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Original poster

Are really popular names really that bad?

95 replies

GYoIsReallyHavingABaby · 25/02/2009 12:07

Hello
Due in 3 wks and the only boys name we both like is super popular where I live. Think we are ok with a girls names.

Since we have have common surname (not smith or brown but similar) so were originally looking at something a bit different but we cant agree on anything a bit different. I've always been adamant to not choose something popular but cant really work out why I've thought this, IYSWIM.

Who has DCs with really popular names and does it really matter? Suppose the worst issue is lots of kids with same name in class at school.

Thank you!

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Fillyjonk · 26/02/2009 19:29

ps popsy is namewizard a us site? keeps crashing on me.

Fillyjonk · 26/02/2009 19:30

oh I have another thought

have always felt that having a common name allows kids to carve out their personality a bit better. Else they are just the kid with the name.

MiniMarmite · 26/02/2009 19:31

When I first found out I was pregnany I was adamant that we would call DS a more unusual name because when I first started school there were 5 MiniMarmites in a class of 24 children (about half of which were boys anyway of course - so nearly 50% of girls with the same name )and I hated that.

However, as the pregnancy went on and discussions continued there was really only one name that we both liked and it happened to be popular...very popular...but we couldn't imagine DS being called anything else, so we went with it.

He does have an unusual middle name (a family name) which helps the situation somewhat.

So many people comment on what a lovely name he has...so maybe it is popular because it is a good, classic name!

Whatever you call them they want to be called something else at some point anyway!

{some names have been changed to protect identities }

GrendelsMum · 26/02/2009 19:44

Go for it - names go in and out of fashion so much that you can never predict whether your children will be the only one, or one of 10 in a class!

KERALA1 · 26/02/2009 19:50

Well its a personal thing - if you pick a traditional popular name the majority will like it, although some will probably think you are abit unoriginal. If you pick an original name theres a chance the majority of people wont much like it, but a few will really love it - if that all makes sense

My own name is definitely popular. Was once in a tutorial of 6 and 4 of us were called my name so have gone slightly more left field with dds.

TheOldestCat · 26/02/2009 19:52

Agree with fillyjonk that some children seem to enjoy knowing others with the same name. DD's name isn't massively common in real life, but there are quite a few in children's telly. DD is always thrilled when one of the pop up.

TheOldestCat · 26/02/2009 19:52

Sorry, one of them pops up!

ContainsMildPeril · 26/02/2009 20:31

MiniMarmite - you are sooooo an Alex.

frogmarsh · 26/02/2009 22:11

popsycal is [[http://www.babyplanners.co.uk/funstuff.php this] the site you mean with the graphs? It's very good

frogmarsh · 26/02/2009 22:12

whoops this

crankytwanky · 26/02/2009 22:50

I liked having an unusual name as a child. Bizzarely, I felt slightly affronted when I met another.
For that reason I named my children "unusual" names. (Still actual names though!)
My name's really common now, but was unusual 20 years ago.

crankytwanky · 26/02/2009 23:02

It's interesting, Frog,that the boys names from the 40's & 50's aren't yet popular again. Clive, anyone?
(My father's name btw. We thought about it, but couldn't bring ourselves to do it, so settled on his middle name wich was last popular about 2000 years ago. FIL is called Kevin. That wasn't happening either.)
If we ever have twin boys though...

LyraSilvertongue · 26/02/2009 23:05

There's a Clive in DS1's year (year 2)

LyraSilvertongue · 26/02/2009 23:07

We had Claires and Lynnes galore when I was at school.

AllThreeWays · 27/02/2009 04:45

I have a Jack, it's been popular for years now, but we still only meet one or two . My name is really unusual and I actually felt odd with it (as a child) and didn't meet one person with the same name til I was 16

nooka · 27/02/2009 05:30

My dh has the no1 name for his year, and whilst at school he didn't meet many others, at university there were nine or ten of them. The result was that they all got nicknames - ie bigx, littlex, madx, fatx etc etc. In my class at at school there were two Hannahs (not actually a very popular name at the time) one of them was rather small, so she became LittleHannah. She hated it, being self conscious about being small.

I have a very unusual name and I love it (it has a very common shortening should I ever have wanted to blend in) but sometimes it is a bit irritating to have to spell it out all the time.

Our children have names which are middling in the popularity steaks, although dd's short name (mostly used) has one of those always popular and then very popular phases. ds's name was unusual when we chose it and then suddenly the short version became very popular. Although they are great names and suit them, I do occasionally wish we had gone for something more unusual (if dd had been ds2 she would have been Ezra).

seeker · 27/02/2009 06:38

And remember that popularity is very fluid - 13 years ago when we called our dd Grace, it was incredibly unusual - and in her secondary school of 1400 girls (can you just imagine that!) there is only one other (bizarrely, also red headed and in her form!)

SuperMario · 27/02/2009 08:09

ALl names that are popular end up being naff int eh end apart from Royal type names.
Kevin Darren etc - still trendy in America for eg and not at all chavvy.

RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 27/02/2009 08:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Scarletibis · 27/02/2009 09:33

DD1 has a popular name - when I was preganant I knew no one of this name, I thought I was being very original but once she was born they all seemed to appear.

But still like the name.

Both dds have unusual middle names

choochoochaboogie · 27/02/2009 10:32

DH had v popular name when young so we were determined our DC would not have "common" "popular" names, however despite the unusual name we gave to DS he still started school with another boy with the same name.

So my advice is - just go with the name you like and to hell with everyone else - be happy and I hope everything goes well

tiredandgrumpy · 27/02/2009 10:58

I have a Tom and he's the only one in his class at school, much to my surprise. I love the name & wouldn't dream of settling for something I liked less simply because it was too popular.

I have a common (in my generation) name & we all ended up with nicknames at school anyway, so it didn't matter.

Belgianchocolates · 27/02/2009 13:17

I have a Thomas and there are 2 others in his class. He doesn't seem to mind and yes he is known by both his first and last name.
My dd is an Emma, in the top 20, but not nearly as popular as T. I don't know any other little girls with her name either. I don't know how it ended up in the top 20 at the time of her birth

My rl name is not a very comon name, even in my own country, but for some reason there are lots of them born in '78! So I went through school being known by both names, because there always was at least one other one in my class at one point even 2. My slightly younger neighbour also had the same name so we ended up being big x and small x until our teenage years when small x got upset about being called small!

It didn't bother me at all that there were others with my name in my class and so I never even thought twice about that when we chose our dcs names. My main concern was that the names had to be 'international' so my Belgian relatives could pronounce the names beautifully too, because there are lots of lovely English names out there, but ask a Flemish person to pronounce them and it turns into something horrible.

Belgianchocolates · 27/02/2009 13:23

Frogmarsh I like that site. My suspicions about my dd's name were confirmed. It's popularity is on the wane and the name we've got in mind for our lo that's on the way, is so unpopular it's not even on the chart nowadays!

PrimulaVeris · 27/02/2009 13:30

My dc's have traditional, popular names. That's because those are the names we like. No matter if there are thousands of others - doesn't stop individuality shining through. I have a more 'fashion' name and really wish I hadn't tbh.

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