Super common/popular baby names - why?

[Alwaysyoudoyou]

If you gave your baby a very popular name, did you think further than 'I like that'? If yes, what was your reasoning/motivation behind the choice? I'm just curious what makes people choose names from the top 10/20/30 etc? How do you feel when you meet another child with the same name? Or if there are multiple children with the same name in the class or friendship group? I like learning about how people are different and how they make decisions.

Personally I tried really hard to choose names which were recognisable but not overly popular. My motivation was that they would be the only one in their class/of their friendship group, but without it being something outlandish. Basically wanted to avoid the top 100. I'm not sure why it felt important at the time, as I seem to very much enjoy meeting people who share a name with me, but wanted something that felt more unique for my children. Both children also share names with grandparents which added a nice touch for us.

It hasn't worked out mind.... my sons name wasn't even in the top 500 when I chose it and we now know eleven of them 😅and my daughters is appearing on more and more forums so I assume it's catching up!

Anyway as I said, just curious really. No judgement. You do you!

My DD18’s name was very popular in the 80s but much less popular in 2024. She’s never had classmates with the same name but often had teachers with the same name!

My DS14’s name was in the top 20 when he was born, in primary for a couple of years he had a classmate with the same name but never since.

I chose names that I liked, easy to spell and pronounce and that DP at the time and I could agree on. I still like them now. My own name is v unusual and I can’t say it made my life any better/easier.

Agreed. I found it was name endings.

For a bit it was all "i" : Kai, Tai, Malachi
Then it was the "n"s : Jayden, Brayden, Harrison
Now it's "e" sound endings Ollie, Harry, Archie.

Weird how the grands go.

I think there’s something to be said for having quite a generic name in the internet age. I also think naming a baby seems like SUCH a big deal and then in life it’s just… a name. Eg. I have a friend called Louise - you can probably estimate the age - and Louise isn’t a name I like if I think about it… but I don’t think about it. I’ve never met someone where I’ve felt strongly about the name for more than a first impression. I taught some kids with (what I thought were) stupid names but I’d get used to it really quickly and just come to associate the name with that kid, in a nice way.

Dd 1s name was just outside the top 100 list when she was born Year she was born friends arrived in the UK and her name shut up to 40s then to 20s and have stayed there.

It's not what I ideally would have liked but I still adore her name and think it suits her a beautiful name for my beautiful girl.

Her 2 sisters have names that for 1 has not gone past 250 and the other not past 2000th. Their brother has a name that has not gone past 400.. they are all normal names people have heard off unusual but not weird type of names where dh and I wanted to be.

I wish dd1s name was not as popular but I don't wish we had named her differently it is her.

@QueenofLouisiana I also have a unusual name I'm in my 50s and never met another. I just looked it up on behind the name and it doesn't even have a chart for the UK only for US where it is seen As a masculine name (it is unisex)

I have never minded explaining pronunciation. Never minded spelling it. But I utterly LOATHE being asked "what is that short for" NOTHING ITS MY NAME!" It annoys me when people says "that's a boys name only" err no it's not.. that is getting much less though as unisex names are more common.

However when we were naming our children I was adamant they would not be given unisex names.

I find it interesting how different people with less used names experiences it. As a child I was quite proud of my unusual name. As an adult I do wonder if my parents were smoking something. I don't think I have a very nice name.

My 4 are in their 20s now and all like their names.

Edited as I am.so bad a gramma

I purposely avoided the top 100. It's number 7, nearly 30 years later

I'm betting your dd has the same name as my 27 year old dd.

I have a very popular name and hated it growing up.

There is no way I’d have given names that were in the top ten in the past fifteen years to my kids.

Our DS was born this year, and his name was the number 1 boys name in our area last year.

It wasn't a case of 'choosing one from the top ten', it was a name we had both always liked and kept coming back to. The fact it was number one locally was coincidence.

I did fret about it a bit both before and after we named him but there wasn't another name we both liked as much (or at least not one that wasn't also top 10).

All I've done for the past 3 months is go to baby classes / buggy walks / post natal Pilates / antenatal class reunion /
New Mum WhatsApp groups / etc and have met tons of people with boys under 2. Haven't encountered another of my Son's name yet.

I remember when I fell pregnant with my youngest
28 of us fell pregnant around the same time at the primary school our other kids went to
One was a boy,my mate had a 'sophie' and I had a 'millie' (not real names)
Every single one of the other babies was called 'ruby'
It was around the time of the kaiser chiefs and the song 'Ruby,Ruby,Ruby' was massive
It got to the point where nobody bothered to ask what the new baby was called!
Then it seemed to move onto eve/eva/ava/evie or archie/alfie/albie
Over half of the Ruby's parents moved away by the time they started school (the school had a lot of kids where the parents studied at the uni)-but there was about 11/12 left,which must have been very confusing!

