Johnny who is a bit younger; there are no Johns that I know of at my children's school - certainly not in either of their year group - so it can't be that popular.

I’d ignore Babycentre. I don’t know how they get their popularity ratings, but I don’t believe they’re an accurate reflection of what people actually name their DC.

According to the darkgreener website - based on the official office of national statistics data - John was ranked at 120th most popular in 2016, and has been trending downwards since 1996. A sharp upwards surge to 56th most popular this year or next is extremely unlikely.

Great name IMO BTW.

I know three babies/toddlers called John.

It’s one of those names like Sarah that will always be around, sometimes pretty popular, other times less popular. But never far out of the Top 100.

Yeah, babycentre bases their rankings on how many page-views each name gets. It's nonsense. The actual national statistics show that John was 120th last year, and has been decreasing in popularity year on year for at least the last 2 decades. So it's not going to be a particularly common name among your baby's generation.

I know one baby John and a few who have John as their middle name, probably due to it being their Grandfather's name- that's the case for my DS!!

Statistics might also be skewed because John is probably more popular as a middle name than a first name - I know several children with it as a middle name to honour grandparents etc; whereas I know two boys under 10 with John as a first name.
John's popularity may wax and wane, but it will never be faddy at least, hard to think of a more classic name.

My son has John as his second name .He loves his name(s)

My grandad was John but always known as Jack.. Jack used to be a popular nickname for John but obviously now it’s very popular as a stand-alone name!

I love the name john it's a proper classic mans name

I don't know any children called John and I don't think that it will shoot up in popularity any time soon.

its a great name, beyond fads and fashion. Nevertheless was always going to have a degree of return to popularity, i wouldn't let it bother you.

That's really good to hear – many thanks all!

I'm a Sarah and there were always three of us in every class, so that’s why I want to avoid the "popularity malarkey"

Thank you DoubleLottchen – I never thought of John’s popularity as a middle name but that makes a lot of sense. It certainly hasn't gone up in the official stats, so the Babycentre ones can’t be that reliable!