Why did you (if you did) choose a popular name?

[takeitfromyourmumsy]

Just curious really. I'm always surprised when names (eg Olivia/Oliver) stay at the top of the baby name list for years - would have thought that once a name was top 5, certainly number 1, that would put some people off? Obviously not the case, so just wondered, if you gave your child a very popular name, why did you?

By accident. It was not that popular when I named her (Ava, she's 17). Now it's absolutely everywhere. I still think it's a lovely name, but would choose something less popular if I had my time again. Sadly I did not have a crystal ball.

Because people like them. If you really love a name you shouldn't be put off just because it's popular. With DS1 I just picked a name I loved. Had no idea it was in the top 20.

DS2 has a top 10 (probably top 5) name. When I was pregnant I totally vetoed it. It didn't even make the "short list". Being so popular was one, although not the only reason.
And then he was born. And I looked at him. And it was so obviously his name that it may as well have been tattooed on his forehead.
And weirdly he's never been in the same school year, let alone class, as another one. Although we've met a few older and younger.

Liked the names.
Had some personal connections to them.
High chance (true) everyone would know how to spell it.
Uncontroversial.

I actively chose popular names for my DC. I have an uncommon (although not outlandish) name and as a child, I never came across anyone with the same name as me. I was very shy and hated anything that are me stand out. I felt "unfashionable" when all my friends were Claire/Catherine/Amy etc.

I looked for names in the top 30 and chose ones that ended up being in the top 10 for their birth year. They have come across others with their names although they are not especially common, even for top 10. The eldest is the only one with that name in the whole primary school and the youngest has one other in the school, though not the class.

I think that popular names now are still used less commonly than when I was a child. I am a primary teacher and almost never have two children with the same name in a class.

Because I didn’t know. I had only been in the country for a couple of years, wasn’t familiar with parenting forums so it was me, DH and a names list. The only criteria, other than both of us liking it, was that it was something my Portuguese-speaking grandmother could pronounce without issues. We have achieve that, so I’m happy with the choice. With our surname being fairly common too, I often say we gave her the gift of anonymity. She loves her name, but she can always change it later if she feels like standing out instead, I wouldn’t be offended.

As an aside, after I have discovered parenting forums I often wondered if I should have swapped her first name-middle name combo the other way around because of the popularity, (middle name outside top 1000) - but now she’s in secondary school, has no one with the same first name in her form, and sits next to someone called her middle name, so it’s completely random who you’re going to meet/be in class with/work with in your life.

My DC don't have very common names because my DH wasn't keen so we had to compromise, but I like really like them, especially for boys. Some of my favourites are James, Edward, Thomas, William and Emily. I like them because they are timeless, and they aren't going to become the next Barry or Kevin. If a name is 'a bit different' then there is a good chance that it will become tied to our era. That said, there are names lower down the top 100 which I would call timeless (what we were aiming for with our compromise!), and names higher up which are fads, so it's not a hard and fast rule!

DS (3) is Alfie (Alfred) - we chose it as couldn’t agree on a name, so we each wrote a list of 5 names and it was top of both our lists. Turns out, both our paternal grandfathers were called Alfred, so that sealed the deal - and my son suits it so well, he couldn’t be called anything else. I haven’t met another Alfie yet, and expected to meet loads.

Expecting DS2 and we seriously couldn’t think of a name or agree on anything at all. Then one day we asked DS1 at dinner what baby in mummy’s tummy was called, and he threw his arms up and shouted “OLLIE!” - goodness knows where he got it from, but it’s stuck since that day - baby Ollie (Oliver) is due in April, and I couldn’t care less that it’s popular

We’d like a third (well... we’ll see how we feel when we have 2!), and have since agreed Thomas if we ever had a third boy, or Genevieve for a girl.

Because we honestly just really liked the name and didn't like any others! It really didn't bother me that the name was really popular!

Interesting to read all the replies. I have a very common name and was always one of several in my class/workplace etc so consciously chose less popular names for DC - but I do sometimes worry that I should have chosen something less quirky. Hope they don't find their names a burden!

I really liked the name Sophia when choosing a name 5 years back. When I saw it in the top names list for 2016 I was really surprised, it did put me off. I choose something else, but mainly as we were having a surprise and needed a boy and a girls name, so went with names traditional to a county my DH has connections to instead. I had a boy!

