Are popular names really all that bad?

[QueSyrahSyrah]

I see often on MN name choices being warned against as they're 'so popular' and 'everywhere' (but at the same time, don't go too far against the grain because nobody will be able to spell or pronounce it!).

I've just been reading a couple of articles about the 2022 ONS baby names report that was published the other day and from +/- 300,000 boys born in 2002 in England and Wales, about 4500 of them were the most popular Noah, so 1.5%.

Of +/- 300,000 girls, about 3000 were Olivia, so 1%.

Obviously there's variance from area to area and by demographic so the percentage will probably be a bit higher in some places than others, but 1-1.5% doesn't seem all that overwhelming common to me.

I've spent a lot of time stressing myself out that some of our favourite names are in the top 10, but based on the above information I've decided to let it go and use the name we love regardless of how close to the top of the list it is.

Me too! My parents gave me a ‘classic, timeless’ ugly name; all I wanted was something fashionable and a bit pretty!

Two of my friends did too

We called them by their first name and different middle names. Rachel Louise and Rachel Elizabeth.

Both of my children have really popular traditional names but they are the only children in their year at school with the name. I like classic names though as they never go out of fashion and I didn't really care if there were loads of other children with the same name.

I was an 80s child and out of my friendship group 4 of us have the same name and 3 another. I really wouldn't worry.

If I had a pen and paper at the moment I’d be inclined to do the maths on the groupings of similar names and see how many of those 300,000 girls born this year were called the likes of Eve/Evie/Eva/Ava/Aoife etc.

My name was top 10 in my birth year (early 80s) and I was the only one in my small primary and one of maybe 3 in my 300-strong secondary year intake. Only one in my form.

There were 3 Christophers in my form but only another 2 or 3 between the other 9 forms in our year, so absolute luck of the draw.

I don't remember the Chris' having any trouble (they mostly went by their surnames anyway, as was the 90s trend for boys) but the much more unique Amy-Leigh and old-fashioned Morag both took some stick.

Just pick a name you like. Use it. Who cares if others have the same name?

Every girl child in Scotland is called Isla these days. So what?

I would have loved to have had a popular name growing up. I have an unusual name and I've hated it my whole life.
I chose 'popular' names for my children who are now teens. They have never been in a class with anyone else of the same name. I really don't understand why duplicate names bother's people.

One possible consideration not mentioned is that the name may date quickly and therefore identify you as having been born in a particular era. E.g. someone called Karen, Julie or Debbie was probably born in the 70s, someone called Hannah or Laura was probably born in the 80s. Whereas a less common name is arguably less likely to be associated with a particular generation. Although not necessarily and these things are obviously very hard to predict.

What I really wouldn’t want to do though is choose a name which peaked in an earlier generation (e.g. Barbara, Susan) so that everyone assumes before meeting your child that they’re much older than they actually are.

The primary purpose of a name is to identify a person and distinguish him/her
from others. If your child ends up being one of four or five children in their school year with the same first name, then I’d argue that you haven’t done very well in this regard.

One of my old school friends is called Laura and she dislikes having to share her name with so many of our peers. Another school friend, Victoria, chose an unusual spelling of “Vicky” to distinguish herself from all the other Vickys.

I agree that you can’t always predict which names will be duplicated in your child’s peer group. In DD’s year, there are no Olivia’s, but there are four Amelia’s/Emilia’s and they are always known by their first name + surname.

I’m not really judging - my own DD occasionally gets confused with another girl who has a similar name - think Anna and Hannah or Jenny and Penny. And both of their middle names are Rose!

I have a Noah and I'm a teacher... I've never taught a Noah in 16 years and we also have no other Noah's in schools or friendship groups!

I fell in love with the name after Ryan gosling in the notebook!

My new neighbour has a daughter called Kylie. I knew before being told, that she was born in the second half of the 80s. My neighbour said she was the only Kylie at her graduation ceremony. Fair enough, there aren’t that many Kylie’s. It’s just that virtually Kylie I’ve ever heard of was born in that era. Along with all the Kayleigh’s.

I personally find that some names loose their sparkle when there’s numerous children that you know with that name. Couple of examples.. there are 3 Lily’s in dd’s dance school. When dd tells me something about one of the Lily’s, in order to differentiate them, they are referred to as pretty Lily, tall Lily and blonde Lily.

Two Isla’s.. big Isla, little Isla (I also know two baby Isla’s)

Two Jack’s in dd’s primary class, known as Jack B and Jack T.

