How important in popularity when choosing names?

[ReaganLockWood]

About 50% of the names I love are in the top 100, and about 50% aren’t.
How much did popularity aid you when choosing your DCs name?

For example, the three most popular girl names that I love are: Isabella (10th), Sophia (12th), and Ella (27th).
The three most ‘unique’ names that I love are Priya (921st), Cassia (1030th), and Nara (2201st).
With manyyyyy in between them.

Would you rule out names for being too popular? Or do we think in this day and age it would be unusual to come across too many children with the same name anyways because the naming pool being used is much larger?

There is thread upon thread about the need for a name to be unique!

We purposefully avoided popular names. We have 6 children and all of their names are very much nearer the 1000 end of the list, uncommon but not laughable, and chosen for their meanings more than anything. I've never met any other children with the same name as ours and I like that. For us, it's not about them standing out at school or anything like that, they're all home ed anyway, but we prefer this way of naming our children than choosing something generic.

One thing this thread does show is how many people apparently thought they were giving their child a unique name only for it suddenly and inexplicably to become very popular!

It matters to me so I chose one outside of the top 100.

30 years later it’s top ten.

basically you can’t tell. Just call them whatever you like.

The popular names tend to be popular for a reason though, obviously a lot of people like them.

People are ultimately going to go with what they love and for some people that is going to be names such as Oliver and Amelia.

It does a little I do prefer unused names. Especially as my name is very rare and with my surname I am the only one on the world with both. BUT both our DC have popular names 😂 we put the names we liked into a hat and thats how they got their names.

Yes, popular names are popular because lots of people like the same ones at the same time. Just like Tracy and Michelle were popular in the 1960s or like Evie or Olivia in the 2000s. Like anything fashionable, they often fall out of fashion again.

The popular names tend to be popular for a reason though, obviously a lot of people like them. Fashion.

Names usually follow trends, and the names people pick for their babies are usually within the current trends.

It's also fashionable to try and be different, especially these days. Popular names aren't used now as often as Tracy and Michelle were used in the 60's.

Some names have also been popular for years and will likely never fall out of fashion.

I have quite an unusual name I'm in my 50s and I have never met another.
I liked this as a child abd due to this I wanted similar for my children.

Dd1 got a name that was just inside the top 100 year before she was born. Friends hit and her name exploded and went up to mid 20s. We have met many of them over the years.

We picked much further out for the other 3

Dd2 has a name in the 2000's. Never met one with her specific name though some with the e ending not her a ending

Ds around 1250. We have met one other a dad in the primary he went to. Who said our Conrad was the first he ever met at age 36.

Dd3. 350 when she was born. Now just inside 200. Irish name. Met 1 other at an IKEA play area.

For us the less popular was important

I never actually thought about looking to see how popular our list of names was. We just chose names we liked. As it turned out, both were in the top ten for the year they were born. However, they were both the only ones in their two-form entry primary and I think maybe one other in their year groups at secondary.

I had an uncommon name and was often teased or people didn't know how to pronounce it. I have grown to love it but life would have been simpler with a different name. I called my children uncommon but recognisable names, as I am a teacher and didn't want them to be one of 3 with the same name in a class. I wanted them to have a name that didn't bring too many preconceptions, whatever they wanted to do in life. They both like their names and being the only child or two in their year with that name

Imo there are much more benefits in having a popular name than negative ones (fitting in with your peers, most people knowing how to spell and pronounce your name, most people liking the sound of it, even being able to easily get junk with your name on which is fun for kids etc) and the reduction in use of the most popular names compared to even 30 years ago is huge - now even with the most popular names you’d be unlucky to have 2 in a class (for example there are no Oliver’s or Olivia’s at all my sons nursery, actually there’s no repeated names at all at the moment).

BUT some popular names may feel very dated in future which your DC might really not appreciate when older (so always worth checking the Darkergreener site to see if a name has suddenly risen in popularity, rather than being the timelessly popular sort like Thomas, Elizabeth etc - or at minimum that it’s stayed popular now for a few decades at least if you want to try to avoid this).

And it’s also worth considering whether the names sounds make it seem more popular than it is - for example there’s an Archie, Albie and Alfie at nursery as well as a Theo, Leo, Milo and Arlo and and Elsie, Esme, Ella and Ellis; so many names seem to blend together even though there’s technically no repeats.

