Would you rule out a baby name you love if it is popular?

[Butterflybluebell]

Would you discount a name for being too popular, even if you really loved it and have loved it for years?

Also I find some names that are less popular than others, for example say a name that ranks no. 15 on the charts, vs a name that ranks much lower, i.e 50ish, can sometimes feel more popular than the name that is actually officially more popular. I guess this is because names come in trends/clusters.

DD2 had a name that most people hadn’t heard of when she was born. She was named after a great great aunt. Now, 25 years later, her name is well inside the top 100.

Agree with PPs that a wider spread of names is used these days. In my child's primary year group there are 60 kids. Only four or five have a top 10 name. There are 4 duplicate names (2 kids each) and 2 of those four names are outside the top 20, and the other 2 are well outside the top 100. I know of another school with two Simonas and a Simone! So I think at an individual class/school level it's impossible to know if your child will share a name. But if a name is consistently popular for a sustained period of time that will translate to many adults in the in the future sharing that name.

I would prefer mine not to have a popular name... mainly because I had a very common forename, and there were other girls with the same surname, too. My niece had the same issue throughout school, and said that she wished that she had a different name.

Fortunately, I grew up, became a teacher (which successfully ruined a few names for me!) and then moved to a part of Wales where I hear more Welsh names than ones that I like, and which are popular, in England.

Agree with this. Classic popular names are usually popular for a reason!

It's interesting how different people's opinions are on sharing a name with children in their class! I have a very common 80s name and there were 3 in my primary class, several on my uni course and still quite a few within my sphere at work. I don't mind it at all, and don't feel any less identifiable or individual just because sometimes my surname is needed to confirm which one people are talking about. In fact one of my best friends at primary was one of my name buddies! But clearly for others it's more bothersome.

DS1(9) has a name that was top 20 when he was born but has dropped right down since then. DS2(7)'s official name was in the 80s when he was born, and has now dropped further, BUT he is known by an abbreviation which has been in/around the top 10 for ages. There are two other boys with his name in his year, he's fine with it and one of his best friends is one of his name buddies! So no, popularity hasn't and wouldn't put me off.

Yes, that's true. There are no Olivias in my DD's year at primary school but there are three Amelias and one Emilia!

it just means lots of people have good taste,popular for a reason...
It's down to fashion mainly. There are many pleasant or classic names that aren't currently popular. People tend to choose names that are currently popular for children.

When did you last hear of a baby Michael or Victoria? Both classic and really nice.

This has always been my way of thinking!

I stuck with my favorite. Had loved the name since hearing as a child, it wasn't massively popular then, but was popular by the time I used it for my DC.

You cant control a name though, by the time my DC was about 3 they had gained a completely made up nickname that everybody used, so much so its followed them to school and is their register name.

So they still have the name I love, and will be able to sue it when they want to, they like it too, but are commonly known by a unique (completely made up) nickname so still the only one in class.

No.

It means a lot of people CURRENTLY are following a fashion trend.

Do parents of Sharon or Wayne, both of which were popular, have ‘good taste’?!

Yes i would rule it out

I have one of the most popular names of my generation and it’s shit. It’s not about what I love, it’s about the child living with it.

Even worse if two of the Olivias share the same surname initials or even the same surname!

Identity fraud is also much more likely with a common name.

I will add that it wasn’t just a case of there always being several girls with my name in the 4 different schools I went to, but at other hobbies and now at work. I shit you not that I was in a work meeting the other day with 21 people in it and 3 of us had my name.

i don’t agree

Yeah I specifically chose names that weren't common for my kids. There were names on our list that were more common and I discounted them for that reason.

I'm a bit of an oddball though so I do like names that others would think weird, I didn't use them for my kids though. My kids have names that most people can pronounce.

I feel like common names end up with a personality associated with them, Karen, Sarah, Declan, Chantelle, chad, I feel like people are more likely to put them in a box because of that.

No I wouldn't. When I was at school in the 60's every other girl was called Susan, Jacky or Debbie for example. So there was Sue 2, Debbie 3, blonde Jacky and so on. I had an common (although by no means "out there" name) and I've always been so grateful. I think it's stood me in good stead too because it's quite a distinguished name.

Out of pure curiosity I looked up my own name. 3rd most popular for the year I was born. I can't remember there being any in my primary school at all. If there were, they weren't in my year group. 1 my age at secondary, and none that I can recall in other years. It was a big secondary school though, so i didnt know everyone outside if my cohort.

None at church/Sunday school, Brownies, Guides, swimming lessons, dance school, or the other groups I attended. I didnt know anyone with my name.

Exactly. I have a ‘classic’ name and a common surname, so there was another girl in my year with the same name. My best friend also had a classic name that was a bit more popular when we were born, there was another in our class. This desire to have something unique is really recent, older generations all had names that they shared with other family members or others in their class. My Dad was one of two in his year, my grandfather was one of several. One of my daughters has a family name that is uncommon, but not unusual. The other has a name that isn’t super popular but there were two others in her school.
I like classic names generally, so there will always be others, I don’t think this is an issue at all. Just choose the name you love.

Yes. But I’ve never met anyone with my name and I like that. My DDs don’t have names that are as unusual as mine though, but I wouldn’t have chosen them if they were popular names.

There is a HUGE difference between a truly unique name and an overused fashionable one.

There are literally thousands of beautiful normal names outside of the top 100 or even outside the top 250 most popular names. By choosing a less common name the chances of having to share your name with 3 others on the classroom or at work is significantly reduced.

My DS has a biblical name which is timeless - he was one of two boys in his primary school year with it (3 classes). its reasonable popularity didn’t put us off

That's because you have chosen the name. If I said my list was Susan, Julie, Karen, Deborah, Tracey and Jacqueline, you probably would think them awful but those were the top names at one time.

Did the parents who picked one of those names have good taste?

Out of Olivia, Amelia, Isla, Lily, Ivy and Freya, which ones will be thought of as 'good taste' in 60 years' time?

That’s not popularity though, is it? It’s association. I love both Catherine and Charlotte as names, but I wouldn’t use them because they are so associated with the Royal Family now.

It depends how popular. We usually like names that are not too popular but not too out there. Both of our children have names that are not in the top 100 and I quite like that I haven’t come across another young child with either of their names. But the name we’d chosen for our second baby (and didn’t end up using because she was a girl) is in the top 50, which is more popular than we would usually go for but we really loved it so that didn’t put me off. It probably would have put me off if the name was in the top 10 though.

My DD has a very popular name. It's my grandmother's name and DH and I had always talked about having a daughter of this name, well before it became popular. DD is now a teen and likes her name. She doesn't mind it being popular.