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?

I worked somewhere with so many Claires! Yet, whenever I hear that name, I always still think it is a lovely name.

I have known a few Claire’s and they have all been really lovely. It’s a very familiar, nice name and although it was popular of its time I don’t think it’s aged badly. I’d rather be called Claire than Juniper, Marigold / Goldie (these names just spring to mind in that although they’re not statistically popular seem like examples of names that are very of the moment!) But we are all different which is what makes life interesting!!

@BrandiedAromatics , It's ok but it's just a noise in many accents. I know so many and there's the Clare/Claire spelling issue. It was a popular middle name for women my ge.
It's much nicer than Clara.

@Fantomfartflinger Could you have it as a double name so that it is not the same as 20 others in a school for example?
The Emma-Janes, Emma-Louise, Sarah-Janes and Sarah-Louises at school were all known as Emma or Sarah.

New names are constantly created and added to the large pool of names!

Like what? Give examples.

Most 'new' names are variations on existing names.

Yes. Because then they would always get their second name too. I have a common name. Three of us at work so everyone has to say my full name

I am hesitant to use a name that's new and made up though personally. I prefer a name to have some history behind it.

Each to their own, there's no right or wrong.

You just never know do you

We have 2 who are (not the actual names) Sarah Jane Smith and Sarah Jane Foster. It's an 'everyone known by their first name' culture so the second one is 'Sara'. It doesn't really work.

Names like Harper and Jessica were invented by authors (Harper Lee, Shakespeare) within the past century.

Names like Oaklynn, Wrenley, and Raelynn represent the ongoing trend of parents creating fresh phonetic spellings or compounding familiar sounds.

Names such as Khaleesi, Cersei, and Valinor frequently enter public registries straight from television, streaming series, and fantasy

Unconventional word names (Cascade, Fig) and international variants are also making their debut in Western databases.

Yes I would (and did) rule it out. My kids are secondary + age and I remember when they were in primary school having classmates who had the same name as multiple other children and them commenting how annoying it must be. The child would become Ollie C/Ollie M etc as a way of identifying them. Even now my eldest is an adult we do refer to one of his old friends as Ollle C.

Names like Harper and Jessica were invented by authors (Harper Lee, Shakespeare) within the past century.

Oh dear, @Helenbelena , you seem misinformed. Harper Lee did not invent the name. Harper was her middle name, and her parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honor pediatrician Dr. William W. Harper, who had saved the life of her sister Louise.
Shakespeare died in 1616, and Jessica was from Iscah, a Biblical name.

The other names are truly dreadful, but are invented.

Your statement that "New names are constantly created and added to the large pool of names!" is pretty weak.

Just because Shekespeare based Jessica on existing name, doesn't mean he didn't invent it. It's not completely certain what was inspiration for Jessica, it could be that he based it on then-current falconry term, on word Jew or it was combination of these influences. It's quite a leap from Iscah and Jessica, don't you think? And his play is first recorded evidence of name being used.

It is true Shakespeare is 'inventor' of many names and words simply because we don't have any written evidence of word or phrase being used before he first written it down, simply because many of written documents before his time were written in Latin.
He certainly popularized many foreign names and changed some - for example Miranda was Spanish surname and word, after Tempest it was a name.

Another name that was invented by author (Jonathan Swift) was Vanessa. He based it on Esther Vanhomrigh, who was his close friend. He took Van from her surname and Essa from, presumably, her nickname.

But those were centuries ago and they were based on existing names.
Names aren't 'constantly being invented'.

I can think of 'unique' names like Gavanndra, Finty and Malandra but they are based on other names.

Some are invented but they are few and far between.

Of 'Khaleesi, Cersei, and Valinor', only Kaleesi has been used in England and Wales.

Yes i think i would. Popularity didn’t really occur to me when I named my children.
My son has a popular name and as he was my first I didn’t know other mums and small children. There was one other in his year group at secondary but he knows lots of boys called his name. My dd has a top 20 name but we don’t know anyone personally with her name.

It did, however some of the names we chose ended up becoming really popular when our DC were toddlers so it was probably a pointless exercise.

It seems that we sometimes forget that names have a purpose! Names let us tell one person apart from another in a group. And yes, all names were once invented by people and new names are created over time, just as other names die out.

I can tell people apart from one another even if they share a name.

Yes. I still get irrationally angry about some of the confusion that happened because of having a popular name when I was a child.

I not only ruled out popular names, I checked the trends on the less common names we considered. If they were trending up with any speed, they were dropped from the list.

I took this so seriously that I ran models on data where I had combined variations of spellings and diminutives and recalculated rankings. This was long before AI or even pre-fab python modules. I painstakingly coded those LLMs myself.

Depends on the name I think. If it's a timeless classic like James then I don't think it's a problem. If it's a trendy name of the moment like Ezra, Luna, Arlo etc...I think it's more of an issue because it won't age well

People are always going to share names though.

Unless you call your kid something utterly ridiculous that nobody wants to name them.

This is my stance I think.
Trendy popular, no.

I’m genuinely surprised how negatively affected some people feel/ felt by having a common name.

I was born at the very end of the 70s, my husband a few years before me, we both have names that were incredibly popular/ common when we were growing up, mine has stayed in the top 100, rising really high again when I was in my late 20s. I was the only one in my primary class but one of about 5 or 6 in my year at grammar school and everywhere I’ve worked has had at least one more of my name. My husband’s name is probably outside the top 100 but very recognisable and ‘classic’ - we know at least 6 people with his name and I dated a couple of others before him.

I don’t feel in the least adversely affected by it, I don’t even think about it. It’s only recently that it’s become such a ‘thing’ to want your child to have an uncommon or less popular name, there used to be about 10 names to share between everyone and people seemed to survive unscathed (by the names if not, you know, the general horrors of history).

My daughter’s name was just outside the top 100 when we named her, it rose the year after she was born and has hovered around 70-80 since. I’ve come across one or two others out and about but we don’t know any others personally. I taught for many years and was quite keen to choose a name I hadn’t taught, but her name has a really important meaning for me and I love it so much I’d have chosen it if it was much higher up the rankings I think.

Yes. 28 years on I am still annoyed dds name wnet to top 20 having not been near the 100s for years prior. Our other 3 have names much lower in the rankings

Well, there you go — you weren’t one of five in your primary school class, so you didn’t learn you were generic, and someone calling your name almost certainly means somewhere else, between the ages of four and eleven. I was, and it was quite depressing. It took me until I was in my mid-20s and living in another country where my name was unusual to start responding when called.