My best friend then gave her DD the middle name Sophia and I've since made a good adult friend named that too, so when I had my 2nd DC Sophia last year, Sophia wasn't even on my mind! Things change.

We do need edit... none of my children are called Sophia! Mehhh still a lovely name though.

And yes I was one of 3 with the same name in my primary school class. 2 more in the other class.

I used popular names all three times!

With DS1 & DD they were both names I had loved & dreamed to using since my teens. DS1’s name was also my grandpa’s name who died when I was 4. The year DS1 was born, it was still a relatively rare name for a child. Almost immediately after it took off dramatically & the country was then full of them .

DD’s name isn’t quite so popular but was top 20 when she was born & I think it probably still is.

DS2 has the only other boy’s name DH & I could agree on. It didn’t really matter that it was the second most popular name the year he was born as it was the only contender & we both loved it (and still do).

Out of the three, only DS2 has had friends or classmates with the same name.

I am considering two popular names. The reasons I want to use them are that I like them and in one case it is a family name I have always liked, but more recently became very popular.

I have to say the fact that they, or nearly the same names, are very popular is really putting me off. If it weren’t for that I probably would have chosen one of them already. I still might use them but the popularity is putting me off, and it actually even does make them seem a bit less nice.

Someone said to me when we were choosing, that most (not all admittedly) kids would rather be one of three Olivers rather than the only Quentin! And now I have 4 teenagers and a ten year old I can tell you that this is very much the case.

We chose family names - named after great grandparents. The names we chose hadn't been popular for a long time, and didn't start increasing in popularity until around the time he was born- but we didn't know anyone with children with those names. Both names are consistently top 10 now and have been for 20 years.

Because we like classic names which tend to remain popular. We didn't care how many other kids had the same name.

DS is named after a character in one of my favourite books. It’s been my favourite boys’ name since I was about 9, and DH luckily loved the name too. It wasn’t even in the top 100 when we talked about potential baby names, and, Sod’s law, had a very sharp rise in popularity just in the year DS was born.

Even if we had wanted to use a less popular name and rethink our list, we couldn’t have known - DS was born at the beginning of the year, so by the time everyone else named their babies the same thing that year, it was too late for us!

@Itsokthanks

Because we like classic names which tend to remain popular. We didn't care how many other kids had the same name.

I think classic names do better even when really popular...like Charlotte or Emily which are always popular, but then others are probably very much of their time and only in the top ten for a while before sinking back into obscurity and so sounding quite dated.

I like the name
It’s biblical and so will remain “known” and not a fad
Family members (not immediate) have same name and feels like a connection
Fits with my background and DHs

By accident. It was not that popular when I named her (Ava, she's 17)

I think that’s different though. To hear of a 17 year old called Ava is lovely and quite unusual for her age. Most I know are either elderly or under 5

When I had my first DC 16 years ago so almost 17 years ago that I was pregnant I didn't realise the name was popular. Infact i didn't know anyone called it. It was only as she went into junior school that I realised it was becoming popular as I heard of some in infant school with same name.
I still like it and glad I chose it though.
My 2nd DC name was quite unusual at the time and although I've never met another one sometimes on baby threads I see people suggest how about this name etc and it's always my DC name but I think no.....don't suggest that haha

My son’s I’d loved since a teen and it wasn’t popular at all then. I didn’t realise how popular it was when we named him as he was my first and I have very little interaction with young children until then.

My daughters is also very popular and again I didn’t realise just how popular until she was perhaps a year old. We struggled to agree a girls name.

For both I wanted something short and simple as our surname is complicated and I have to spell it out every single time

OP- I wonder this too.
While overly popular names may sound nice to the person wanting to use them, wish they'd know in reality if you hear a child called that name you think literally NOTHING (or if you do you think oh how dull/boring). You don't see the nice name anymore, you don't think of the merit of the name, its a word like "and" or "the" that is so common, so heard constantly it becomes bland, average, dull, "meh". No idea why people insist on using names in the top 10- especially top 5 and saddling kids with these completely unoriginal names.

We chose a popular (top 5) name for our DS, it is a classic, Royal type name. In reality he never met anyone in his circle (school, sports, clubs etc) with the same name until he got to Uni and one of his best mates has the same name - they just think it's funny. We liked the name as it had a family connection - Been popular for years .

My DH has an incredibly poplular name from the 60s/70s (my own DB has the same name) but one you rarely hear any more ... in our small road there were four with the same!