Who is still naming their babies Oliver and Olivia?

[Algor1thm]

Controversial... but really...

I work in a job where I meet lots of little kids and there are just so, so many. Half my friends are also married to or dating Ollies so it's not even limited to one generation. Does it being the top name for so long really not put people off?

I am aware that Oliver was recently knocked off the top spot, but still.

I'm also aware that this is going to be unpopular because approximately 50% of you probably have one yourself 😂

I'll preface by saying I don't have a child named either of those, nor would I chose to because I don't like them but I don't see why people get so hung up on how common a name is. If you like a name, use it.

. There are more children under 5 called Oliver/Olivia than anything else in the country. So arguing other names are more common is pretty illogical

Yes OP but they will still only be around 1% or less of children named. And there will be regional variations in that.

For example, I'm in north Scotland and don't know a single Oliver under 20 but I can't throw a stick without hitting a Lewis, Callum or Fraser!

I think you're overestimating how universally people feel that a popular name is a bad thing. I would absolutely rather have been one of the three Sarahs, two Rachels or two Katherines in my secondary school form of 30 girls than have had the whole class find it hilarious every time another new teacher couldn't say my name and to have to go through life spelling it out every time and having to constantly choose between correcting people or just being called the wrong name. I didn't call my children Oliver but I did give them both names that a lot of people on MN would consider too boring and popular - and yes, there was another boy with DS1's name in his year at nursery - and that was a very active choice! If I'd particularly liked Oliver I would have happily considered it even knowing it's so popular.

Oh me too @Hardbackwriter .

I have spent my life being called Rowena (roweeeeena) Roxanne, Roxanna, Joanne, Joanna, all sorts of stupid mispronunciations.

It’s embarrassing constantly correcting people and it’s also uncomfortable being called a name that isn’t yours.

All the Olivers are in my area. I must know a dozen under 5.

No Olivias though. Girls are all called Rosie (three in DC's nursery group of 16!) or Evie/Evelyn.

One of my dc has a popular name (top 5 for ages), it's a family name and I just love it. Easy to get personalised tat too. I put up with its popularity but do wish it was not quite so everywhere. I have the same name as everyone else my age so I know what it's like!

Not illogical at all. There are probably more Lily’s than Olivia’s but because they are recorded separately by spelling in the ONS statistics they don’t look so popular but really are Lily/Lillie/Lili etc separate names?

Then there’s the names where people give a long form but in reality they use the short form. So Eve, Evelyn and Evie are all really Evie so Evie is actually super popular, probably more likely to meet one than an Olivia.

Plus you’ve got names that come from the same family so seem ubiquitous. The Eve/Evie/Eva/Ava and now Ada and Ayla group and the Amelia/Emilia pair which taken together are stratospherically popular. This names again also encourage variant spellings, Emelia anyone? So again not counted together.

Olivia looks more popular than it is as it has no common variant spellings or long forms and so all the girls who go by Olivia are counted together in ONS statistics.

Why are you so bothered? My Ollie is 27. There were no there's in his year at school.

I don’t think that having a popular name is such a terrible thing.

Plus, the popular names now aren’t as popular as the popular names of 30+ years ago. There’s a much wider range of names used now.
Take Oliver / Olivia - in 2021, less than 0.7% of babies born that year were named Oliver. Less than 0.6% of babies were named Olivia. There’s been times in the past 20 years where the number of babies named Oliver has been over 1% (but still less than 1.2%).

Names aren’t spread evenly throughout the country, so there’ll be a higher frequency of Oliver/Olivia’s in some areas than others, but even so - those percentages are small enough that a parent considering names doesn’t need to worry about every other child they meet being called Oliver or Olivia.
And incidentally, Oliver’s dropped off the top spot now. It was the 2nd most popular boys name in England and Wales in 2021.

Darkgreener is an interesting website if you’re interested in name trends in England and Wales, as it’s got ONS name data from 1996 onwards to look at.

names.darkgreener.com/#oliver

I always wonder this but then I am the type of person who likes unusual names and a name being the most popular puts me off. But some people don’t care or actually like it. I think fashion in culture (i mean everything, not just clothing fashion) is very powerful and loads of people will go along with what they think everyone else thinks or likes - and that affects everyone to some extent.

