Baby girl names

[Foreverdancing]

What baby girl names do you think are overused?

I wouldn’t say any single name is overused anymore. For example an Olivia will probably still be the only one in their class, maybe even their school year.
It's the Susan or Sarah of this generation. She may be the only one in her class but there are many Olivias around.

be the “Karen” of 40 years time - Karen was popular at the same time as Sharon and Darren, and they were new & fresh names at the time Charlotte and Emily don't fit into that category. The trends where the names are new to the UK are more likely to fall out of fashion in a bad way.

Agree with @IamnotwhouthinkIam - I think it’s more sounds than individual names that are overused. So a name can sound dull/overused even if it’s not that popular on paper, because lots of similar-sounding names are currently on-trend.

For me (in London Zone 5) some of those groups of overused names/sounds would be:

• Short names ending in -a: Isla/Ayla/Ella/Aria/Ada/Ava
• Short L names (many of which also end in -a): Lila/Lyra/Layla/Lola/Luna/Lily
• Cutesy nickname names ending in an -ie sound: Millie/Milly/Maisie/Tilly/Ellie/Elsie
• Anything long, frilly and vowel-heavy, especially ending in -a: Isabella/Arabella/Arianna/Amelia/Sophia

Disagree though with a few PPs that all names ending in -a sound dull though - there are loads of underused names with this ending too. In particular, I’d love to see more Shakespearean names in wider use: Miranda, Viola, Celia, Helena etc, as well as a resurgence of strong, characterful names with more consonants: Rosalind (Shakespearean again!), Josephine, Meredith, Adelaide, Emmeline etc.

Ava/Eva/Eve/Evie/Ivy/Isla
Ophelia
Amelia/Emelia
Ottilie
Ella/Isabella

Oh and Ada and Margot

Matilda
Isla
Freya

I agree with @TempsPerdu to an extent.

I'd like shortish names with stronger consonants, and no drawn out vowel sounds. Names like Tess, Kate, Tamsin instead of the long 'ee' (Mia, Amelia,Sophia) or long 'a(r)' (Clara etc) or long 'ay' (Freya,Aurelia,etc) and any consonant that isn't L, V or M.
Names like Karen, Susan, and Helen are starting to sound a lot less overused.

Yes, that’s exactly what I said in my post? 🤷‍♀️Charlotte and Emily (for example) =Not trendy, relatively timeless. Ava and Isla (for example, amongst many others) =may not stand the test of time in comparison. So could be “Karen” (or Sharon, Darren if you prefer) of the future - we just can’t tell if a name is going to continue to be in fashion when it’s only been popular for a couple of decades in the UK like those two examples.

As to the Olivia thing, it’s a Shakespearean classic to me but everyones opinion varies on what counts as “too popular” - many would say as long as they aren’t going to be Olivia Surname Initial in class, then it’s fine. Others are horrified if they ever meet a child with the same name. I personally sway towards the former.

Ella
Mia
Maya
Ava

@IamnotwhouthinkIam , there wasn't another with my name around, so I don't know if it matters.

I didn't miss having a name on my bedroom door or a pencil case.
I hated my middle name with a passion, and one Christmas I got a personalised set of pencils - with my full whole name on it. Most of my friends liked their middle name but mine was a naff filler one. Ah well, it's the thought that counts.

Olivia, Charlotte and Emily will probably just drop a bit in popularity like Sarah and Emma did.

Hmm, Sarah is definitely a unique case🤔 - I don’t know of any name like it because it absolutely is classic and timeless (historically it’s rarely ever dropped out of the Top 100 until recently) . Yet it was number one or two for so long in the 70’s and 80’s that it felt like about a quarter of my peers in school were called Sarah (I went today an all girls school and certainly there were at least two to a class, if not three).

I’m not sure that any other examples can compare to that and I doubt any will again - the top names today just aren’t used in anywhere near similar numbers anymore, so the feeling of extreme popularity of a single name just isn’t there for me.

What is strange imo is how many of todays popular names have very similar sounds compared to the past- so many girls names now are two syllable and end in “ah” or “ee”, and many of the boys are 2 syllable too and end in “o” or “ee”. I suspect it’s names with these trends that might sound dated in future (unless they are very classic, like say, Henry for example)- even if an individual name hasn’t made Top 10/20 yet.

@TempsPerdu I agree with you that not all “a” ending names sound dull and I’d love to see some more Shakespearean ones in use too. I’m one of the few that are very happy to see that Ophelia has increased in popularity 🤣 It seems a bit of a shame that many people limit just to Olivia, Isabella, Emilia or Jessica when names like Julia, Celia, Viola, Helena, Miranda etc are just as lovely (I love Juliet and Rosalind too but was trying to stick to “a” examples).

I can't see Goneril or Hermia being popular, but Beatrice, Alice, and Maria are.

Rose/May/Grace/Rae as filler middle names.

Florence
Ivy
Lilah/Lyla
Evie
Sophia

I'd sooner saddle my child with an 'overused' name than some of the made up 'trendy' words (not even names) that I see on here.

Well, some parents take the time and effort to find a happy medium - a name that is well known but not widely (over) used!!

Lily, Milly, Tilly, Ella, Ellie, Alice, Sophia, Ivy, Isla, Freya

Sophia
Olivia
Lara
Amelia
Isla
Isabella