Names: do you choose popular or unusal?

[GillW]

Just wondered - how did you all choose your children's names? And did you take account of how popular that name was at the time when you made your choice?

I was reading yesterday that the list of popular names for 2002 has just been published, and that Jack has now been the most popular boys' name for the past eight years, and Chloe the top girls' name for the past six years.

Personally, knowing that, I'd avoid those names like the plague, because I'd hate my child to share a name with several classmates, but obviously that doesn't apply to a lot of people, hence their continuing popularity.

Now I can see some advantages in having a popular name, in that you'll always be able to buy personalised products, and most people will know how to spell it, but beyond that....?

Equally, would you choose a very unusual name?

Incidentally, if anyone's interested the lists for the last 5 years for England and Wales are here for boys , and for girls

For babies born in Scotland, they're here , and here for Northern Ireland .

[PamT]

In my year there were a few Tracys, Rachels, Julies, Karens and Joannes and boys were Mark, Richard, Paul. There were a couple of other Pamelas in the school so I wasn't totally exclusive (but still wasn't keen on it).

[PamT]

Remember Dirty Dancing? "Nobody puts Baby in a corner" I think that could quite well have started a trend for people to call their daughters Baby.

[breeze]

at school there was 5 lisa's in my maths class (me one of them).

[Crunchie]

Well my girls are slowly storming up the charts!! I picked Poppy and Daisy 6 years ago when we DH and I were discussing dogs names!! I wanted Hermione and Imogen as middle names, but went in favour of Maria and Imogen due to family.

My name has always been quite popular, always top 10, but I don't seem to meet that many.

[sb34]

Message withdrawn

[susanmt]

I want Antrim Zeezrom for a boy!! And Lurlene for a girl!

[WideWebWitch]

Oh no! My ds' name is a Utah mormon one!! It's not that weird, honest!

[bayleaf]

Enid - for me the not wanting a top 10 name was because I had a very popular name at school - my best friend had the same name and there were 2 others in the class - so 4 in all and I really would have preferred something just a little mroe exclusive!

[Jaybee]

Ds in the top 10 - although 9 years ago Samuel was only just becoming popular (always been a Sam though) - again dd's name (Amelia) seems to be mid table but again when she was born in 1996 people commented on it being different. Does anyone know whether you can get older lists?

[SoupDragon]

WWW, please tell me it's Quince! I can't help dipping onto that Utah list...

[Eulalia]

Both dh and I don't like shortened names so we deliberately set out to find names that couldn't be shortened. Quite hard as it turned out but we ended up with traditional names that aren't old fashioned or too popular. ds is in the 70s on the list and dd in the 20s (Scotland).

I am also a mid-60s child and my name doesn't appear at all on today's list but it is not any of the common ones of the time either. It is a bit old fashioned and I am not sure why it's hardly used. Would be interesting to find out if it ever was popular.

oxocube - I love Eleanor but dh wasn't that keen and yes I'd hate it to be shortened. Have you noticed how many girls names are shortened with a 'ee' sound at the end?

[Rhiannon]

Interesting that Thomas only makes 38th in the US and I couldn't find Jack at all.

Read a magazine last month and the daughter of the couple was called Lollipop (no joke). R

[jac34]

My twin boys names, come in at no3 and no19, in the English form.However, they have the Italian versions, Alessandro and Tomaso. We have an Italian surname to go with them, so they don't sound silly.We are quite happy to shorten their names, and they are mostly known as Al & Tom.
We decided that we loved the name Alessandro, but could not find another we liked, until one day we were talking to DH's godfather and DH comented on his name.We checked the name books and found that Tomaso, meant "Devoted Twin", so it seemed to fit.
However, we had no idea of the sex, until they were born, so we chose two girls names as well, they were Isabella & Lucia.

[Corbin]

LOL at the Utah baby names list! I was browsing the rest of the site and realized the whole thing is a joke against Mormons, lol! I just couldn't believe anyway that ANYONE would ever name their child "Justa Cowgirl"! Those site owners must really dislike Mormons to spend that much time and energy making fun of them!

I named my daughter Elizabeth, which I'm sure is quite high on the lists. She's named after my favorite aunt

[Bears]

Thanks to GillW for the link to all those names. I've been looking for English names lists for ages. I'm expecting in July & we're having trouble with boys names. Just printed out list & stuck under dh nose!

I'm also in agreement with those who pick names which aren't particularly popular, nor too unusual - altho' ds name appears nr bottom of the top 10 for the last 5 years at least!

[Tortington]

the utah list has made me want to have triplets. i would name them - chorine, thermos and
halla lujia.
i cant believe people have named their children those names?

[cazzybabs]

My mum had a child in her school named Tequila - may be something to do with the conception, and my friend has a grandaughter called Angel.
I think unusual names are nice, but what if they caused your child to get teased? We went for Isabelle - not that common, but not that unusual.

[janh]

In America unusual names are normal - our neighbours in NY 20 years ago included a boy named Erin (Irish parents of course) and a boy named Yair (Jewish).

Jaybee, I have a 9-yr-old Samuel (also Sam) too but there were 4 Sams in his year at school (one a girl), and 4 in the year above, and 4 in the year above that. Pretty common round here!

[Bozza]

I agree with SusanMT re diminutives and named DS with the formal version of his name - although even I only use it occasionally. I thought it was going down in popularity but find it is actually rising again.

I know a three year old and a one year old Jack and a two year old Chloe.

I'm younger than all you mid-60s babes (being born in the early 70s) and the popular names seemed to be Joanne, Michelle, Clare and of course we were of the Sharon/Tracy era.

[Claireandrich]

Bozza - I have to agree. I was born in 1973 and I am a Claire. Very common name it would seem. I seemed to always have one or more others in my class at school.

[dkdad]

Think yourselves lucky to have a choice! Here in Denmark, in common with a lot of Europe, you cannot name your child anything you like but have to choose from a list of approved names. So, no calling your daughter Ikea like one UK family that made the news here!

We had to battle with the authorities over our son's name (Storm) because it is not an approved Danish first name. We got it fairly easily in the end because I'm English so could claim it was a foreign name for a foreign parent but it was a very strange time to go through thinking that some sort of authority could over rule ýou as a parent in deciding the name of your child.

[elliott]

eulalia, your real name sounds a bit like mine (though I don't think I'd describe mine as old fashioned, so probably not the same). I don't have a thing about shortened versions per se (though mine can't be shortened) but I do have a thing about girls names ending in 'ee' (again doesn't apply to mine). We had great difficulties coming up with girls' names for that reason - fortunately unnecessarily as we had a ds!

Oh, and mid-60s was also prime Sharon/Tracey era at least in my area - not sure when they started to go so out of fashion!

[Rhiannon]

dkdad, that doesn't sound like a democracy. How on earth can you be dictated to about the name for your child? Do the Danes all accept this?

[ScummyMummy]

It's v common in Europe, Rhiannon. There was that row relatively recently in France when a family wanted to name their son "Saddam Hussein" and weren't allowed. I must say that I think such censorship has its place in cases like that... no objections to the name Storm at all, dkdad, but it must be very difficult to grow up in Europe with a name like "Saddam Hussein", "Adolf", or even "Arafat" as a little boy I met recently was called.

[GillW]

The legislation in France has been relaxed a lot now, so you can now choose your own names, within reason. However if the name is considered ridiculous, or not in the interest of the child it may not be allowed, and the courts can even impose a different name over and above the wishes of the parents.
There's a summary of the legislation (in French) here