Do you consider popularity of a name?

[CharlOctober]

We've got a shortlist and at the moment one of our favourites is Theodore - Theo/Teddy for short. I'm aware of how popular it is looking at the top 100 names.. wondering if you would let that put you off or just go with it?

I avoided names that were at the peak of their popularity. For example I discounted Emily because it was very popular at the time and I knew three baby/toddler Emilys.

Lucky you!

I really hate it when posters say ‘go for a popular name if you love it’ rather than thinking about the child that has to live with it.

This is especially important if you have a popular surname - the potential confusion and identity theft when being called Steve Smith, Harry Jones or Theo Wilson must be very annoying!

Yes it was a consideration for me, more so than for DH. My favourite boys’ name for years was Oscar but it went from being almost unheard of in the late 90s (at least where I grew up) to number 1 the year I was pregnant with DS. DS is not called Oscar!

Popularity was a factor in our choice, which was low down on the most popular lists for the previous few years. Fine at primary but she had 3 others with the same name in her class at secondary. Now there's only one other person she knows with her name and she's mid 20s, so it sort of evens out.

My name however - in tiptop use for about 3 years only in late 50s / early 60s and now never heard in anyone under 62. Bizarre

DD2 had a very unusual name - a lot of people had never heard of it and she never met another one. 25 years later I think it’s in the top 10.

I would never have named my daughter a popular name within the top 100

Having got one of the most popular names it really annoys me

Parents have no way of knowing whether their unborn baby would prefer a popular or an unusual name when they're older, so may as well please themselves at least. Are we meant to ask the child's consent before naming them these days? 🙄

For everyone out there who loves their unusual name, there's someone out there who cringes with embarrassment every time their unusual name is said aloud. For everyone who finds their popular name dull and wishes they had a more stand out name, there's someone who loves that their name allows them to blend in rather than stand out from the crowd.

We're not mind readers, so parents should simply opt for the type of name they prefer. There's so much snobbery when it comes to picking popular names these days and there really is no need. The irony is, with so many people trying to outdo each other these days in terms of trying to come up with the most unusual name, the popular names of today are far less popular than popular names ever were in the past.

There's no need for this 'won't someone think of the children?' rubbish when it comes to someone picking a perfectly normal, inoffensive name. There's every chance they very much are thinking of their child by choosing a name they know to be popular, as they'd rather their child not stand out because of their name. Everyone looks for different things in a name. You do you and other people can do them.

I did. When I was pregnant, I didn't know if I was having a boy or girl. I really liked a particular girls' name but the first two babies in my NCT group were called that name so DH and I decided against it - it was very popular at the time. Anyway, we had a boy, and chose a name for him which we thought was reasonably uncommon. There were no girls with the original name we'd liked in his primary class at school but there was a boy with the same name as ds! And one of my colleagues called his second child the same name, and so did another colleague. So what you think is popular might not be so popular on a local level and what you think is not so common might turn out to be more common than you think.

Dated is fine in my view. What isn't fine is forgetting that a baby grows up and a name has to take them through life. Ginger-Lily does not work for a 60 year old ;)

Its definitely a consideration for me. I have one child with a top 30 name but it was about 85 when he was born. So he doesn't have anyone in his year with his name. My other two children are ranked about 200 and one far more unusual but it's a solid name, easy to pronounce and remember.
My son has 6 versions of Isabelle/Isabella/Bella in his year group of 60. As a result the name now sounds so bland and I never know which Izzy or Bella he is referring to, especially as they change their preferred nicknames regularly.
My other child has 4 Noah's in his year, 3 in the same class. Each one is called Noah A, Noah G etc etc. I would hate that!
My other reason is that name that tend to become very popular also often then eventually become very dated, so I'd avoid a really trendy name. I think Teddy fits into that category. There was an explosion of Teddy's. I do like Theodore as a name though.

We picked a name for ds2 that we had not come across before. I have now met over 30 with that name! Go for a name you like, don't worry about popularity.

I wanted Elijah but exdp didn't like it. He wanted Aaron or Seth. Neither of which I liked. I know one Aaron, one Seth and have met no Elijahs.

I got talked out of the name Noah for DS2 by my mum who was a primary school headteacher. She said it was ridiculously old fashioned and that he would get laughed at in school.

That was 27 years ago. Within a few years there were little Noahs everywhere!

I've got a very popular 1960s name which dates me. I was one of three with this name in my class. I was determined to give our sons names outside the top 100 which wasn't easy prior to the internet! They both have uncommon but known names.

DS2 ended up in primary school with 5 boys called Tom/Thomas in his class. DS1 had 3 Sophies in his class. They both quite like having uncommon but not unusual names.

Do we though? I thought a name was to identify someone, some stand out some don’t.

i can understand why people choose both popular and unpopular names. There may be many perfectly reasonable reasons a parent chooses to not want their child to stand out.