Depends on the era. I’m 60, the Tracy, Debra, Sharon, Julie dominance was too much. Likewise my neighbour (6 years younger) married a Darren with sister Karen and best friend Wayne.

I’m not sure if anything has been similar to that era. With the possible exception of how many Hannah’s there used to be circa 1988-2002.

But ultimately it’s best to just choose a name you like and live with it if it’s popular

@Cattenberg Funnily enough I almost used Kylie as an example there. Born circa 1989.

The popular names in my area tend to be the more unusual names. I don’t think you can tell which names will be most common in your DC’s class.

My kids both have names that were in the top ten for the years they were born, but they were the only ones in their year at primary school and I think possibly one other at their large secondary.

Pick names you love.

It’s just completely unpredictable within a class/school too. My daughters year group (60) has loads of double names: 2 Olivias (of course) but also 2 lunas, 2 Stanleys and 2 girls called robin (not Robyn!) and my daughter’s name is top 100 but nowhere near top 10 and there are 2 of her name too!!

so you could pick a more unusual name and yet still end up not being the only one in a class.

I just wanted to avoid the kind of situation of being one of the 6 Katy/Katies in my year at school. We basically made a decision to avoid anything from most recent top ten of names, not that there were any names I really loved in those anyhow.

I get what you’re saying about the stats but there are definitely pockets of names, which means a name would be more likely in that area. Our small nursery class of about 15 has two sets of duplicate names. Both names are top 20 but out of the top 10. Plus two sets of names that sound very similar - Leo/Theo.

It matters to some parents because they grew up being one of 3/4 Rachel/Jessica/Jordan/Daniel and they don’t want that for their kids. If it matters to you, speak to your midwife about names she’s seen that year. That’ll give you an indication of what is happening in your area and if your area is full of Octavia, Phoebe, Clementine, Persephone then an Olivia should be fine.

Nope, I don’t think there is anything wrong with even the most popular of names now in terms of numbers. This isn’t the 80’s anymore when there could be 3 or 4 Sarah’s or 3 or 4 Christopher’s in a class. Now the number one name will still likely be the only one in a class - maybe 2 at most. And that’s assuming your child will even care - certainly with the some of the kids I know, they are happy about it as it means they fit in with their peers 🤣

BUT I think the popularity thing sometimes gets pointed out because so many names are quite similar. Not everyone realises that by the time you add all the spelling variants and commonplace diminutives for a name together ( plus maybe soundalikes or one letter difference names) that the name they thought wasn’t that popular actually has bigger numbers than some of the top names and it could be a shock for some parents who thought they were choosing something more unusual.🤷‍♀️

I also think some people use “too popular” when what they actually mean is too trendy and that’s the reason they dislike the name 🤔 Noah and George are both very popular for example - but one is more likely to stand the test of time in terms of not being able to guess the age of the man. Noah stands out as more popular in their minds because all the ones they’ve met have been their kids friends - not like Uncle George or Next door Neighbour George.

I wouldn’t be put off a name I loved because it’s a popular one.

Theres a much wider pool of names used these days than 30 plus years ago, so compared with their parents generation, a child born now with a top 10 name is much less likely to meet a peer sharing their name.

Of course you do still get clusters of children with the same name, but it’s not all that easy to predict which names are going to crop up in your DC’s school etc.

My DC1 has a top 10 name, but the only 2 children in his class at primary school that shared a name had a name that was ranked around 125 in the baby name statistics for that birth year. He’s now at secondary school, and he’s the only child in his whole year group with that particular top 10 first name.

There were 208 boys with my sons name in Scotland in the year he was born, it was in the top 100 but not top 20.
Turns out 4 of those 208 are in his class in school!
He also went to nursery with a boy with the same name who ended up going to a different school.
It's total pot luck.

I just went through the top 20, and in my child’s year group of about 50, only 5 children have a name in the top 20. None are duplicated. The only repeat name across the year group is ranked around 70 (and it’s used 3 times!). There are lots of short girls names ending in ‘a’ though.

I suppose if pressed I'd say I find it a bit basic bitch having a top of the list popular name but then realistically I tend not to think much about it because these things can be family oriented in terms of loved lost relatives or whatever.

I don’t think it matters - it’s very random which names will double up in classes - my son has a top 5 name and is the only one in his school, whereas there are two boys in his class with the same name from outside the top 100!!

As previously mentioned, just watch for “hidden” popularity in the stats, eg all the different versions of Isabel / Isabelle / Isabella / Isobel actually make it much higher in the charts than it looks. Whereas a name like George looks high up in the charts but only has one spelling and no similar names, so is actually less likely to double up with something similar.