For those of you with common names... ** UPDATE - he's here! still choosing, help pls

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I rarely meet anyone with my name and my name was not popular at my time of birth, and I LOVED that in school. I loved not having my last initial after my name because there were 4 other people with my first name, I loved telling stories about my name and how I got it and things...I'm still pretty fond of it. Tale from the flip side! My name is Maxine and I'm 27
 
I have to say I hated having a common name. I always wished for something more unique but I was a weird kid lol. I think it depends on the kids personality. DH has a common name and it's the same as his dad and he didn't mind it at all. That being said, I dislike trendy common names but I like classic common names. Having a trendy common name, like mine, means people generally know your approximate age just by your name. A classic common name, like DH's, is a lot more lovely I think. There's less likely to be someone with that exact name in your class but there could be one in each class for the ten years before and after you. I think Alexander definitely falls into the category of classic common name. It's easy to pronounce and people have heard of it but there won't necessarily be 3 other Alex's in his class.
 
Both of mine have common names, and I am really happy they do.

1) everyone can spell and pronounce their names
2) older people always say "thank god your kids have normal names!"
3) there are NOT a ton of kids with the same names everywhere we go, despite people telling me there would be. There hasn't been another Thomas at Thomas's preschool for over a year. There aren't any Sophies there either

My name is Michelle and I grew up knowing lots of other Michelles in the 80's and 90's. I LOVED IT! My best friends were two other Michelles when I was 10-15 years old and we felt like we were in this special club.
 
My sister's name is Sarah. Her name was very popular at the time (her birthday was 1979) and I think she resented being one of two or more Sarahs in her class at school etc.

She has gone on to give her sons quite unique names, and I wonder if that is so they could avoid the same annoyance.

We gave our son what turned out to be a very popular name (top 10 I think for his birth year?) and didn't realise until afterwards :( So this time it's something we are hoping to avoid...
 
There was always another Rebecca around when I was a kid, I hated my name but not because I shared it and I could at least do a different nickname (Becky, beki, Becks, becca, bexy...) I was more annoyed that for some odd reason people called me Rachel from time to time!!
my Dh is Andrew, I know at least ten Andy's but he doesn't mind one bit that it's common. Especially with boys names there are some long lasting top names.
Alexander can be alex, Alec, so, zander, so they have a good choice.
 
My name is Chelsey, which wasn't really popular in my class, but became popular a few years later. Most that I know are about 4 or 5 years younger. Also my spelling is very uncommon. I have to always correct people from spelling it Chelsea. I really don't mind correcting the spelling because I usually get the "oh that's a different spelling" and it makes me feel different. I did always hate that I couldn't ever find anything in the store with my name on it, but my mom would get things monogrammed for me if I wanted my name on something (ie sports bags, jackets, keychains, pencils)
 
I'm on the opposite end of the scale, I have a very strange name. I hated it, not because it was strange but because I felt like it made people notice me, everyone knew who I was and I was very shy so I didnt enjoy the attention - I still don't. With my children I try to find a middle ground, something heard of but not over used. A lot of kids in my daughters class have to go by "Joe B and Joe C" which would really bother me. I think Alexander is a great name with lots of nickname potential so it would be easy to blend in or stand out depending on what he wanted to do. Most important thing is that you love the name :flower:
 
There were only two other girls in my entire school (of 1,000+) with my same name and it was always weird to me hearing my name being called to someone other than myself.

My son has a name that used to be very popular (to my generation anyways) but isn't used much down here anymore. At least I haven't heard it much.

My DD1 has a super common name (top 3) and although I know a few other girls sharing her name, it doesn't bother me. The reason I chose her name is very special to me and I knew I would have regretted it if I hadn't used it.

DD2 has a very uncommon name. I've never met another person with it.

FWIW- I love the name Alexander. While it's not incredibly unique, I can honestly say I do not *personally* know any kids with that name.
 
