Does anyone else agree that “unique” names are becoming so common?

[Mamatolittleboy]

We called our boy a common name so this isn’t me having a bash. Just wondering if anyone else is finding this too?

I go to a lot of baby groups where woman tell me how much they wanted a unique name so called their baby Oakley, River or Forest. Names I’ve heard so much this year. All beautiful names, lovely names.

Went round a friends house the other day to meet her new baby. Gorgeous boy, they wanted an uncommon/rare name for him - Arlo.

Yep, my 2 boys have boring names (not unique or strange spelling), and at most there has been one other child with the same name, out of about 80 boys. There are 3 Jupiter’s in my youngest son’s year.

Apparently there are names that are classified as “timeless” so have been used for a really long time, and always appear in popular name lists, like Thomas, George, William etc for boys and Sophie, Olivia, Charlotte etc for girls. I guess anything outside of these will go in and out of fashion and therefore be more unusual?

There are 3 Jupiter’s in my youngest son’s year.

That's mad! What are the odds?

People always say how timeless these names are but when I was at primary school (80s) it would have been weird to come across a child called George, William (although maybe this picked up a little after Prince William was born) or Olivia. I remember a colleague calling his baby daughter Olivia in 1996 and we all privately thought it was a hideous, old fashioned, ugly name and wondered why on earth he’d chosen it. It must have been right at the start of Olivia making its way into the popular name list (where it has been ever since. It doesn’t sound ugly or weird to me any more as a result.)

That's an urban myth. An article on the internet reported a few years ago now that it was 'extinct' and people have quoted it as fact ever since. A quick check on the official ONS lists released every year (or Darker Green, which gets it's data from the Office for National Statistics lists) shows that, although there are only a handful of kids called Gary each year right now, it is definitely still in use.

I met a gorgeous little 6 month old Valerie at a baby group a few weeks back. She really suited both the long version and a nickname of Val. I’d call that unique due to how rare it is in those <65! Somewhat off topic but I’m looking forward to Linda/Pamela/Margaret/Annette/Cathy/Patricia eventually replacing Edith/Mabel/Dorothy/Evelyn/Elsie/Alice.

I named my kids common names as mine is a pain to spell and is unusual with a more unusual spelling.

I worked in day nurseries in the early 2010s and in my two year old group we had 4 Ellas and 2 Graces. After I had my oldest I worked in a baby shop and we would always say 'how unique' when the parents would say their name,even if it was the 4th Wilfred of the day- lots of Wilfreds and Teddy's and girls were usually Ruby, Violet, Ava or Isabella.

Your job must be fascinating. When we were registering our son in 2020 our registrar commented that she'd never registered a Gilbert before.

We've only ever met one in the wild before, a 50 year old man in a restaurant who was quite elated that a toddler had the same name as him :)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw&pp=ygUNa2F5IGFuZCBwZWVsZQ%3D%3D

@PassMeTheCookies It doesn't record names with fewer than three entries to protect anonymity :)

DD was one of 13 with her name, born in 2001. It’s an old family name. Now it’s just outside the top 100.

@Sheraprincessofflower It's because of Isabella from Twilight 🤢

It's my daughter's middle name! After her grandmother but the more I say it the more it works iykwim

Years ago I was talking online to a woman who was expecting a baby. I asked her "have you looked at the top 100 list"?
"No" she replied "I dont want a top 100 name"
Me "How do you know what names are on the list if you don't read it?"
Her silence... then " I never thought of it that way"
(She read the list)

Many do this. They don't want a top 10 name but don't read the top 100 list as they don't want those names.

For me personally I think its great that a wide range of names are used. I find. Names like Matthew, Oliver Jamie rather dull and prefer something more unusual however I do t expect others to do so.

Each to their own. When a friend or family member announces their baby name I respond "that's lovely" 3 of my 4 have more uncommon names and when I named ds my mother responded "that's horrid!"
I never wanted a new parent to experience that. I have had more than 1 parent burst into tears because I was the first to respond positively. Not even always that weird and out there names.

It's lovely. Very sociable and I meet lots of people.
There are lots of "and how you spelling that?" moments!

There is a Rahab in the Bible, I imagine it’s the same name or origin.

Peter or John would sound so refreshing and would be unusual amongst the Arlos.

Also annoyed as I was genuinely ahead of the curve with my two lots of positive comments and no others with same names - live next to a primary school and both one in particular quite well used now though not in my teens demographic.

My children's names remain outside the top 200, but were ranked 400-500 only a few years ago. Will be interesting to see what happens.

My sister is an 80s Poppy and for decades she never met another. It's a very popular name now.

Because Chloe was really unique and it wasn’t the done thing to have a unique name.

I think some people still judge unique names but not as much.

I do think there is a weird "haha gotcha fool" attitude towards newly popular names. There seems to often be an assumption that you were trying to be unique and have failed spectacularly, when in reality it's just that people hear the name more and it enters their awareness, or perhaps that people who are naming children in 2023 had similar cultural references from the 90s.

I simply cannot explain the 3 Jupiters, that's wild.

Ohhh, that's interesting! Thank you. That makes sense.

@PassMeTheCookies No worries :) I'm a name nerd so spend too much time on DarkGreener 😅

One of my DD has one of the current most common names - we just loved it and didn’t get put off using it just because it’s popular. She’s actually the only one in her year with the name. There are some in the other year groups.

My other 2 DDs have very well known names however are not currently used much and they are the only ones in their school with their names.
We chose names based on the meaning of the name, named after family and something that people could spell and pronounce and that we felt were pretty/feminine but still strong names that you could use as adults. We didn’t care about how popular or unique they were.

I guess a lot of people name their kids after their own grandparents. My granny is Isabel and is not the only one of her pals with that name. My cousin has an Isabel. When I worked in geriatrics I often felt like I could predict the popular names of the next decade by looking at our ward list! Arthur, Alfred, Ava, just to start with. I'm surprised Thomasina hasn't made a comeback though!

I bet my own daughter looks at her grandma Sharon and thinks that's a lovely unusual name...

I am of the Louise/Ashley generation and there hasn't been anyone registered with my name (here in Scotland anyway) in years. When I meet another one we can usually instantly identify each other as being aged between about 25 and 40. But I bet it makes a comeback in 2060

Linus = Linus Torvalds

The guy who enabled most of the world to use the internet cheaply.

Oh and he has a daughter called "Celeste"

Point is any name can be seen differently by different people.