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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Original poster

Opinion on popular baby names

39 replies

VirgoPeanutPending · 29/05/2023 20:41

Did anyone give their child a "common"/popular name and regret it due to the number of other kids with the same name? Or do you have one yourself and wish you'd been called something more unique growing up?

I've had a name in mind for baby girl for a long time. It's personal to me for a couple of reasons but also happens to be and have been a rather popular name for a while now... when I've searched the name in this thread where others have suggested it, there have been many responses commenting on how many of this name there are in their son/daughters classes.

I still really like the name. Is this a major issue?

Personally I didn't know many people with my name until secondary school where there were 4 of us with the same name in our year, I didn't really mind it. There were far more common names that I didn't think much of it, and never really heard anyone with one of the more common names complain....but times change, don't they..

I'm probably just hormonal and overthinking it all now... but just wanted some opinions on popular names in general and if they're actually a big deal to anyone?!

OP posts:

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Notellinganyone · 29/05/2023 20:51

My two eldest have slightly old fashioned names that aren’t very common but not unusual. My youngest is Freddie and I regret that now as he’s one of many. I wish I’d chosen a name in the same ballpark popularity wise as the first two.

MidsummerNightsDream · 29/05/2023 20:52

There were 2 other girls with the same first name as me at one time in my class. I never really thought about my name growing up but I’m 50 now and have decided that I really love my name. Both my dc have traditional, fairly popular names. I like traditional names.

RosaSkye · 29/05/2023 20:57

If you love it- go for it regardless. I have 3 DD’s all with names that I’d say are more unusual to hear but I love very popular names for boys like Noah & George and would happily have used them.

I’m one of 3 people at my work with my name (it doesn’t bother me at all) but I was the only one all through school, so sometimes it just can’t be predicted

Hazelnuttella · 29/05/2023 20:59

There’s such a big variety of girls names that even the “popular” ones aren’t that common. Look at the ONS baby names to look at how many girls actually had the name last year. It always surprises me how low the numbers are even for the most popular names.

Use the name you love.

Nearlyamumoftwo · 29/05/2023 21:04

Tough one. I didn’t have a popular name for my era, and my son doesn’t either (partly because I didn’t want to, but equally the name I loved happened to be unpopular). I’m pregnant again and purposefully choosing a name which isn’t overly popular atm (but it might be in a few years who knows!)

i don’t like the idea of my child having a name where he is known as “Timmy H” or “Timmy G” in school, but equally I’m of the belief that you should name your child what you want! If you’ve always loved it and it has personal
meaning, you might regret it.. I couldn’t go through life loving a name then not using it!

i can’t remember the site, but some places list the popular names by area, eg Number 1 in the country might be number 10-20 in the area you live

GoalShooter · 29/05/2023 21:07

My DD (15yo) has a popular name. DH and I had always talked about calling our DD that (it's my grandmother's name) and then it suddenly became very popular but we went ahead anyway. There was another girl in her primary class with the same name and a couple of others in her year at secondary.

No regrets here. We still love the name and she really likes it too!

FirstFallopians · 29/05/2023 21:08

I have one of each- dd very very unusual, difficult Irish spelling, people have rarely heard of it even in NI.

Then DS with a mad popular “classic” name, guaranteed one in every school year.

No regrets about either, but I knew exactly the kind of names we were picking.

I do feel sorry for first time parents thinking they’ve picked this lovely, fresh sounding name like Oliver or Evie and then dc starts nursery or preschool and they realise that multiple other parents thought this too!

StopFeckingFaffing · 29/05/2023 21:16

It's a shame if you spend your whole life as Olivia B or Evie A due to duplicates in your peer group but it's not always the top 10 names which end up being a duplicate so I would say it isn't worth worrying about unless you know of multiple babies already born very recently in your immediate area or friendship group with the name you are planning to use in which case I would choose something different

Infusionist · 29/05/2023 21:17

My name was one of the top ones from my era - the Evie of the mid 80s.

I don’t love it. There were always two or three of us in the class, and now it pigeon holes my age.

Not the worst thing in the world, but I’ve given my DDs more unusual names.

CatkinToadflax · 29/05/2023 21:22

Both of our boys have names that were top 50ish when they were born and quickly rose to top 10/20ish. For DS2 we didn’t know any other children at all with his name - and then there were 3 others in his nursery class. However he’s now the only one in his school year group of 50. DS1 was the only student in his whole school for several years to have his name. Small school, but still.

My feeling is, if you love the name then use it. You may or may not find multiple other children in the class with the same name!

Yummyyummyinmytummy · 29/05/2023 21:31

I would say dont use a common name unless it has a very significant meaning to you and reason to pick it. Dont do it just because you like it, try find a less popular one that you also like.

Its very annoying being one of mane Ev- names, Olivias, Freddies, Charlies etc. Its just too much and the last thing you want is for your kid to be known with the last name/middle name in order to somehow distinguish in a class.

Algor1thm · 29/05/2023 21:33

I met a woman the other day who told me she thought she was being really unique with the name Theo 4 years ago, and now there are 2 others in her son's Reception class and she really regrets it. I have no idea why she thought Theo would be an unusual name given it's been right up there in the popularity charts for a while, but I guess some people don't check these things.

