Right - this thing about names being "too popular"...

[seeker]

If you call your child a name that's, for example, the most popular name in the United Kingdom for the year (usually Jack and Chloe, isn't it?) what does that mean in terms of how many babies are actually called that name? Someone explained it to me once but I've forgetten.

ineedsomesleep That's not at all what you said but if that's what you mean there's no need to bring North/South issues into it. There are shallow people (and prejudiced ones) everywhere.

I'm not sure there's any more intrinsic value in choosing a name for its family or cultural meaning (whatever you mean by that) over a name that's unique. It's all just a way of choosing something that you like isn't it?

I think rather than a need for the name to be unique, it's more of a wish not inflict the most popular names on your child, which I can understand as someone who had five other girls with the same name in her class. I personally have always loved the name Ruby but am considering not giving it to my DD1 because of its popularity. Not because I need my child to be unique but because I remember how annoying it is to actually be just another [insert top ten name here].

cool name thread turned into a north south fight.
both my dd's have fairly unique names and I am northern, but did liver in Londoin so really not sure what side to come down on here.

It's great, if you shout "Olivia" in certain places...like Centre Parcs or Alice Holt in Farnham (Boden Country) every second girl-child turns round.

Personally I normally keep at lest two Olivias about (mine and the child across the road). I find it useful to have a spare in case of emergencies.

Also I think a lot of uncommon names are uncommon for a reason. They can have a tendency to either make the parents look like they are completely up their own a*ses, or make them look like mouth-breathers. (Always a good selection in "Take a Break").

The reason we chose the names we did was precisely because we didn't want to have our children being one of many of the same name in the class, differentiated only by surname initial. I remember it with Sarahs, Emmas and Annabelles (yes, really) at my school. Though our DS's name is in top 20 I should think - but strangely, I don't mind quite so much for boys.

I don't have a particular dislike of popular names - they're fine names and popular for a reason. I also didn't want people (not that I'm all that bothered what other people think, though it sounds like it here) to be able to tell what decade/year they were born just by their name - though, ironically, that'll probably happen despite my efforts (we have a Nancy - picked for particular, personal reasons, and now I'm a bit horrified by its slowly increasing popularity).

My name, incidentally, has never been popular (though is often suggested on this forum) and as a child I was always upset that I could never find a pen with my name on in museums or gift shops. But I like that now. I'm grateful not to have been one of many in a class, and that you can only tell the year I was born by my middle name. So I guess this has informed my decisions.

We went for reasonably unusual first names because the DCs have a very common last name, and that way we reduced the chances of their running into someone with the same first-last combination. If they had a more unusual last name we'd probably have gone with more common first names.

I have never ever met anyone around my age with my first name. It was seen as deeply odd when I was younger. Now it's quite popular and I bought myself a hairbrush with my name on last time we were at Legoland, because I could.

I don't like John, for instance, because it's so common (as in frequently found, not class). It's like calling your son Admin.

[waits]

see?

I think there's a happy medium. If there's ten children on the road with the same name, you just get a bit bored with it and don't want to use it for your dd or ds. However, choosing bizaare and outlandish names just because they're different and you think they'll make you look a bit arty and creative is silly in my view.

I went to an all girls school and was one of very little white girls, but still my name seemed to be one of the most popular names! I never seemed to be without at least 2 other girls of my name.

I did try to be slightly original (not making up names etc) with mine but my eldest ended up in the charts [groan] second I can't find on the links, would be interested to know where the name comes in!

Ooh, 'mouth-breathers'. That's particularly unpleasant.

the distribution of certain names isn't geographically even.

names 'cluster' in regions and neighbourhoods.

"I don't like John, for instance, because it's so common (as in frequently found, not class). It's like calling your son Admin."

How many Johns do you know? My ds's friend is John, and people always comment on how unusual it is!

seeker - see previous comment by foreverastudent.

I have never met a single Jack in eight years of NCT classes/playgroups/nursery/school - I don't know where they all come from, but it's certainly not South London.

My mother once referred to her neighbours, Kevin and Tracy, in conversation and her posh friend told her off for using such cruel nicknames - she had to explain that actually, those really were their names.

So there are parts of the country where the are Johns aplenty?

I think the issue is that even with the most popular names you would be very unlucky to have two in the same class, and even if you choose a really uncommon name there is a chance yoy'll have another one move in next door. - so just call your child a name you like and forget about the popularity or otherwise.

One of my best friends is a John. He has always had to have his last name appended to his first to distinguish him from the many other Johns at work, school and college.

He's from Guildford.

I have just visited another parenting website with a babynaming section - and, interestingly (well, I thought so) there is a section for the top names in your region. This could be helpful - am I allowed to tell you which one it is on here?

And pretty much all the men on my mother's side of the family are/were called John or some derivative of it. I've only met one small child recently called John.

i have a son called jack born in 2002 and there is no other jacks in his year in school or where i live.

I don't know many Jacks either. None in any of my dcs classes.
Same with John I don't know anyone under the age of 40 called John.

I'd be interested to see the link LuluF.

I'll post it - but will the MNHQ be cross?

Yes, this thing about Jacks - there is only one in DSs Primary school

Lulu - I work in Cambridge and we do take the piss out of northerner's accents here and get them to say bath, grass etc.

I really didn't like being Sal B all the way through school and even now a close friend has trouble in expressing which Sal he is talking about to DH as his wife is now a Sal B, but I am not any more.

On the otherhand if you try to avoid a popular name from the 2009 list you will probably find yourself doing so along with lots of other parents and accidentally choose the same name which becomes 2010's most popular, so you can't win.

Yes - I agree Sal entirely with you last sentence. It's exactly what's happened. Turns out, it doesn't really matter all that much, does it? At last, it doesn't matter as much as I thought it did. You can spend ages picking a name, trying to find an underused name then find another in the same nursery!

Apart from University, I don't think I met all that many Northerners in Cambridge. maybe one or two where I worked - can honestly say, though, I never tried to make them say anything. But it'd would have probably been against company policy or something (it was CUP!).