So bear in mind that your Ella may have similar or an Isabella may have an Arabella or Isabelle in class, Sophia may have a Sophie or Sofia. Only you can decide if that would bug you - in my experience the children often don’t really care, in fact many seem to like it and end up close friends with the kid with the similar name!

I honestly haven’t ever paid attention to the top 100 but have just looked it up and thankfully dislike the majority of the names. I think Ella, Olivia and Amelia are the dullest names going and surprised they’re so popular. My children’s are ranging from 300s to 1100 in popularity and my own name is in the 800s. I can’t imagine having to encounter the same name as my own constantly, I bet it would be annoying. I’d also be disappointed if all the names I liked where in the top 100 and would question why I was so unimaginative.

For me it was very important to not have a commonly used name
But I've always wanted an unusual name when I've planned my baby names! I was never going to have a usual one!

In the end I chose an not common name but not out there either. Dad was surprised it wasn't more out there actually!

It was just over the top 100 names when she was born. But that was rare enough to me and we've only come across a few with her name.

But it's whatever you want it to be!

I'm with the PPs who pointed out that names are identifiers and that there are so many beautiful names outside the top 100. I avoided the top 100 for this reason, even though I liked Maya and Sienna.

I have yet to meet another child with DD's name, but there are a couple of girls in her school year with similar names (think Mary, Marie and Maria). That said, the girls' names in this school do seem to be a teacher's nightmare. Amelia x2, Emilia x2, Emma and Emily, Eve, Eva and Ava, Lily and Lilia, Isla and Isabelle... Perhaps I should have been braver!

a Name being too popular automatically ruled it out for me

I avoid popularity. My name isn't very common and I like it that way. I felt sorry for people who had the same name as others, and you get known as your name plus initial. I cringed when 3 of the girls in my coffee group (total 10 people) named their kids the same thing.

I ruled out top 100 names. All the popular names in the OP are names of dcs in both of my dds classes, and that would bother me. Dd1 has a rarely used name that I've only met a few times, DD2 has a name that is a bit more popular and I've met maybe twice as many, but they've never been in the same class or activity as another person with that name.

Quite a few kids in toddler groups/school have different but similar sounding names, and tbh I always get them mixed up - I expect it happens to them often.

It was important to me but you don't have any control over how popular a name becomes. When we named DD, she was named after her Grandmother. The name had not been in top 100 ever, I don't think. And then 2 celebs named their daughters that name and BOOM! It's been one of the most popular girls names of the last 20 years. It still pisses me off lol.

Exactly. Here are some names that are very unusual these days: Hilary, Maud, Diane, Graeme, Lindsay, Claude.

All very easy to spell and well known.

They might be well known but they are hardly easy to spell (apart from Diane) - Claud, Hillary, Maude, Lindsey, Graham are all equally used spellings (if not more popular spellings in many cases). And there’s a reason most of them are considered quite dated - I don’t know anyone with those names younger than their 50’s at best so people are likely to make assumptions.

Having said that, there are plenty of names outside the Top 100 that do sound less dated and are well known and easy to spell - Robert, John, Owen, Evan, Julia, Serena, Antonia, Verity etc etc. It would be harder to guess how old one of those are (I’ve met one or two of each under 20 as well as older ones) and generally there is only one popular spelling.

Agree with this. There are certain trends with names that don’t tend to last or age particularly well. At one point everyone was a Jayden, more recently it’s been Arlo. But both drop out of favour unlike names like Harry, Jack and James that are consistently popular and timeless.

I think the lengths some people go to to make sure their dc has a ‘unique’ name are sometimes ridiculous. Popularity generally doesn’t bother me at all, it’s popular for a reason. Some people are desperate to have a dc who stands out and lumber them with some ridiculous made up name. One of my dc has a popular name, the other less popular but still very normal. It doesn’t factor in my choices.

So popular names 20-30 years ago were used far more than nowadays so statistically those who hate having a popular name in the 70s/80s nowadays with ‘popular’ names it won’t actually be as prevalent.

For example say in the 90s the name Charlotte in the top 5 or so would have 4-5 thousand babies called it and now the same name ranked around 5, say Isla will only have 2 thousand baby girls called this name in 2025.
People are choosing from a wider pool of names nowadays so it means that names although seem popular aren’t like the number of babies given the name in the 70s/80s.

There is a reason names are popular because they’re nice and people like them.

So you can’t have a trendy name because you don’t see it as timeless and clearly snooty but then you don’t like people who choose non popular unique names