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.

I was born in early 70s and given an unusual name along with my DB too. A friend of my stepdad named her DDs with floral names (one was Fuschia). Most other parents then named their children the usual names like Jane etc.

In early 90s when my best friend had her children she named them unusual names and it seems other people did similar.

A NDN when she had her children approximately 11 years ago chose usual names like Thomas, Isabella.

My DB has an unusual name (usual diminutive of a boy’s name in another country. When he and his wife had their baby boy 5 years ago they wanted an unusual name with DB’s initial and then used another unusual name and SIL’s DF’s name.

SIL is due her second baby next week and they said they’d let his DB choose the name. Knowing him he’ll choose a Marvel/Avengers/Transformers character!

My pet peeve is people who don't realise that they are naming an adult. I've met a dolly and a bunny. Both cute for babies and toddlers. Not so much for a 40year old woman.

Dolly Parton seems to have done alright, but I know what you mean. It's probably very different in showbiz as opposed to an ordinary person. Bunny, though?!?!

Worse than that, we used to know somebody who had a (then) middle-aged aunt called ‘Baby’. You’ve just had a new baby and you decide to register her the actual name of… Baby. Now that really does show an immense lack of realisation that your newborn will grow up and will then be a teenager/young adult/middle-aged/pensioner – called Baby.

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

I used to love The Three Investigators! To be fair, Pete and Bob were once more run-of-the-mill names, but you don’t get many baby Petes or baby Bobs these days. Wasn’t Jupiter also the name of a fire engine or a bin lorry or something in a kids’ TV programme?

My mum had twin boys in her class once - Spike and Linus. Parents were Scooby Do fans. No joke.

Spike and Linus were also in Peanuts. Linus was one of the boys and Spike was one of Snoopy’s relatives who appeared occasionally.

A friend of my stepdad named her DDs with floral names (one was Fuschia).

Did she spell it like that, or did she use the normal spelling? If the latter, I really can't see it ending well to give your child a name beginning Fuch...

Not necessarily.

We asked some kids what we should call DD expecting them to come out with comic names, the names they came out with were either the names of people who are in their 60s/early 70s now or in a minority their own.

I wonder if the popularity of the new adaptation of Malory Towers might lead to a revival of names like Gwendoline, Jean, Irene and Ron for babies?!

This always confuses me. I would never let my son name his sibling out of thin air as it would end up as Benjamin Bunny or Peter Rabbit 😂 He simply doesn't know enough names. The only exception I can think of is if parents are stuck between two names. My friend named her sister as a child but had to pick between Sian and Megan.

@KnottyKnitting Harri is Welsh for Henry (and is probably where Harry as a nickname for Henry came from).

The Welsh version of Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone (Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd) uses the Harri spelling.

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

Wow! What are the chances of that! With so few registrations of the name Jupiter in the whole country, three of them, the same age, happen to be in one class in one area.

There most Jupiters ever registered in a year was in 2021, 7 girls and 8 boys. The number is mostly 3 or fewer, before that 'surge'

Benjamin and Peter are fine names!

@TheBirdintheCave
Which did she choose?! They're quite different

That website is very interesting. Both my children have unusual names, mainly because we wanted names that would work in English and DH's language, but also because of our tastes. So neither is very popular but DC1's name has declined and DC2's is going up..

I would never let my son name his sibling out of thin air as it would end up as Benjamin Bunny or Peter Rabbit

Count yourself lucky the child doesn't end up being called Poopoohead or Stinkypants

I think my DC would call their baby siblings Skye or Chase

Actually I seem to remember asking DS2 for ideas to name DS3 just to see what he would say, and he suggested his own name. Which we thought would be confusing.

Olivia started to become popular in the late 70s as a result of Grease.

Actually I seem to remember asking DS2 for ideas to name DS3 just to see what he would say, and he suggested his own name. Which we thought would be confusing.

When our DS was very little, several of his teddies ended up with his own name! Young children just don't know enough names - nor know how to research them - to be allowed to name a younger sibling.

However, I don't see any problem with the parents coming up with a shortlist of liked names and then asking the sibling which name they prefer. It could even break a deadlock if they can't decide, or if mum wants name A and dad wants name B but they are both happy with either of them really!

She went with Sian :)

I wouldn’t deliberately choose a name that everyone else was using, but inadvertently called my second DS a name that had a burst of popularity just after he was born. It has never got super popular, though, and I still like it.

My older DS has a Spanish name, as that was my DH’s one and only contribution to the naming discussion. I was so sure I was having a girl that I said ‘Yes, ok, whatever.’ Then he was a boy and I hadn’t chosen any names myself🙈.

It could have been worse, though, his parents were lobbying for Manuel.

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

I had a friend in the 80s (who would now be about 60 I think) who was of Barbadian descent, and she and her siblings all had quite unusual names. One of them was Olivia and I remember my mum saying what a lovely name it was, so pretty and classy sounding (she generally liked those posh-ish, classical names like Julia and Lydia, although the name she gave me was a lot plainer).

Ideally you want to pick a name that’s unusual enough to not be one of four in the class, but common enough for them to be able to find a personalised pencil or mug on a gift shop.

Arlo is so popular now!

We went for a popular name but use the less common abbreviation. Our thinking is he has a CV worthy name and if he doesn’t like the abbreviation we use when he gets older he has options. At the moment he hates when people use his full name (thinks that part of him being autistic though 🙈)

Yes I know a few people who got caught out with this and thought they were being so unique in their choices - clearly didn’t do ANY research or talk to anyone beforehand. One choice was Ava and the other was Luna - both incredibly common for girls and pets in my area now. They are pretty names of course but at least one of the mothers are now quite devastated to have ended up with such a popular/common name when she intended the opposite.

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea far from middle class

Yes I agree.

I see lots of Americans calling their children Paisley and different spellings thereof.

It makes me chuckle, as if they were to visit Paisley in Glasgow they'd learn that there's very little pretty about it 😅