Opinions please

[anon1411]

Still early days but out of the names below which do you personally prefer for a boy and girl...

Ultimately I know it's our decision but just interesting to see what other people think, also I never know how popular or uncommon names are now and we dont like the idea of a super popular name

Boys:
Luca
Reggie
Blake
Reuben

Girls:
Luna
Lottie
Indie
Lilah

Reuben
I don’t really like any of the girl names. If pushed I’d chose Lilah but I think the spelling looks wrong somehow.

Luca and Reuben I like (but the latter will be misspelled as Rueben a lot). Reggie has potential "naughty boy" connotations.

I'm not keen on any of your girl names but Lilah would be my choice of those 4. Luna is the name of every other female dog at the moment (if that bothers you!).

Luca - I don’t mind it but it seems quite popular. Might depend on your area though.
Reggie - Kray twins
Blake - awful
Rueben - nice but seemed very popular a few years ago.

Luna - awful, used to be a mamas and papas buggy style!
Lottie - cute but I’d use Charlotte on the birth certificate
Indie - prefer India nn Indie otherwise I just think of music!
Lillah - awful, I can’t past Lilo & Stitch and it just merges into all the other l’y type names

I like Luca and Luna best.

I think all your boys names are pretty popular right now. Most of the girls too.

They are nice names but very now.

I love Reuben. Really lovely solid name.

I’m not keen on your girls’ names, sorry.

All your names are quite trendy and may date (look at the Darkergreener website, type them in and you’ll see how much they have risen over the past decade or two).

If I had to pick from those choices, I’d probably go for Luca and Lilah of the bunch as they at least have the nicest sounds to me (though Lilah/Lila/Lyla will have spelling issues and Luca may occasionally still get confused with Lucas).

Charlotte with the nn Lottie would have been a clear winner for me as would something like Robert/Robin or Benjamin/Benedict perhaps instead of Reuben (as personally I prefer a more classic name that’s less likely to date - Reggie and Luna for example would be definite no go’s for me).

These are all super popular really. Some more than others but they all fall into that category for me.

Luca is top ten (7th in England and Wales for the last year with data) add Lucca and Lucas to that, combined they become the number 1 most popular name.

Reuben is top 40 (37th) and people spell it differently all the time (Rueben, Ruben). Actually there were nearly 500 Rubens, and over 100 Ruebens as well, so if you add them all together it pushes the name up into the top 20.

There were over 1,000 little Reggies registered in one year in the data, it’s just outside the top 50. Reginald is up into the top 250 as well.

Blake is the only one outside the top 100, and only just. 104th, but if you add in the over 100 little girls called Blake it’s top 80.

Luna is a top 40 name (38), Luna-Maes are out there, some Luna-Roses, and to my bafflement quite a few Luna-Raes, which is a bit too space cadet for me.

Charlotte’s at 23 with Lottie also top 50. There are also quite a lot of Lottie-Mae, Lottie-May, Lottie-Rose, Lottie-Anne, Lottie-Lou, Lottie-Louise, Lottie-Raes, and some called Lotti.

Indie’s technically the most unusual on your entire list. 138 in the charts. Add Indy, India, Indigo and Indiana, and you’ve guessed it, the Indie-Rose and Indie-Maes and it pushes it up a bit. Interesting to see Indie is more popular as a name than India.

Lilah is top 100, 95 to be exact. add Lila though and it takes you to top 60.

Hopefully that helps you with how common things are.

Reggie I love. And Lottie I like. My sister goes by Lottie but her name is actually Charlotte (nice that she can have that choice as she gets older)

Luca and Reuben are my favourites. Luca is quite popular round here but not ridiculously so. Reggie I don’t know any but not too keen. I know one Blake but he’s a “naughty” boy so it has negative connotations to me.

Lilah is my favourite of your girls names - I know two, across 3 different schools, so it doesn’t feel too overused. Lottie is nice but I prefer as short for Charlotte in case she finds it a bit cutesie for her personality when she’s older. Luna I think of Luna Lovegood / Loony. Indie gives cool chick vibes - I like it but not sure I could pull it off myself 😁

Blake is the only one of the boys names that I like.

