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?

@Blueplu , there's a happy medium.

I'm not convinced about 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.

Names are popular because new parents generally pick from a small pool of names.

Oh well, it's cool to be ahead of the curve.

It's correct.

For example, in 1996, Jack was the most popular boys name used 10,779 times and Sophie was the most popular girls name used 7,087 times.

In 2023, Mohammed was the most popular boys name used 4,661 times and Olivia was the most popular girls name used 2,906 times.

No one is saying that Olivia is unusual but it was used far less than Sophie was in 1996 yet is still the most popular girls name.

Going back even further when you are talking about Michelle's and Gemma's and Michael's and they were used many more times than the most popular names of today.

@SouthLondonMum22 , it's correct for those examples, but I'm not convinced that it's true in general.

My son has a classic, Biblical name. There are 4 in his class!

It is statistically true in general. Especially for the earlier years, I picked 1996 out of thin air but you could pick almost any earlier year and it would almost always be correct.

There's more variety now and more people are trying to be different.

I don't have the stats, hence my reluctance to just accept it.

I'm not saying it never happens, but it was literally every class in the 90's! There's far more variety now.

Both mine and DHs names scream born in 70s.
So we really wanted to avoid this with DC. BUT it is actually a lot more difficult to do this than you think.
DC1 is a classic name and we thought fairly unusual however it has become more popular particularly with lots of varients. Forever correcting the spelling.
DC2 has a more unusual name, he wasnt a fan when he was growing up as he could never buy anything with his name on it He likes it now.
DC3 classic but fairly uncommon DC doesn't like it.
DC4 classic but again we thought fairly uncommon until a member of royal family used it.
Which annoyed DC, still she may always be thought of as younger than she is!
Agree there is often local variance in popularity, when eldest DC joined reception at small village school there were 5 Sophies in a class of 15 and there were only 7 girls!
I think you just have to choose a name you like, preferably one that is easy to pronounce and spell and that initials dont spell out anything awful.

People can choose what they want. It doesn’t bother me at all. I’m just observing the fact that some names become popular for a year or two then fade away and become very much of a certain time. Others are timeless. You won’t find many grandads and newborns called Jayden but you’d find plenty of Jacks for example.

It wouldn’t occur to me when naming a child to follow or not follow what other people are doing. If I like the name I’ll use it regardless of whether or not it’s popular.

Well IMO you’ve got to find the sweet spot - a name is to identify you do you don’t wanna to be one of millions, but also my kids love meeting people with their same names, finding personalised things in shops etc.

Also absolutely classic that you try and be whacky and then turns out your name is newly top 10, a year after yours is born when it’s too late, because everyone else had the same thought.

Bit of a balance for me I wanted something known but not 'trending' due to risk of there being lots of others and it sounding dated after the peak.

I've realised I think of some names as a group. So my DD is 3 and there are loads of short girls names beginning with vowles (Ava, Ada, Isla Evie, Eva) and would avoid those because i find them too common as a group even if not individually, if that make sense.

I have a popular name for my generation and I hate it. I think it’s common, unimaginative and is a bit embarrassing.