Does anyone else notice…

[Nothinginparticular]

That people have a boy and give him a really traditional name like Oliver, Edward, Thomas etc and then have a girl and name her something really unusual?

I know so many people that have done this. Are people more reluctant to give girls more traditional names? Or are they feeling a bit more adventurous by the time they’ve had their second baby 😁

I think that’s a massive generalisation.

I read about this. One theory is that it's more acceptable for girls/woman to follow fashion and cultural trends so therefore girls are more likely to be given 'trendy' names and boys traditional names.

I personally think that boys are more likely to be named after another male in the family, eg. grandparent.

No but I often notice people with three kids giving their final kid a much more 'out there' name - Olivia, max and Lux etc

We've done this!

I can't think of loads of examples like this but some, I guess.

I know:
William and Ocean
William, Alex and Antigone
Lucas and Amberley
Harry and Tallulah
Jack and Teagan
Jack and Mirella
Ben and Athene
Ewan and Christabel

No, I don't think that's true.

I know boys with less popular names (Marcus, Quentin, Cassius etc) whose sisters are called Emily, Ella or Kate.

I’d say the other way, I know more boys with unusual names whereas the girls are Emily, Isla, Isabelle, Amelia etc.

No I don’t know anyone who has done this.

Yes I think that’s long been the case.

Yes, I notice that boys top ten names are more conservative than the girls' frillier sounding names. Though the feminine form of a name often ends with ia or ina or ette which makes a longer syllabled name, I guess.
In families I know the names are well suited but the first or last child is more likely to be the odd one out. Perhaps number one sometimes gets favourite childhood name (regardless of whether it still suits present day) and final child is more likely to have the name the parents were always too afraid to use, but loved.

DS was born at "Peak Oliver", he had 5 amongst his immediate contacts - 4 of them have younger sisters, all very mainstream.

Yeah, like Topsy and Tim

I haven’t noticed that. Most people seem to have kids names that ‘match’, as in all traditional or all a bit more out there.

There's also a chance mothers insist more on their favorite for girls. Kind of like, mother likes Marcus and Luna, but when she eventually has both boy and girl (either as twins or during two year period), she's more likely to insist girl should be named her favorite name, while she respects dad wishes for his favorite name for a boy.

I disagree. Loads of Avas, Olivia's etc whereas I've heard boys called Fox and other weird things. Weird and normal for both sexes.

I know one family like this. Bebe, Minnie and Henry

Oh god we did this. Son (firstborn) has a very traditional name and daughter has a traditional welsh name but very different feel from son's we also live in England.

Son is named after my grandfather... so we did that one too lol.

I did have other very traditional names on the list for second like Catherine and Eleanor, but she didn't fit those when she was born.

I disagree. Lots of great unusual names for boys and girls around here (Greater London).

And if parents do choose top 10 names then generally for ALL their children.

This is totally outing, but I know one family whose children are Noah and Pixie. I thought they were joking when they told us

I’m obviously over-generalising massively but I do think it’s interesting! My daughter has a top 50 name and my son has a top 300 name so I’m the other way around 😂

I'm also the other way around. My DS's name as used 30 times in his birth year, my DD's over 100 times

We are the other way round. I have a timeless and rather "safe" name, my younger brother has a name with strong regional connections that was very rare when he was named over 50 years ago, but is now fairly popular. We're something along the lines of Eleanor and Finn. I also know someone who named her son something from a well-known fantasy series and her daughter a rather old-fashioned sounding Biblical name. I'm actually struggling to think of an example of a family I know personally where the girl has the more unusual name, although I can well believe it does happen.

I haven’t noticed this at all. My ds and dd both have traditional/old fashioned names. Ds has a more popular name in the name charts, but DD’s isn’t odd, or out there.