Why do there seem to be far fewer boy name threads?

[GivenA]

Do people just care less about boy names? I feel like there’s 1 thread posted about boy names for every 20 threads that are posted about girl names. The ratio is very disproportionate. It can’t be possible that there are that many more mums pregnant with girls than boys. It’s a bit disappointing as a mum who is having a boy and has been reading these threads for ideas.

I don’t really know about that but ime boys seem to get more “regular” names so maybe people check them less online? The busiest threads tend to be controversial names. My boy and girl both got named after famous historical figures.

Less angst over it.

sometimes I think the whole baby name thing extends into almost a marketing/branding exercise.

I do think parents put more thought and effort into naming their daughters than naming their sons. A lot of boys are just given either a family name or a very basic common name of their generation. You’ll see a lot of the same selection of names for boys being asked about and suggested over and over on MN, whereas the names for girls are way more varied and interesting.

There are probably fewer boy names to debate now? Lots of boy names become unisex and then eventually stop being boy names.

I think the types of names chosen for boys are less varied. The numbers registered with the most popular boys' names are far higher than the number of girls registered with the top girl's names.

Oliver (#3) was registered 3492 times compared with Olivia (#1) at 2761.

The majority of the threads are started by women and I think they think more about girls' names because they are women.

I don’t think there are fewer boy name threads on here…

You're exaggerating a bit, but there are more, I've just been through doing a rough tally from titles and it's about 2:1 ratio of girl name threads to boy name threads.

As people said - boys' names have less variance and people seem more likely to go with family names (e.g. naming after father or grandfather) for whatever reason this is more socially acceptable with boys. I don't think I've ever met a girl/woman with the same first name as her mother or grandmother, and I can't imagine giving a daughter my own name, even as a middle name. We didn't want to give any of our sons DH's name either, but two of my sons (different dads) have their dad's first name as a middle name, which now I think about it, it's odd that we wanted to do this but not choose my own name as a middle name for a daughter.

I can think of mothers and daughters with the same name but not many, and they're things like Betty and Liz so not the same day-to-day.
Quite a few girls got the name the mother wanted for herself.

I know several siblings where the son is something like George Dadsname Dadsurname and the daughter Isla Frillyname Dadsurname.

Personally, I knew my boy's name from early on in pregnancy and needed no advice.

Daughter...not so much. I had a long list of maybes. There are so many options and variants compared to boy's names.

Classic boy choice- Oliver. Done.

Classic girl choice - Emily. Or should we do Emilia? Or would Amélie sound more fresh. How about just Emmy. Or let's add on a name, like Emily Rose

One of my boys names I chose when I was really young, about 8ish (didn’t choose a girls name fwiw).
The other dc (ds and both dds) have family names.

Girl names are more likely to reflect some kind of fantasy of the parents while boy names tend to reflect either family heritage or the self image of the parents. Both cases, girls and boys alike, are tied to self image of the parents when it all boils down, but because boys are more likely to keep the father's surname throughout their li es, maybe heritage is more important.

I think I've seen more boy name threads, but I'm set on a girl's name and struggling for a boy so maybe it's just that I look for those!

If you're looking for ideas, I've been browsing the tables here (I'm in Scotland): Babies’ First Names, 2025 - National Records of Scotland (NRS)

The equivalent for England and Wales is due to be published next week: Baby names in England and Wales: 2025 - Official statistics announcement - GOV.UK

My sister has 4 children, a girl and 3 boys. She found the boys easy to name as she had loved them for a long time. Her dd was different as they couldn't agree and they ended up with a compromise name which she has told me she slightly regrets as her full choice was more unusual. I think there are far more choices for girls...more permutations as a pp demonstrated

I don't think there are more choices but that people might have a wider taste.
Boys' names and shortlists tend to be shorter.

Because discussions of boy names are dreadfully boring compared to discussions of girl names. Nobody dares to consider anything even slightly unusual for their boys. It’s always the same traditional and/or religious names.

I don't think that's necessarily true, @Thereyago .
List of boys names. Looking for a slightly unusual historic classic | Mumsnet