I have a very bland name that was very common the year I was born. My mother said it was the only one that she and my father could agree on. He was a terrible inverted snob and would never have agreed to any name he thought was stuck up.

Chase?

I like my name but I wish it wasn’t so popular in my age group. And I wish my parents had some bloody originality about them. I think it’s actually quite selfish to give a child an overused name.

I agree. Posters even say things like "as long as you (the parents) like it, that's all that matters"

My DS has a less common, slightly old-fashioned name and I got quite down from hearing, "oh, that's... unusual" whenever someone asked his name. He likes it but gets frustrated that there's never anything in the gift shop with his name on.

When DD came along, we were considering some similar style names when her actual name cropped up. Although it is more popular I thought how nice it would be to hear, "ahhh, that's lovely". It is a really beautiful name and suits her perfectly.

Funnily enough we have not come across any other children with DD's name IRL whereas DS had another child with his name at school so you never know with these things.

I accidentally named my 2nd Daughter a name from the Top 3 most popular 🙈.

I accidentally looked up the American Top 100 names instead of UK.

We were calling her that name for around 3 weeks before I realised my mistake, but I was too attached to change it.

When we are in the park, there are so many other girls with the same name! It doesn't bother me that there are 70 other kids with the same name in the park but in hindsight, I would've changed her name.

Well in terms of popularity that is all that matters surely (I don't condone calling a kid Moon-Unit or Jimberley or Balonz no matter how much the parents like it).

It's impossible for anyone to predict how the child being given the name will ultimately feel about the name. Some won't like having a popular name that doesn't stand out, some would hate having a unique name that draws attention and questions.

I know a Christopher who was one of 4 in our school form and never remotely bothered by it, and I know a [redacted as too outing, but very unusual name] who hated it so much they'd changed it before he left primary school.

I'm a teacher so my criterion 20 years ago were:

• no negative connotations from former pupils
• Easy to spell and pronounce
• not ten a penny

The name we gave DD - I'd never taught one, we didn't know one, easy to spell and pronounce, all good. She has never had another one in her class, we still don't know another. However, it's been in the top 5 for the last decade.

@MsJuniper , give it 10 years and your DS's name will probably be everywhere.

My name was a granny name when I was young. It's popular now.

@FayCarew mine was considered a granny name in rhe 70s but got very popular again in the 90s/2000s.
It doesn’t seem to be working the same with DD whose old lady name remains fairly unpopular.

I teach in a very deprived and multicultural area, the names in my classes reflect many cultures and can often be quite creative too from our British families. Top 10 names are actually a rarity around me!

As I said, there are very few duplications and even when there are it's not necessarily the names you'd think.

I imagine a leafy village school out in the sticks could be quite a different story but around here it's really not an issue.

@Makelikeatreeandleaf , criterion is singular, criteria is plural.

What list is this? And is anyone going to share their names? Mmmm?

My two are
Vinnie and Elsie. Both old fashioned, one becoming more popular

For me, they had to be real names (ie not made up, not super obscure), but probably ranked 75-100+ so not super common.

DS1 has the most obscure of the 3, but someone saw it on his peg at nursery and named their new baby the same, so the best laid plans…..! It’s fine though, it’s a nice story and a compliment.

My kids absolutely love bumping into people with their same name (doesn’t happen much though), and finding personalised items with their names on. However I do wonder about people I know who called their kids Evie and Oliver, for example….. the point of a name is to actually differentiate them from others after all.

I really don't factor in popularity. I just choose names I like. One of my dc has a popular name that's always in the top 10/20. The other hasn't a rarer but not unusual name.

I'm not that influenced either way by other people's choices. I would never discount a name I loved just because it's popular. Good, classic timeless names are popular for a reason. I will never understand people who dream up ridiculous 'unique' names just because they want to be different.

Just pick what you like.

My two boys got very ordinary, common names,and it's never bothered them. My three daughters, first one got a very unusual name, I think I've heard of one other girl who shares it, middle one got a name less common where we lived but more common in Scotland (we subsquently moved north and met a few others, but really not many) and the youngest has a name that I've never seen or heard anywhere (not a YouNique name, but still unusual). None of them have ever had issues with their names, except youngest girl who gets people trying to insist that it's Welsh, which it isn't.