I think more people like having a name that identifies them easily, a name that is memorable than to have a name that’s shared by its lots of others (and being known as Clare Surname, Lacrosse Clare or Marketing Clare) I know I wished my parents had tried a little harder to find a beautiful name for me.

We have had a few Teddys, Teds in my DDs primary school. It wasn’t until the year 6 leavers assemble I found out Ted in my DDs class as actually Edward. His mum said he’s started using Edward sometimes, he hated it when little but as he’s getting older he’s liking it apparently.

I think we need to define ‘stand out’

Having a name that defines you easily because not many others share the same name as you makes your name ‘stand out’ in a good way imo. It identifies you easily! That’s a good thing, surely?

"I think"

Exactly, you think. You are one person. Your opinion isn't shared by everyone. Everyone is different.

I think the 2010s were bad for it too - everybody had a Milli, Lilly, Molly, Daisey-Mae etc. lots of soundalike names.

That really is a matter of opinion (it would most definitely depends on the actual name and just how unusual it is, as well as the individual personality of the person the name is bestowed upon as to whether it's a good thing or not).

Personally, I'd hate to be instantly traceable on a Google search because my name is so unique. There really are positives and negatives to all sorts of name types. Some people get so passionate that their viewpoint is 'right' when it comes to this subject but it really is a case of each to their own.

No, we didn't take it into consideration. You'll generally get a mix of classic and then what I'd call faddy names in the top 100. I just avoided the faddy names which sound common regardless of how popular they are. There's a good website if you're interested in name popularity over the years Baby name explorer share.google/BugqUwlcW90fZKBEW
Theodore /Theo/Teddy is lovely by the way.

So what if your parents were bullied because they had a name that “stood out”, maybe the child has a disfiguration, maybe the child comes from a family that don’t want people to easily identify their children. Maybe the parent was a child of a narcissistic parent that wanted their child to stand out and it was nothing but tourture for them as a child so have decided to give their children very mundane names.

I can think of many families that have changed their names and chosen to keep their identities and connections to their names less ( Myra Hindley, Ian Huntley, Ian Bradley, The Wests, Harold Shipman’s and so on…) I can’t imagine Maxine Carrs daughter will want to stand out or that Shannon Matthew’s will want to be easily identifiable.

My children attend a school with refugee children who were rescued from camps because the Teliban are hunting them, their youngest children were born in those camps. I have no idea what the parents were thinking about when naming their children but I do know that lots and lots of precautions have been taken so the children are not identified in any way to protect them and their families.

There are many many reasons having a stand out name isn’t a positive. Plus if everyone had a stand out name, no one will.

Usually I don’t care about popularity as such - as long as a name has always been fairly popular so it won’t date. The huge numbers over a relatively short period of time mean that personally I’d be wary that Theodore/Theo/Teddy could end up the Gary, Kevin etc of the future, which wouldn’t be ideal for me personally.

Personally if I wanted Teddy, I’d go for Edward on the BC (a classic that has never left the Top 100) or if I wanted Theo I’d try for something with a similar vibe but not nearly as trendy (maybe classic Owen for that “O” sound, or less well used Ivo or Jago?).

It is horrible when your fave has shot up the charts like that - in general the use of the most popular names is decreasing but when you add up the all the Theodore/Theo/Ted/Teddy’s together, it does feel a bit like the boys name of the 2010’s/2020’s, sorry.

I have a classic name, and I wanted similar for my DC.
classic but hopefully not the one of many in a class or workplace.
my name has subsequently become rather popular and DD had another one with her name in her class when the school hadn’t had any before.
go with a name you like that suits your baby because names that are popular nationally aren’t the same locally.

I have a fairly uncommon but heard of first name. I'd hate to be one of the millions of Sarah's, Claire's etc who I went to school with/work with. I purposely picked an uncommon name for my daughter for that reason. She's still fairly young but I like being memorable/not confused with someone else/ having to use my surname etc. She might not care though 😂

I’m one of the really popular girls names of the 70’s - I’ve never worked or been in a group of more than 12 women and been the only one!
my children have known names but not super popular. DH is A classic msns name (think Tom/ Steve / james /dave)
the last 30 years have been a procession of Eve / Izzy / Ella / Bella / Olivia type names. Boys were all Oliver / Freddie / Noah - nothing wrong with any of the names - just a bit dull and unimaginative.

I did, mainly as I have one of the very popular girls names in the 80's/90's and I kinda hated that there were 5 of them in my year. Though also disliked that mine is a shortening (so in situations where there were more than one of us people would use my full name to differentiate us, which I hated as that was my sunday name) and that I got a kooky spelling. Which, now as an adult I like that my name isn't the generic spelling, but as a kid I was landed with a shortened version of an ever popular name and I couldn't even get it on a keyring in a gift shop. Bleugh!!

So when naming my kids I wanted names which were recognisable, but uncommon. Of course since I chose them they both since rocketed up the charts and we regularly meet other kids with the name. #3 we're going with a classically popular name, because everyone likes it. Overthinking it didn't work, might as well just embrace it!