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?

@Crikeycroc

My name was top ten the year I was born. Mum chose it because it’s a family name and she had been living overseas and was not aware of its popularity. I did not particularly enjoy being referred to as ‘Crikey number 3’ or ‘Crikey with the long hair’ growing up so I purposefully have my DD a name not in the top 100!

Me too. One of 3 with my name in my class at school so I was always referred to by my surname. Then when I went to work loads of people with the same name. Its not a name that has aged well - no baby in the UK got called my name last year.

So we called our dc by less popular names, although not too "out there". I suspect that many children with very unusual names will opt for popular/well known ones for their own children

Two of my DC's names were very unusual when I named them, but flew up the charts straight after. My other DC's name I knew was popular but DH was stubborn and wouldn't agree to anything else.
I would probably choose them all different names if I could go back in time.

Some younger friends ( I have had a baby in the last year at 40) have given their kids really unique names. I'm literally saying place names, animals, random words .. one is called Slate, one called Red. I don't know anything goes it seems. People encourage each other but probably because it's rude to say a baby name is ridiculous. People do think my DS has a made up name it's not it's just an alternative spelling for the area we are from.

I think people who strive to come up with an unusual name for their dc dont appreciate what it can be like for an child growing up with an unusual name, especially in high school.
My name is not super rare but there was never another with the same name as me in school, high school, uni.. One tv shares shares it and ive met one other person with the same name.

It is constantly misspelled, mispronouced and it was made fun of at high school. In fact my first memory of the first day at high school is of someone sniggering on hearing it.

I like it as an adult but hated it for the above reasons as a teen.

I always wondered the same and didn't want to give my DS a popular / common name. However, he's now 10 weeks old and I'm struggling to get used to his slightly unusual / uncommon name and now wishing I'd gone for something more traditional as I think those names trip off the tongue easier!!

One tv actor shares it.

One is top ten and has been for years and another probably hasn’t been out of the top 100 since recording names began. I chose them because I liked them.

I can also very confidently say that there are so many names out there that even the most popular names don’t necessarily equate to more than one in any class or school. If you look at how many children have the most popular names and compare to the number of babies born, it’s a tiny number that actually are called it.

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 have always loved my unusual name. It's a great ice breaker which is handy as I'm shy. I have a good laugh at the misapellings (every time I think that surely I've encountered every possible bastardisation someone comes up with a new one). I'm named after my mother's maternal great grandmother. The name went down very well with Mam's Welsh speaking family. It didn't go down well at all with Dad's English family - my grandmother rang my father to complain!

These things can't be predicted though, some people (like my DH) will love having a more common, classic name. However, I know quite a lot of people with Thomas and Elizabeth type names who wish they had something more unusual as their name instead. A friend of mine gave her children very classic names, think Emma and Sophie and her MIL complained that they were 'boring and unimaginative'.

Some people with unusual names will wish for a more common one and others, like me, will love having an unusual name. There's also unusual and unusual - IMO there is big difference between a name which isn't commonly used at the moment like Sabrina or Larissa and a name like Jezebel or Moonflower-Honeyblossom-Rainbow.

It can't be predicted so all you can do is pick a name you like which you think will suit your child and hope they like it. You'll never find a name which is universally popular.

My eldest dh mostly picked but despite being a name that is always popular he only ever had one other when he got to secondary school
Ds2 I picked and was a name I always loved and shorterned version of a name , didn't even look to see if popular , again at school no others in his year couple below and maybe throughout sports etc one or two with the full name version

I chose a name that wasn’t top 100 when dd was born.

Couple of tv shows later, a raft of celebs using it for their kids, and suddenly it’s top 20.

Sometimes you don’t choose the common name but it ends up that way anyway!

Fwiw I have a name that’s perceived as very common. Yet there were only 2 in my enormous secondary (1000+ kids), and I rarely met anyone else with the name. Except for the last few years, moved, started a new job and it’s everywhere! I wonder if some of it is regional as well- Londoners for example are probably more likely to choose unusual names...

DD1 is 13 so whilst the internet was becoming more of a daily 'thing' it definitely wasn't mainstream for us at all. Checking the popularity of a name didn't occur to us.

We chose her name because we both had a grandmother with the name, it's a beautiful name and most importantly we both liked it. We also didn't know anyone with that name even by remote connections.

Roll onto health clinic she's one of 3 miniGriffins born within a 4 week space, one of them sharing our surname.

Roll onto school and there's 6 in her class.

It's slightly annoying that she ended up with a really popular name, and it did make us consciously choose a less popular name for DD2 but even that didn't work. In the year DD2 was born her name was in the top 10 for Wales where we live...I hadn't even heard of it until my husband mentioned the name!

I've got a few of the popular names on my list. It's not really something that concerns me, I'd rather choose a name I love than worry about how many other people have it!

That said, there is definitely a difference between classic/timeless popular names like Oliver and current/trendy popular names like Arlo. I'd hesitate about using something that's had a sudden burst of popularity and is likely to sound dated in a couple of years. If I really loved it I'd use it though!

I liked the fact that it was a timeless name which could fit in anywhere.