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Original poster

Name popularity

112 replies

toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 15:23

Inspired by the 2020 ONS release. Oliver and Olivia were the most popular names for the fifth consecutive year, but that doesn’t tell the whole story at the top of the charts. Increasingly parents are moving away from the most popular names. The number of babies called the Top 100 names has dropped 7% for each sex since 2019. Since 1996 it's a 39% drop in babies given names in the Top 100.

Looking at the Top 10 there was a decrease in 8.5% for boys given these names compared with 2019 and almost a 10% drop for girls in the same time. Rosie entered the top ten, but there was actually one fewer Rosie born in 2020 than 2019.

Would you avoid a name just because it’s popular? What would you consider too popular to use, or does name popularity not affect you at all?

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Blubells · 18/10/2021 15:28

Yes I would avoid very popular name.

Names are meant to identify a person.

Blubells · 18/10/2021 15:30

Names that become popular quickly often fall out of fashion again and can start to sound dated. That's another reason to avoid very popular or fashionable names.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 18/10/2021 15:32

I have an Oliver. He is the only Oliver apart from 1 other in the entire school. And it's a largish primary with 70 kids per year.

Doesn't put me off obviously as I chose it. Each to there own!

TheCheeseBadge · 18/10/2021 15:33

I don't think it's always possible to avoid. We chose DS's name 5 years ago, and it was in the high 20's. It's now one of the most popular names, top 5!

Rayna37 · 18/10/2021 15:33

I have an uncommon (rather than unusual) name, as my Mum had hated being one of many many Susan's born in the mid 1940s. I love rarely meeting another one of me. My sister has an equally uncommon name.

I would have preferred the same for DS but found boys names are a smaller pool, and obviously liking the name comes first! Fortunately his nursery group of about 50 has a huge concentration of very unusual names (many featured on the recent thread of "head turning" names) and he hasn't got one of his own name with him currently.

Definitely nice to see increasing variety!

Original poster
toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 15:45

Personally, I grew up with a very popular name and want to avoid that for my children. I'd avoid the top 200 in an ideal world, but the top 100 is a hard line for me. I also have a hard line on anything which is trending quickly upward no matter where it is in the charts. The Dark Greener website is my bible for this. This is to avoid something like @TheCheeseBadge because I don't know until it starts to go down where a name will peak in the charts.

OP posts:
Tigger85 · 18/10/2021 15:48

My D's is Theodore, it was at number 70 when he was born and I'd never met a Theodore before, since he was born it has continuously jumped up the chart and is now number 14. So now I don't worry about popularity and just pick a name I like the sound of and meaning of.

sexesam · 18/10/2021 15:49

My daughter's name is well outside the top 100 (or was when she was born) I think 300 and something. But there is another in each of the 2 school years below her now. We chose the name for our own reasons but it's not a native name so knew it wouldn't be popular. I am not surprised the number of kids with he top 10 names are lower than historically. I think everyone is trying to find something a little bit different from every one else.

PanicBuyingSprouts · 18/10/2021 15:51

I didn't k ow that there was a trend moving away from the most popular names, that is very interesting.

I suppose though with more parents using the internet, they have access to a bigger pool of names.

My DM has a fairly unusual name and I used to wonder where on earth my DGM got it from as she didn't read much and the radio would have been the only real entertainment. Apparently there was a baby born and given the same name in the next street and she decided she liked it. I can't imagine anyone doing that now.

MaverickDanger · 18/10/2021 15:53

I have an unusual name and DH has a common name (top 10 for years) & we purposefully chose unusual names.

Luckily most of the names we both like are top 300+ so there shouldn’t be too many of them around.

KirstenBlest · 18/10/2021 15:55

Oliver has been popular for a long time, and I know ones of all ages.

I think of head-turning names of names like Sarah. I was in a shopping centre once and someone called out "Sarah!". Several women turned round.

Original poster
toastofthetown · 18/10/2021 16:01

@Rayna37

I have an uncommon (rather than unusual) name, as my Mum had hated being one of many many Susan's born in the mid 1940s. I love rarely meeting another one of me. My sister has an equally uncommon name.

I would have preferred the same for DS but found boys names are a smaller pool, and obviously liking the name comes first! Fortunately his nursery group of about 50 has a huge concentration of very unusual names (many featured on the recent thread of "head turning" names) and he hasn't got one of his own name with him currently.

Definitely nice to see increasing variety!

I agree and I find it fascinating that boys names are from a small pool than girls. My own boys list is shorter than my girls list. The sweet spot of 'not popular, but not bizarre' is much smaller for boys than girls. My own list goes from Henry to Lysander with very little in between. Elizabeth and Sophie's brothers might be called George and Alexander, but so are Cecilia, Juniper, Valentina and Winter's brothers. People are less daring for boys.

