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.

Three of the four babies (including mine) in the bay on the maternity ward had the same name. Total fluke!

Op didn't want a unique name. She wanted a well known but underused name she liked.

I named my little boy Nicholas, just a favourite name of mine, it was an added bonus that it wasn’t popular - only 19 in the whole of Scotland the year he was born…and there are 3 of them in his nursery (all same age!) so unlikely, but popularity doesn’t bother me, my daughter has a top 10 name.

Oh no! 'Minty' would be far more obvious shortening of Araminta.
I wonder what became of the 'Pony' magazine Araminta... She clearly detested her name, to have specifically mentioned it in a magazine {Reader's letters}
For some reason, her name stuck in my mind.

Two children in my DD's primary class had younger brothers named Reuben. The Reubens were the same age and so ended up in the same class, there was only one class per year. I have never met another Reuben so did think it was unfortunate that the only two that I know of should end up in the same class.

It could be worse, when I was in secondary school (Methodist school in Ireland in the 1980s) three names made up a third of all the boys in my year (Phillip, Andrew and Ian). Of the Phillips, Andrews and Ians in my year who had brothers, most of the brothers were also Phillip, Andrew or Ian. All of them went through their entire school career being known by both first name and surname even in friendship groups because there were just so many of them.

You have to say the name!

'James' seems to be a popular 'Classic' name not something that will date as much as 'Bear' 'Teddy' &c

I dont really think it matters if you pick a popular name. If you like the name, its not like a name will have a negative effect on your child.
I think it's odd some people strive for an obscure name, when they have one in mind they love.

We are in England now, and our DS has 2 kids in his class and one on reception with the same irish name. 🤷‍♂️

*Two children in my DD's primary class had younger brothers named Reuben.(

I was in a gift shop the other day and was surprised to see 'Reuben' included in the 20 or so personalised gift mugs (along with Oliver, Harry, Noah etc)

I found a list of baby names that I was considering when clearing out recently. My son is now a teenager but a lot of the names are really popular in his peer group. Names like Theo and Teddy that weren’t popular when I was younger but obviously came into fashion. We actually called him something that is relatively popular (Adam) but there isn’t a spike of them in his generation. There are actually way more of the Alfie, Ronnie, Theos in that age group.

I haven’t met a young Audrey but my kids are all teenagers so I’ve lost touch with current trends. It’s a nice name, I also like Alma. Wonder if that is also making a comeback.

@FKATondelayo ,you're kidding! It's been popular for about 15 years.

Audrey is quite fashionable right now though - although I agree 3 in a small school is surprising

Tis the trouble with new name trends - they don’t show up for a bit. You do also get name pockets.

Yep! My son - according to the stats - was one of only 42 children with his name in England and Wales in the year he was born.

When he started nursery there was already another one in the baby room (out of 9 babies!) 😩 He was 'little' his name for several years, until they went to different schools when he became 'just hisname' 🤣

Is it Agnes? Loads of Agnes near us at the moment!

Thank you for all your replies. It seems it’s quite a frequent occurrences with names a lot less used/rare than my DDs, how funny these things are. I’ll be interested to see as she joins clubs and moves through schools if it’s a regular name we come across or just a freak occurrence and may not meet any more regularly.

150 is quite a lot, I think if that’s for a year.

i named my kid a name that had 9 people named it in the last ten years. I still found one more of them on my travels!

The thing is, OP, you can't control these things but it only matters if your child cares. Despite having a name that makes Mumsnetters groan, my dd is happy with it. My own name, much less common among humans, is wildly popular for dogs, trans women and drag acts.

But I can't really complain because the runner up name for me was Hedwig.

@Booboocars I guess a 150 does sound a lot but when you consider there are over 600,000 live births in the UK each year it sounds a relatively small number. Wow 9 in 10 years and you still came across one 😆what are the chances of that!

I find it interesting to see name trends. As a teacher you see them coming in waves. Often you’ll have multiple in one year that you never see again. Two Susans a few years ago and a couple of Leonards.

There’s 3 girls called Audrey in my DGDs nursery.

I don't know any little Audreys, but there are three Aubreys (2 girls, 1 boy) in our local school.

Gorgeous name anyway

My DD's name is outside the top 200 and I had never met a child with the name before. There is now one who attends the same dance class and another that lives in the next street. She got ever so excited😂

It must be region dependent because I only know of one. DS2's name is around 700th in the UK rankings and would never be mass-printed on a mug yet we know at least another 3 in the area. Naming is very regional and I wonder if there is a bit of social contagion as a PP alluded to...one free-thinking mother calls her kid Audrey and then word gets around...

It's also impacted by the fact that you notice every child with your DC's name but don't particularly register that that the child in the park, the one at nursery, the one from tumble tots and the one that was at the next table in the cafe the other day all have the same name.

The (then) Prime Minister had a Romilly two years ago!