Personally, I've aimed for somewhere in the 200-500 range in the charts - unusual but not unheard of. I don't want my child to be Theo P the whole of school.

Somanyquestionstoaskaboutthis · 29/05/2023 21:40

I have an Olivia who is 21 now. She has never had another Olivia in her class but we have known a few over the years. It doesn’t bother her. When we chose it we didn’t know of any others, despite her being dc2. DC1 has an uncommon name which then became more popular but not top 20, she has known several and DC2 best friend has the same name as DC1. DS has a very uncommon name but his best friend has the same name.
All love their names and none of us regret any of them.

lavenderlou · 29/05/2023 22:07

My DC both have top 10 names. I'm happy with them and they like them (they are aged 10 and 13 now). Even though they are popular they don't regularly encounter others with the same name. There is one other with the same name in DC1's year group of 150+ children and one with the same name in DC2's one-form entry primary (in a different year group). I had an unusual name growing up and I hated standing out so deliberately chose quite popular names for my DC.

IamnotwhouthinkIam · 29/05/2023 22:08

I think it depends - is the name popular now but "classic", along the lines of Charlotte or Emily? Or only popular in the last few decades so with the potential to be more faddy - like Isla, Ava etc?

I gave my son a popular but very "classic" name and have no regrets - and we haven't met any others his age yet at toddler groups, so probably he'll still be the only one in his school class even if there are lots of others in the school. But some of the girls choices I liked had the potential to faddy (ie. date badly) on top of being popular which personally worried me more.

mdinbc · 29/05/2023 22:39

I would go ahead if the name is important to you, and goes will with your surname. I would just be prepared for her to use her middle name as well if she is one of several, but you won't need to cross that bridge until school.

I think teachers tend to call out duplicates by their last name initial, eg. Tommy G and Tommy S, and it can stick. If you have a quick and easy middle name, she can add that on once she hits school if there are others.

And really, this will only be a small portion of her life, so I wouldn't worry about any duplicate names.

SmurfHaribos · 29/05/2023 22:44

The top/most common baby names are actually pretty low numbers anyway. The variety of baby names in use has drastically increased; so whereas in the past the number 1 name had loads and loads of people using it, nowadays the number 1 name has much lower numbers so you are pretty unlikely to have duplicates anyway.

PickledScrump · 30/05/2023 00:01

My daughter has a popular name and I still love it. It suits her down to the ground. I didn’t know any when I picked it but there ended up being 4 in her year group with various spellings. It’s really impossible to tell what will be popular in your area. Olivia has been top for years but the only one I know of is in her 30s. My friends kids are in in different years in school and not one has an Olivia in their year group. Yet everyone says how popular it is.

If you love the name use it.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 30/05/2023 07:48

My dc have top 20 names. At primary school there was another child in ea h of their forms with their names (and they also had a child with each other's names in their classes). So DD was "Jane C" in a class with "Jane B", and DS decided to be "Thomas" at school, in a class with "Tommy", and remained "Tom" at home.

No regrets, no problem.

kezziecakes · 30/05/2023 07:54

I was one of 5 in my class at school so it was important to me to give my children more unusual names. My ds has a name in the top 200 but in the two years before having my dd I got so annoyed by people commenting on the name and asking if they had misheard etc (it's a fairly normal biblical name, just a little more unusual) I went for a much more popular name for dd (top 30). I love it too but she has two others in her primary school and we often meet others whereas my ds is always the only one. I love both names but my ds much prefers his more unusual name.

KirstenBlest · 30/05/2023 12:57

Mine have names that turned out to be very popular. It wasn't deliberate - we picked names we liked.
The names are classic ones, so haven't dated too badly.

I have a feeling that OP's baby name is Evie

magnolia1997 · 30/05/2023 13:04

I have a name that was very popular when I was born. People probably almost always roughly know my age without meeting me.
That doesn't particularly bother me but I don't like the fact that it was fashionable for a short time and will probably never come back into use again.

steppemum · 30/05/2023 13:16

When I went into halls at uni, we had 10 girls on our corridor and 7 of them were called Sarah.
Inevitably none of them were ever called Sarah, they all had nicknames.

Similarly when I went to the parents meeting for my ds secondary (middle class grammar school) the list of class names literlaly went
Oliver
Thomas
Tom
Oliver

repeat, repeat

I aimed to avoid that. As pp said I chose recognised but not highly popular names.

BUT ds's name is a family name, and he would have had it no matter what. It was in top 500 when we used it. Within 3 years it was top 50. You can't always tell.

Odile13 · 30/05/2023 13:20

I would go for whatever name you love regardless of popularity. Naming a baby is such a special thing to get to do - what’s the point of not going with whatever make you really love?

Heckythump1 · 30/05/2023 13:27

DD1 has a Top 20 girls name, one other in her year group but not her class and a couple of others in the school. Fab name though and really suits her, no regrets.

DD2 has a Top 50 name, we knew no others with name when she was born though. then DD1 started school and there's one in her class and one in the other class in her year group... we thought she was fibbing when she told us there were two girls with DD2 name at school :P DD2 is in nursery now and the only one with her name in nursery so far.

Love both names and don't regret either! They love meeting people who have the same name as them :)

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