This plays out in the stats too. Boys are given names in the Top 100 at a 28% increase and a 42% increase just looking at the Top 10!

OP posts:
CRoberts1 · 18/10/2021 16:04

Here's a user-friendly guide to baby names, broken down by local authority. It also details all 200 top girl and boy names from 2020 - hopefully it inspires some.
www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/family/baby-names-2020-map-of-top-baby-boy-and-girl-names-in-each-area-of-england-and-wales-as-ons-reveals-rankings-3423357

PanicBuyingSprouts · 18/10/2021 16:07

I think of head-turning names of names like Sarah. I was in a shopping centre once and someone called out "Sarah!". Several women turned round

I too have an equally "head-turning name". My DM showed a stunning lack of imagination when she names us.

Synchrony · 18/10/2021 16:21

I think I am disinclined to choose a very popular girl name simply because I don't like soft vowel heavy names, and that's what happens to be popular right now. If I liked two names equally, then I might possibly go for the less popular one.

With boys, I don't care about popularity because I like so few boy names anyway! If I had a son I may well call him a top 5 name as I love it and very few others.

babybath · 18/10/2021 16:25

It's hard. My baby is no70ish at the moment, but have a feeling it will shoot up in the next few years. You pick an unpopular one and find others will do the same and bang.. going unpopular isn't a dead cert.
Go with what you like

Clandestin · 18/10/2021 16:26

@PanicBuyingSprouts

I think of head-turning names of names like Sarah. I was in a shopping centre once and someone called out "Sarah!". Several women turned round

I too have an equally "head-turning name". My DM showed a stunning lack of imagination when she names us.

Exactly. There were six girls with my name in my class throughout primary, and I still remember the moment when, living abroad and aged 25, someone called my name on the street and I actually responded, knowing I was the one being called.

My son has a name so unusual the numbers weren’t individually listed in the ONS for his year of birth — is it three or fewer?

grafittiartist · 18/10/2021 16:31

I used a really popular name- suits him and I love it.

eatingforfive · 18/10/2021 16:32

We named our daughter Violet. I felt it was timeless, fairly popular, but not a top 10 one and wouldn't have hundreds of other kids rich the same name!

SummaLuvin · 18/10/2021 17:12

@Blubells

Names that become popular quickly often fall out of fashion again and can start to sound dated. That's another reason to avoid very popular or fashionable names.
I get this perspective, but almost all names date to a certain extent, so I wouldn't let that worry me. There are two ways to avoid a name dating with surety, and neither appeal to me.
  1. choose a snooze fest name from the royal list - Catherine, William, Henry, Victoria...
  2. choose something so wacky and bizarre that it is completely unique

For me popularity is far more important that dating. In my year group of circa 170 there were 10 Thomas', and 7 Hannahs, and multiple other names with many duplications. I would choose Claudia (which isn't that popular or trending up, but may date due to similar feel to other popular names of the time, so my daughter is more likely to be only one is class/year group) over Elizabeth which is timeless but a higher chance of duplication.

I also find the difference in options for boys vs girls interesting. I wonder if it links back to sexism of expecting men/boys to be 'strong' and 'traditional' and 'reliable' meaning girls names are given more freedom of expression.

CaffiSaliMali · 18/10/2021 17:18

My name is relatively unusual in England where I was born and grew up, but is a perfectly normal name in Wales.

I've only met one other person with my name and I'm in my 30s. I like that so would want to avoid a very popular name for my own DC.

However, I'd also like to use a Welsh name and am not particularly bothered if they are popular in Wales, if anything it could be a bonus as it means their names won't sound strange when visiting Wales. So I'm bothered by popularity to an extent.

Blubells · 18/10/2021 17:27

My son has a name so unusual the numbers weren’t individually listed in the ONS for his year of birth — is it three or fewer?

Yes I think the ONS list of all boys names in a particular year include only those names that were used at least 3 times. I think it's yo do with anonymity.

My ds was one of 23 in his birth year and I thought that was few, but less than 3 is really few!

Blubells · 18/10/2021 17:29

I have a fairly unusual name and gave only met one other in my life. I really like my name.

Mondaynightnamechange · 18/10/2021 17:32

I thought I was avoiding a popular name, however when I looked at the county breakdown it was actually the most popular for the year before, however this was only 5 in total.

dreamingofsun · 18/10/2021 17:32

we chose a fairly unusual name - think bottom of top 100 and our child's godparents used it for their child.....so u cant necessarily win and maintain uniqueness