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.

I wouldn’t worry OP re Audrey being super popular, I think it’s just a coincidence re a few locally as I’ve only met one baby Audrey (10 years ago) despite having two young children now, and working with young families also. Names do seem to cluster, as similar type or parents have similar taste. In the upmarket London commuter town I used to live in, there were plenty of Margot’s, Clara’s, Hugo’s, Rory’s, Freddie’s and anything that sounds like it could be in a private school, even at the state school 😂 My kids are now in a Spanish private school and the Spanish middle class also have similar taste to each other … loads of Alba, Clara, Sofia, Pablo, Hugo, Iago … not a Lola or Luna to be seen!

My DS is 16. We gave him a name we liked, and wasn't particularly popular at the time. In recent years it's jumped in to top ten. So whilst he's never had anyone in his classes with the same name, the workplace certainly won't be the same!

Named my son after his grandparents apparently everyone has the same grandparents 😂

You can’t tell with names. I know of a town where a local woman and her boyfriend’s bloodthirsty magic Venus flytrap both share their name with three children in OP’s daughter’s nursery.

3 Amelia's - 2 George 2 Harry 2 James

3 maltidas but get called Tilly and tilda

Layla Lola Lila all in same year

My dcs all have less popular names and it's rare for me to meet another one. Have met one child with DC1's name, about 3 children with DC2's name and 1 child (but more adults) with DC3's name. But always in passing- they've never in in the same class or activity. So it doesn't always happen (they are all real names but not been popular for decades).

I've always picked names by going to a reference book or website for names, so the names have not cropped up from any mentions in the media or anything like that. I think when you just pick a name you've thought of from your memory, it's because you've heard it from somewhere (even if you can't remember) and of course other parents will have heard it from there too.

@trebuvie Totally agree with you, I did think/suspect the same when I named her as it’s on trend with the old lady/man name trends but not heard of much at the moment but I think once you’ve fell in love with a name it’s hard to get passed it so I thought I’ll just go with it and hope for the best!

Well I guess you chose the area / school / age to have a baby so you are mixing with those who have made the same choices as you - so they’ve made the same name choice too!

OP i hear you! We picked a name that we thought was pretty old fashioned and uncommon but the only name DH and I didn’t collectively dislike (we don’t have similar tastes)! And now it’s a mega name. One mentioned in this thread.

Irony is, I wanted to give my children unusual names because I have one and I like having one! I really, really didn’t!

@Hellohello888 Same! I have an unusual name, never met another one. Usually only around 3 a year registered. I really liked not having to have A, B, C etc after my name and would have liked the same for my children but then I did know the names I picked for them were no where near as unusual as my own.

My name was really popular only for a couple years, so it immediately dates me. I think that's worse than having initials after your name tbh. Audrey's a nice name that's been generally heard of over the years even if it has waxed and waned a bit so I think you're good!

Same!

There were a few girls with the same name as me in the years above and below at school. Apart from that I didn’t come across my name hardly at all…

Until my first child started school and I realised it was such a popular name amongst fellow school mums who were, unsurprisingly, around the same age as me 😄

I managed a team which had three men with the same christian name and surname. To be fair they were fairly common names.

My eldest is an Isabelle. I’d got the name from an adult I’d met but I’d never met an Isabelle before. There was 4 in her year of various spellings. My second I used a name I’d never heard of before, I’ve since met 3, one is the same age as her so I’m expecting it to pop up more. My third is a known but very uncommon name, I’ve never met one, although I fully expect it to pop up again at school age. Seems to be what happens.

Betsy?

Sorry I've just scrolled through the comments and seen a few people ask if it's Betsy!

I gave DD a name I thought might increase in popularity (old fashioned). It hasn’t at all and we’ve only ever met another once on holiday.

My name was considered unusual in the 70s, extremely popular now.

Does anyone remember a website where you could put a name in and it would tell you how many were given that name that year? And if it had gone up and down the rankings?

@LeggyLegsEleven , https://names.darkgreener.com/, but the statistics are only for England & Wales and for 1996-2021.
Margot, for example, is at #57 but has probably become a lot more popular since then because of the Barbie film.

That’s it. So disappointed it stops 2001.

With the initial thing...

I went through school as the only "Putting". Its notva name normally used in England.
Until I wax in Upper Sixth (Yr13)... and there was one in Lower Sixth. It caused confusion as they weren't used to having to check which one! But all the Sams, Alice's, Kirstys etc were never mixed up.

(DD1 has a name used by around 10 girls a year. DD2s is around 300 a year. DD2 moans she can neverbbuybanything off the shelf with her name....)

I'm guessing it's Edith, Martha or Mabel? These names are definitely rising in popularity (teacher here, so I come across a lot of names!). They're all lovely names though! Timeless.

In my colleagues nct group 4 of the 7 babies were named Alex! Not unusual but still a huge coincidence! A mix of genders and alexander/alexandra!

Sorry just read you had disclosed the name OP! Lovely name! I've never taught one either in 14 years, so it is unusual you've come across 3 in one go!

Both of my DC have names that are well known and you would think of as popular. We loved the names and didn’t mind that there might be a few in their years. However surprisingly, they are both the only ones with their names in their years!

145 babies born in the UK with my son's name the year he was born and there was another at his childminders 😂. But I've just checked Dark Greener and it's not been updated since 2021? A lot can change in 2 years!