3 children with my DDs name!

[Peasize]

My DD has what I would consider an underused name. It’s well known but not used for many children her age. I’m a bit of a name freak and checked all the stats for the years before her birth and subsequent years after and it is hardly used. Around 150-200 born a year roughly and well above top 200-300 names a year but there’s 3 with her name in a tiny rural nursery. I realise that everyone is looking for less popular/underused names now and people may say it’s obviously not as unusual as I thought but the stats do show it is quite underused so it really strikes me as being crazy that there are 3. Has anyone had similar? Seems like there’s little pockets of popular names in areas maybe.

Oh and my favourite boy's name at the time was Noah but I thought it would be unfair and he'd get bullied for it. Now you can't move for mini Noahs...

Isn't Noah the most popular boys' name after Mohammed?

Try having a Teddy (and that's his birth certificate name) that you gave birth to 18 years ago and no one was called it

Annoying but that's life!

My name was the Olivia of the time - most common the year I was born and a few years around it. I was one of 2 in my year at a large high school and I can't recall any others in earlier schools either.

I'm now one of about 10 at work, all of us a various ages.

I've noticed a flurry of babies called Bonnie recently.

This happened to someone I know! She picked Innigo because she thought it was very unusual but then turns out it's everywhere.

Yes it’s along the lines that people have mentioned, Peggy/Betty/Edwina/Kitty. It just strikes me as odd that it’s not risen in popularity at all in years according to the stats but it seems to have around here. Funny how these things work.

I’m a teacher and once had 3 boys called Victor in my class. As far as I know it’s never been a particularly popular name! Just a weird fluke. My DD has a supposedly popular flower name, she’s 18 and has never met another! I’ve had several in my classes over the years but DD never had another in her school 🤷‍♀️.

Olive?

FWIW we chose what we considered a perfectly ordinary name. Think: Edward, James, Robert, Richard, John, Daniel, Henry, Philip. You know, the kind where you go “oh yeah, I know a Dave” or whatever. It was outside the top 100 the year he was born. Everyone comments that they’ve not heard of one in a while. You can’t win.

My DD was one of four in her primary school class, although the name was not especially common. They were best friends and loved having the same name.

I was one of five in my year at school but the name is hardly ever used now, from the Susan, Julie, Amanda type.

I have seen PP where people have said there was only 3 people born with my DDs name and 1 happens to be in her ballet class etc so I guess these things are just flukes

Is it also a nickname for a longer name, in the way Betty is for Elizabeth? That would explain there being more than are officially Betty on birth records?

There are pockets though, I think the entire under 20 population called Struan or Hector live in middle class suburbs of the Scottish East coast!

In our primary there's 3 Audrey's! And at one point there was 4. So strange!

In my first class of Reception children in 1998 I had 5 boys all called Ryan in a class of 26 - that was confusing. Had to call them by their first name and initial of last name apart from the two who had last names beginning with same letter - had to use their full name. Exhausting!!

I know what you mean, @Lara53 - I've got 3 girls called Lily in my yr11 class, two with the same surname and all with the middle name Rose!
I'm secondary, so the names are all Lily, Ellie, Izzy, Eva etc, boys Alex, Joe, Sam, Jack, Tom.

I don't really get the obsession with having a unique name. It was very common in the past for children to be called after parents, indeed in many countries, names just follow families, so Peter Dimitrov will the next generation be Dimitri Petrov and so on. Daughter of and son of, plus a given set of names.

My daughter has a 'common' name, in her primary class there were the two of them and she loved having another child with the same name, and still loves her name (I've asked her). It's a very pretty name. It wouldn't be worth having a less desirable name just to be unique.

Also - I am also a bit of a name nerd and I saw on the Reddit community an explanation for this. So the official registrations for top names cover the whole country, but don’t take into account hyper local trends like yours - it might look like there are very few of those names, but there can be little clusters where there are loads!

@blankittyblank yes that’s the name! Just such a random coincidence as you can see it’s never really gained popularity. So that’s so strange you have a similar pocket of it 🤔

I love the name Oliver but avoided calling my DSs that (except as middle name) because it's always number 1 in the rankings and didn't want them to be one of five in the class. Conversely I have NEVER come across an Oliver in my 15 years of parenting. Not in classes, clubs, nurseries, afterschool activities, soft play etc. Not one. The only Olivers I know are 40+

I also know a little Olive. It's just one of those names that has appeared, having never been that popular. I think Ella was like this when I was having my children, and I nearly called the second one Ella (which I think is a lovely name, but my husband chose the name in the end as I chose the first one).

Luca is along these lines. 15 years ago you never heard of it. Now there are dozens wherever you go. It's like the Jason of its time.

I know an infant school class with two Ziggys in it lol

That's so funny! How does that happen? The Audrey mums I were speaking to also said they were so careful not to choose a popular name.

My sister has a name which was unusual at the time but v popular now. Another mum at school called her dd it and my mum copied it because she liked it. Maybe one of the other parents heard about a baby X and liked the name so used it; maybe you did it too?

There were loads of boys with the same name as my son when he was at school and now he has several non-school friends who also have it. There was another name that was quite common at that time and once they decided to have a snooker/pool game: Daves V Nicks -).

I deliberately chose a nice, ordinary name that could be shortened, which I think is friendly, and would cause no embarrassment. He really likes his name, so does his best mate of same name, and some other friends.

Amongst the girls of his era there were loads of Sarahs. He has had two girlfriends called Sarah and knows a few others.

My name is one syllable and I was the only one with that name at my school until I was about seventeen. I've grown into my name but did not like it as a child.

I gave my kids very traditional Jewish names, we’ve since moved to an area with almost no Jewish children (our community is largely retired people) and yet my son has a child in his class with his name. I’d never met anyone else in this country with my youngest daughter’s name and since she’s been born we’ve met 2.
My name is often commented on here as being unusual or exotic. In the school I went to in London there were 4 in my class. Just one of those funny things isn’t it.