Of the girls names:
Lilah - I like but I would spell as Lila
Lottie - is normally an abbreviation for Charlotte, so would probably go with that and then shorten it to Lottie
Indie and Luna are cats and dogs names (we had an Indie!)

Indie seems to be a new popular name. I know a couple under 3.

Lilah and Lottie are nice.

Luca is the best of your boys names imo. It is fairly common but not over used.

Luca is lovely but one of the top boys names in the country right now, which you say you want to avoid. It has also risen incredibly quickly up the charts in recent years. Reuben is nice too, also fairly popular but nowhere near so as Luca.

Blake isn't my style and I think Reggie is awful. It's infantile yet somehow old man at the same time, with a bit of gangster thrown in as well.

Lila/Lyla is nice, but I much prefer these spellings. Lilah just looks like a short form of Delilah, otherwise I don't see the point in the random h.

Charlotte nn Lottie is nice, but I'm not a fan of using ie short forms on their own. Will she want to be Lottie forever? It seems quite limiting to call her that, when Charlotte would give so many more options.

Luna and Indie are both modern fads which will date. With Luna, I know just as many pets with this name as children. It suits pets more, too.

I would go for Reuben, given that you want to avoid anything incredibly popular and Charlotte nn Lottie. If Charlotte isn't an option, Lila spelt like this.

Some names that are currently significantly less used, but fall into similar lettering or syllable sounds:

Luca = Lance, Lyle, Rico, Ludo
Blake = Clark, Bruce, Chance, Trent, Clay
Reggie - Donnie, Marlon, Raffy
Reuben - Anton, Russell, Dorian

Lilah - Tara, Naya, Lauren, Marla
Lottie - Cecily, Leonie, Larissa, Lacie
Indie - Renee, Aura, Indiana, Ingrid, Irina
Luna - Dora, Liora, Judy, Luana.

I understand the point you're trying to make, regarding different spellings making names feel more popular, but if you're combining spellings for names on the OPs list (and names similar to them) you'd have to apply those rules for every name. No way Luca, combined with the similar Lucas, would be number 1 ahead of all the spelling variations of Muhammad! In fact, I think they'd barely beat Muhammad on it's own. Then there's Theo/Theodore etc.

Luca is definitely popular right now, but it's certainly not the number 1 name no matter how many rules you bend and tweak.

Yes I love the name Reuben but I also know what you mean about it being spelt incorrectly by others.

Hmm yeah my partner is very big on making sure names don't sound like pet names so that one may have to be out then 🤣

Thanks ☺️

100% agree on the Kray Twins comments, I really like Reggie but if that's what a lot of people initially think then it may have to be a pass on that one.

Thank you about the Luna comment, didn't realise it was a pushchair reference thing too!
And I love the idea of India then Indie as a nickname.
I appreciate your opinion ☺️

I only like Luca and none of the girls' names, especially Luna which may become Loony at school. How about Lara instead?

Thank you ☺️ that's a few people that have said the dog thing about Luna so I think that will have to be out now.

Boys - Sorry none of them.

Girls - Charlotte nn Lottie. Lottie is super cute but Charlotte would work better for a professional adult.

Thank you for the mention of the website I will definitely have a look!

And yes spelling is a big factor, we don't want our child growing up with their name being spelt multiple different ways that are all wrong so it's something to think about.

Boy - I like Luca but would probably spell it Luka.
Girl - I like Lilah but would probably spell it Lila (I am assuming it's pronounced "Lie-la" not "Lee-la". If it's Leela that's how I'd spell it)

Reuben is definitely my favourite name .
Lottie is ok .

Thank you so much for all your responses and opinions, I do appreciate any replies whether they are positive and negative. It helps give me insight. ☺️

I would never have known Luna was such a popular pet name so I'm glad I now know and it's always interesting to hear people's connotations of names and what they associate them with.

Picking a child's name is incredibly important, more so for them as they grow up!

I’d quite geek out / enjoy doing the maths on that!