I remember when it was Jack for years and then someone would have a baby and call him Jack and I’d think “wtf, why yet another Jack to add to the pile?” But I guess it appealed to people because it was popular and so “felt right”. Or of course in some cases people have other reasons like it’s a family name or they always planned to use it.

it does seem weird how Olivia has taken off though as it seems quite a niche name to me. Before it was popular I’d associate it with an eccentric aristocratic old lady.

You hear that a lot but we still had three Olivias in a class of only about twenty kids recently. So multiple kids in a class with the same name definitely still happens even though it shouldn't according to statistics.

Olivia is more popular than Lily, even with spellings combined: namenerds.blogspot.com/2021/12/2020-names-in-england-and-wales-grouped.html

With the nickname thing you just never really know. I've never met an Eva or Evelyn who went by Evie, it was always the full name. But I did know an Ariana who went by Ria which people wouldn't really expect.

I agree, if people like a popular name they should use it. Isabella is on my list and I love it.

Personally I sort of get Oliver because it's really handsome and fun to say and there are hardly any boys names I love anyway. With Olivia I'm very tired of it but I remember that I liked it a few years back. I think it always depends, if you had lots of Olivers in your own class at school already you are less likely to pick it. Husband likes Emma but I can't get on board because I knew so many and it feels tired.

Oops, sorry, the comment about Lily and Eve etc. was directed at another user.

Me too, my name was not popular when I was in school, and I was teased for it. Funnily enough, 10 years later it was popular. I would much rather have had a more 'ordinary' name.

My sons' names are probably in the top 10 most popular names every year. It doesn't bother me as I like them and they're not really ones that date.

I have to confess to a reverse snobbery about unique or unusual names which can come across as a bit try-hard. Each to their own though, it would be boring if we all picked the most popular names.

So multiple kids in a class with the same name definitely still happens even though it shouldn't according to statistics.

Yes, it definitely still happens. I’ve seen that before in my own DC’s classes. As I said, names aren’t evenly spread throughout the country.

But the duplicated names aren’t always the popular names, where you might expect to see multiple children with that name every now and then.
One of my DC’s was once in a class with 3 boys called Rhys. That name was ranked down in the 120’s for the birth years of the class. And we’re nowhere near Wales, if that makes any difference.

Just counted and I know 28 Olivers.

and 3 Olivias

We used the ONS data to avoid too popular names for our baby.

Not because of Olivia funnily enough, but got thoroughly sick of how many Evies and Millies we knew. It almost felt like a given that a baby would get one of those 2 names a few years ago.

I liked Leo but there were 3,465 born in 2021 and that was too many for me. We chose a name that everyone knows, can spell and pronounce very easily, but were less than 40 born in 2021. Each to their own though

My eldest daughters class had three Edwards and two Olivias.

my youngest had three Matthews, two Emmas and two Jennifers

Oliver was popular 30 years ago. The closest year to 1992 on record is 1994 and Oliver was the 23rd most popular name then. It’s been in the top hundred since 1974.

My, you have a lot of opinions!

My Olivia is 16 and she was the only 1 in her primary school. I think there's maybe one other in her high school. The only other Olivia I know is in my 4 year old sons class. My son also has one of the top 5 boys names but there's only 1 other in his school.

Neither are popular names in the (very middle class) are I live. I can think of one Oliver at my son’s school and no Olivias. Round here it’s Sienna for girls, but no particular common boys names. Maybe Alex, a couple of Oscars and Toms. I think these things are very geographically variable.

I think Olive is a beautiful name, much nicer than Olivia.

It's only this past generation who care about a names popularity. Up until the late 90's everyone had popular names.
I'm called Rebecca and was one of 4 in my year, there were 6 Emma's, 3 Danielle's, 3 Samanthas and about 8 Sarah's, as well as multiple Natalies, Amy's, Zoe's etc.
It never bothered me at all, it would've bothered me to be that one kid with a weird name that everyone made fun of though.

DD is called Mia, when I chose it 10 years ago everyone told me how popular and overused it was, yet in her school of over 400 she's one of only 3 and is the only one in her year.

I pick a name because I like it, I don't care how popular it is. The only thing that would stop me using it is if a cousin or close friends child had the same name.

I know an elderly couple called Oliver and Olive , obviously not their choice. But they called one of their children Olivia . Strange.

I don't really get why people change their preferences based on popularity. Name your kid what you want. Who cares if there's a lot of them. I know a bazillion Mikes, Andrews, Jennifers, and Alisons. No one has my name and I always thought it made me stand out in ways I didn't like.