Isla too common?

[Londonlady1423]

Hi,

What are your thoughts on the name Isla? We like it as a possible name but looking at name statistics it seems like it's quite common at the moment which put us off.
Other names we like are Rose, Lucy and Hannah

I know more little Islas than any other name

Isla is a lovely name...it's very popular but lovely names are popular. If you like it, use it. It will date terribly though. It's like Janet, Linda or Sue...you just know they're in their late sixties. Ditto Gemma and Lisa, they're in their late thirties. Isla, Ava, Evie and Freya will all be the same. Some people are fine with this...others prefer a name that won't date.

I've never met one in real life and I'm a teacher so I come across a lot of kids!
It's pretty, I think.

It’s very common where I stay. There is a couple in the baby groups I go too and know a few personally. It’s a lovely name
but very popular if you want something more unique

I only like vowel-heavy names and I had mine, including Isla, picked out since childhood.😑To say I was disappointed by the sudden vowely baby trend would be an understatement lol.

But, you have to pick the names you love. Don't worry about popularity or trying to predict if or how fast they will date, what cultural connotations may develop.

Who would have predicted the rise of Isla?

Lucy and Hannah are very 90s. Isla is beautiful as is Rose which never dates

If a name being popular bothers you then don't choose Isla! Pick something outside the top 50 on the popularity lists from recent years.

That is very subjective though. Lucy and Hannah were popular in the 90s, yes, but they are classic names which everyone knows, they'll keep coming back. For example the little girl in 'The lion, the witch and the wardrobe' written in the 1940s was Lucy, there are characters named Lucy in the books of Charles Dickens and also in Jane Austen (early 1800s) and earlier than that too.

When I was growing up (1960s and 70s) Isla was a very rare name in England (probably more used in Scotland) and Rose was considered very old fashioned. Lucy was a name for posh girls only, there weren't any at our school. Lots of Sarahs, Claires, Catherine, Jane, Amanda, Deborah, Alison, Tracey and, yes, Karen those were our 'normal' names.

I knew girls with names like Lucy, Hannah, Sophie, Jessica, Rebecca, Rachel etc growing up, and I'm older than 30. They're classic/biblical names that will keep coming round.

Rose was seen as a bit frumpy when I was growing up. Isla was the lady on Generation Game and I thought it was a nice name.

@Pemba everyone knows them in the way everyone knows the name Debbie or Sue - because the cohort are now older and we all know some. I wouldn’t call them classic, I think Rose is however. They’re very 90s to my mind, Hannah and Lucy are in their early 30s.

Yes when I was at school it was Katie, Hannah, Amy, Izzy, Leanne, Becky

@Coffeeandbourbons there is even a Saint Lucy it is certainly a classic name. I suppose even a classic name can be considered dated if it had a popularity surge in a particular decade or couple of decades. For example Sarah. Certainly classic and a lovely name, but it was so overused in the 60s and 70s that parents are probably deterred from using it now.

Rose is possibly classic but was definitely thought of as old fashioned for a long time, as me and a pp have said. I would say that until recent times it was thought of as belonging to the Victorian era. It's less classic than Lucy, Hannah or Sarah imo.

I suppose classic is not the same thing as timeless
There are few names that don't have surges of popularity and then come back decades later. Anna is one example of a name that seems timeless.