It's so hard to get it right with names. I was born in Germany to an Irish mother and German father.
My mam wanted to give me a simple name that my Irish relatives could pronounce. They chose "Anke" (pronounced "Anne-Keh" - Germanic form of Anne) thinking it would work on both countries. We came to Ireland when I was 7 and ever since I've been spelling my name and having it mispronounced. I actually don't really mind, but I'm surprised that such a simple name has people calling me Annika, Bianca, Anthea etc!
My eldest is called Alex. When naming him I didn't realise it was so popular. There is another Alex in his class, but I think my Alex doesn't mind at all. I like for boys to have relatively common names as I get the impression that's what they generally prefer themselves as they get older.
I personally feel girls can have more variation, and as they age many prefer a more unique name.
I gave my second son the name Erik. My husband is Scandinavian and the K in Erik goes better with our surname which also has Ks in it. I have not come across another yet here in Ireland- even with a C. He's a very unique child though so it suits him!
Our daughter is Freya which was not popular when I first fell in love with it years ago, but it's in the top 50 now, and I've come across one or two other toddlers already with her name. Even if it had been number 1, I still would have gone with it as it was just "my" girls name ;)
Hope you find some inspiration to help you make the right decision :)
 
I'm an Emma and I didn't mind having a common name really. It helps that I like the name Emma and I was (still am) very shy. If I had an uncommon name I would get more attention and I would have hated that. I liked that I blended in a bit. My children have familiar names that aren't overly popular. My DS is Evan & DD is Lyra.
 
My name is super common. I hated it as a child because there were so many Sarah's in my class.
But now as an adult I'm happy with it. No one gets it wrong and it suited me as a child and as an adult.
 
Another Sarah here! :wave:

Born late 70's so lots of other Sarah's at school. I remember one year there were 4 in my class and three of us were close friends. I was a bit of a wallflower at school- and still not the type to want to standout- so it didn't bother me at all. It was nice to feel very 'normal' actually. Also I was given one of the most popular middle names to go with it... Jane !

My mum had two miscarriages after my brother was born and spent 6 years trying for another baby. I know she longed for a daughter called Sarah so I can hardly complain that she named me that.

Hasn't put me off giving my children more popular names though. I have a Grace and an Evelyn (Evie). They are names I love and I didn't care where they were on any popularity list. I don't regret choosing them for a second.
 
My name (Lesley) is not unusual but i was the only one in my year at school. There was another Lesley a few years older than me though. I rarely come across another Lesley but when i went to a pregnancy yoga class there was another 2 Lesleys and there is now another Lesley at work so at almost 39 years old i am Lesley M! It doesn't bother me at all though!

My little boys name is Istafa which is very unusual for here, he was the only one born in Scotland in 2014 and there was none the year before. His dad is muslim so we had to pick a suitable muslim name and Istafa was the only one we could agree on. Everyone says it wrong though which is really annoying, I wish now that we had spelt it Istifa. I hope he doesn't get too bugged by it when he's older!
 
I'm a Kelly - born in 1980 and UK - always Kelly 2, Kelly R etc and have been since infant school. I always hated not having an original name until I was told I was named Kelly after the original Charlie's angel - which I then and now still think is pretty cool.

I'm the only Kelly in my friendship group of over 15y and there's 10 of us so it's not that bad but yes in a class of 30 - there was always me and another!
 
My name is Demi and at the time I was born (1995), according to the England and Wales baby name data, it was number 79. However, it had never been popular before here, or after really. It was kind of a one hit wonder name :haha:

https://names.darkgreener.com/#demi

Personally, I didn't mind the name as a child as I was the only one in my school and also because I am technically Demi-Mae. However as I grew up and went to high school there were two more Demis in my year, out of about 500 people, and both of these girls came from rough backgrounds. Since then the name has been tainted for me.

I think if I could have chosen my own name, I would rather have been given a classic, timeless name rather than just one that reflected the popularity of the time, e.g. Isabelle rather than Isla today.

But that's just me, I'll stop waffling :)
 
My name is Naomi born in 1990 uk

Was always the only one in school and used to hate the fact I could never buy novelties in my name but I've always loved my name :)
 
My name is uncommon. I was born in 1992 and named Janet, an extremely old fashioned name for the time. I actually would have preferred a popular name, at the time probably being Amy, Jennifer, Sophie or Holly etc because I was the kind who always wanted to fit in and not stand out and I was always pulled up for my name being old and uncommon.
 
I can't lie, I hated it! I had to go through the whole of school being referred to by my full name at all times just because there were 7 Sophie's in my year alone!!!
 
My name isn't extremely common but it isn't unusual/rare either. My last name is extremely common...which was pretty fun when teachers got roll sheets with only our last names.

Never had a problem "sharing" my name.
 
As far as Alexander goes....

I grew up with a bunch of them (including Alexandrias.) Three of them go by Alex, one by Xander, one by Lexi, and the other by Lexas.

One of my old coworker's sisters went by Xani. I didn't know her personally though.

Plenty of nicknames for Alexander :)
 
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