Starting not to care about popularity....

[DJ79]

Before I was pregnant and early on, I was so intent on not having a popular name. I wanted something unusual but not 'out there'! I favoured traditional names. As we discuss names more and more I am realising I like what I like and my child's uniqueness will not be defined by his/her name. They will be the only person with that name in my world.... All very deep for so early on a Saturday morning but has anyone else's thoughts on this changed?

 

[george83]

I always say that I don't want a popular name, when I was at school I was one of 5 girls with the same name in my year and was always known by my name and my first initial which I hated. However when we had our second son we hardly agreed on any names and the name I really wanted was the same name that the baby's cousin has and that still didn't stop me using it. We've never had any contact with his cousin so it's not like they'd grow up together but completely goes against all my thinking

 

[Boo44]

I've never cared about popularity - names are popular because they're nice and lots of people like them!

 

[SarahBear]

Having a name that's too common is kind of annoying... But common names these days aren't as common names were a couple decades ago. More and more people are concerned with individuality which means that the number one name is no longer as big a fraction of the population as it used to be. That being said, I don't want my child's name to be ranked too highly.

 

[Buffyx]

I am really not fussed about popularity. If I love a name, I'll be using it no matter what.

 

[mummytobe_93]

I used to be so against having a popular or common name wih My first. I looked everywhere for an uncommon name I loved. I hated them all.

I honestly think common names are common dor a reason because they are nice! We ended up going for Ava which is like top 5 for popularity.

With this baby we are looking at ivy for a girl which isn't really popular but isn't uncommon and george for a boy which is really common.

I'm not bothwred if I love a name I'll go for it!

 

[Kiwiberry]

I have never really been in to popular names. I actually really like the unique "once in a lifetime" names.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I think when people try to have a unusual name,it stands out more when others have same. I have A Ruby and its never a big deal but at school there are 2clementines and that stands out lots!

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Some names people dont think are popular here,are really popular in my are!

 

[SarahBear]

Some names people dont think are popular here,are really popular in my are!

For those in the US, the social security website is a good resource for seeing how popular a name is. It breaks it down by year and you can break it down by state.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Im in UK

 

[mod19]

I'm not set on popularity either. If I wasn't so dead set on the name I've had picked for years I would have pushed for Isabella, which is super popular right now.

 

[Fezzle]

My brother and I both had the most popular names for our age group- he's Michael and I'm Jennifer (born in the mid/late-70s in the US). I don't think any popular names these days are as bad as Jennifer! I was on a soccer team once when I was younger and there were five of us Jennifers on the team. I went to an all female college and 10% of my graduating class was named Jennifer. I never minded having a popular name though. If anything, I think it helped us fit in when we changed schools a few times, and I had friends called Jennifer too which made it like a little club! Our personalities was what made us unique- being Jennifer F or Mike F didn't do anything to detract from that.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

Even the top names are not the same as the lindas etc of the 50s because there are MORE used names now.

 

[Fezzle]

My mom's name is Linda

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

😁