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.

This is why we chose names that we loved and not names that were popular or not.
One of my DDs has one of the most popular names at the moment and she is the only one in her class and year level and she was also the only one in her nursery as well.

she loves it that she can find her name on all the named gifts/key rings etc. my other DD with the more rare name gets upset she can never find her name. None of them care if they have the same name or not as another child.

Is it Eadie or Edie?

There loads of little Eadie and Ediths nn. Edie right now... theres also 3 Graces in DS class.

I think Audrey has come back off the back of Aubrey, which is popular and well used on US TV shows, but a bit too American for us.

There was about 8 Julies in my 1960s primary class 😁

Potentially, I know neither parents could have heard my DDs name as we moved to the more local area after her birth from close by and one of the girls is older then her. I guess the other parents may have heard the older girls name as there is a bigger age gap and from the small village close by. Either way it doesn’t seem to be a worry for any of the parents, as it’s not exactly a unique name but it just seems a crazy coincidence when the name hasn’t gained any recent popularity

In my son’s year (about 100 children) are nine Mayas. 14 years ago Maya was number 50 or so on the popularity list, yet a quarter if all the girls in his year are called Maya. strange!

Also my dd has a classic old lady name (Winnie), I picked it around 2000 (in my teens) but she wasn't born until 2020, I was mocked endlessly for liking it and told I must 'hate' my future DD.

Its now a quick growing popular name and theres variants of it everywhere. (we know Arwen, Elowyn, 2x Wynter/Winter and Winifred all nn Winn or Winnie).

My best friends Grandaughter is called Romilli. I'd never heard of it before she was born earlier this year but my Grandson now goes to nursery with a Romilli.

Where as my Olivia is the only one in her year group (60 children!)

Just say the name

If it's Betsy it's quite popular where we live..

PS If you like a name, chances are others do too.

If you said the name, you would get an idea of how popular it is?!

I think the name has been divulged for those who read the whole thread !

Because you’re not the only parent of a PFB who wanted a “unique” name. God knows why.

I still think 'Araminta' beats all others hands down for unusualness.
A girl wrote in to a pony magazine saying how she hated her name {Araminta} yet she had a lovely life with ponies!

I worked in Early Years for many years, we had five Hannahs and another year three Islas. We then never had another child with either of those names in any other year, it’s strange how there are trends in local areas.

I thought you were going to say Margot.
I run baby clinics and so many parents coming in recently thinking this name is unique.

It really depends - there were 5 children with the same name as DS in his nursery but he is the only one at his much larger school 🤷‍♀️

@roseberrycherry I did say her name but I know how popular it is as I’ve viewed the name starts so I can see exactly how many were both each year.

Same thing happened with us 25 years ago with Grace!

One of my daughters has a fairly unusual name - it’s a classic English name, but not used a huge amount.

When she was at nursery, there was a mother who had gone out of her way to find unusual names for her children (some had biblical names but not the more commonly used ones like Joseph or Daniel). She was quite shocked when her daughter announced she was now Big [Name] because there was a Little [Name] (the little one being my daughter).

(She is a very nice person, and wasn’t weird about it, just surprised.)

We have a couple of young ones in our primary school with the same name. As you say, pockets of areas seem to like certain types of names.

It’s bad luck, but as Audrey is less popular, there probably won’t be Audreys in every swimming class, dance class, Brownies etc (unless the other Audreys you know are also there!). When she moves onto university/work, there’s unlikely to be yet more Audreys there, which is the reality of a very popular name. And as Audrey hasn’t ranked in the top hundred names since the fifties, she’s not going to come across even more Audreys in mixed age groups.

It does happen though, as you’re likely to have similar influences to the people you live around and are similar ages, leading you to pick the same unusual name. I know a Balthazar who at one point was in a nursery with another Balthazar. And I’m sure there was an AIBU where four Vincents (though more popular than Audrey) were in the same class. Somehow I was in a small rural primary school class of under 20 with a girl with the same first and last name as me.

I know two toddlers called Audrey, never even met anybody with the name before but now have two friends from completely different circles who both used the name within a few months of each other.

The things is, the lists of baby names cover the whole of the UK but they don’t take into account that names will be more popular in different areas of the country. For example, a lot of Welsh baby names don’t make the top 100 but will be far from unique if used within Wales, a baby Bethan, Nia or Aled may go to school with several others if living in Wales but if living in Yorkshire may never meet another. Different names are also used more regularly within different social classes, regional areas etc across the UK.

Chances are all the baby Audrey’s aren’t spread out evenly across the country but the name may be popular in just a few areas of the UK within a few specific demographics of parents which I guess you, and others living locally to you, fall into. I don’t know if it’s possible to see baby name trends for your local area but I expect that would be a better indicator of how popular a baby name is within your local circles than the national baby name lists.

Audrey is a lovely name! I've come across a baby Phyllis, which is sweet.
For some reason, Aoife is a popular name where I live - and we're in Yorkshire!