Anyone picked a really “original” name...

[Canone]

... only to discover it isn’t at all?

I have a Kit. Thought it was a bit quirky and “different” at the time. Even the stats seemed to suggest so.

He’s 2 and I’m hearing it EVERYWHERE. Yet another celebrity has just had one. I still love it of course but isn’t funny how we think we’re being really cool and “original” and actually we’re anything but!

Anyone else have any tales of baby naming woe?

I would imagine game of thrones generated a lot of Kits ☺

I have a Bella and an Alice. When I had Alice I thought I was picking two really cool yet classic names....only to discover Bella and Alice are two sisters/vampires in Twilight. Sigh.

I don’t myself, but in the last three years or so I’ve encountered about 7 baby Ivys- having never met one before! So I expect all of those parents feel they were all struck with the same bright idea without knowing it was going to be so popular. It’s a pretty name though, can see why so many like it.

Kit was a common nickname for Christopher & the current trend is nicknames as names ? Alfie Archie etc so I guess it was inevitable Kit got caught up

I haven’t come across any though

DS has an Irish name which isn't common in England, but there is another one, about 8 years older than ours, in out very small town! I couldn't believe it when I heard it and really wanted to say to the parents "I've got one of those too"! But I didn't. Interestingly the parents of the other one did not sound Irish. So maybe it's not as unusual as I thought. I also read an article with a (cool) celebrity recently and she has one who is a little older than the other one in our town. So, maybe the parents got it from that celebrity... Or else they are in fact Irish but haven't got the accent.

23 years ago we chose a classic but unusual name for our dd.

Grace.

@louisemiltonspatula (interesting handle!)

Ivy is following the 100 year rule - names that go round every 100 years. (I’m sure you know this but I find it fascinating). When they’re in use by middle aged people they fall sharply out of favour as deeply unfashionable, once those ladies are no longer around, the name becomes romantic / historic again.

Ivy (to me) is a beautiful name but you can also predict which names will be next when you follow the patterns.

We did for both our children. The first one is rising in popularity, and second one is more unusual especially for a girl, as you used the female derivative, but when she was born the midwives said ‘gosh there was a little girl named that born here 2 weeks ago!’ 😁

Yep. We have an Arthur age 5. At the time we picked it, we didn’t know anyone else who had used it. We liked the Celtic connection (King Arthur) rather than the ‘old man’ thing. Anyway, since then there are bloody millions of them. There’s another one in DS class and about 4 at his sports training club he goes to 🙄.

These are likely to be the top names in a decade

Don’t think pic uploaded....

I feel like Dorothy and Audrey are on the brink of a comeback already! 20 years ago my mum and stepdad came up with a lovely name for my brother - we had never met one, it was unusual and gorgeous. Callum. He started school and had 5 Callums in his year - including one that even had the same surname! Doh!

I have a 6 year old Autumn. I now know of quite a few younger Autumn's!

@Freaking0ut Arthur is the 100 year male equivalent but I think it’s better to be early on in the trend. I’d rather be a 70 year old Barbara than a 40 year old Barbara for example. Your Arthur will sound young.

Plus it’s a lovely name :)

@Katnissk I love Dorothy & Audrey but a bit put off as lots still think they’re v old lady sounding

@Proseccofuelled that’s so interesting, I didn’t know that! I suppose it makes sense though when you think about it. When I was a child names like Florence, Martha etc were definitely old lady names but now they’re coming back into fashion. It’s funny to think that in 60 years or SJ they will be seen as old lady names again!

@Canone -

The popularity of Kit is probably due to Kit Harrington who plays one of the lead characters in Game of Thrones. One of the biggest and most popular TV shows ever, first broadcast in 2011.

Wayne and Coleen Rooney have a son called Kit.

These are the romantic old fashioned names our kids will suggest for their kids & lead to the next round of ‘my mother / mother in law pulled a funny face at the name’

So we’re a product of our generation - it goes with hair styles, clothes, plastering every fucking thing in grey & yellow

Meh

Kit is cool.... to us - the alternative would have been to name him Colin & wait 30 years for him to have an on trend name

This is the graph for my son’s name. When he was born (2003) people looked at us like we had 2 heads when we said his name. We chose it for the Biblical connotations (we’re Christians) at a time when the popular Christian boys names were things like Jacob, Joshua, Daniel. Now it is common as muck and actually not really among Christian circles that I know - chosen more for the name than the Biblical history.

I love Grace , Stella and Celia.

Ds is not called John but had I had another boy - he would have been John - fabulous name - not "original" but just great.

Yes! We picked Phoebe having heard lots of Evie/Ava, Darcey, Grace etc etc on baby name boards/real life but no mention of that one at all. As soon as she’s born, there’s one WHEREVER we go - baby group, swimming, nursery, the zoo... 😂 Thankfully, I’m not fussed as I think it’s nice others like the name just as much. We were obviously just all keeping quiet about our name choice

Oh sorry - but forgot to say Kit has long been a nickname for Christopher. But yes I suspect Game of thrones etc will make it more popular, There used to be a person on Radio 4 programmes called Kit ( apologies - can't be bothered to google ) Still think it is a nice name though.

Nope. My 2 DDs have very unique names, probably because they're foreign names.

According to the 2017 census DD1's name was used less than 10 times that year and DD2's name less than 80 times, compare that to the most popular name, Olivia, which was used over 5,000 times

Allan is a family name for DH so good to know our grandkids could be on trend & have a nod to family