Why do some of us want names that are not popular?

[AimeeM]

I think it all boils down to 'each to their own' if we all liked or wanted the same names then the world would be a very dull place!

I love hearing what people choose to call their children and their reasons why.

 

[polo_princess]

Honestly, i just dont want my child to have the same name as everyone else, i think it looses some of its "magic" iykwim?

I know of one other little girl IRL called Brooke but she is 5, and when she was born and i heard her name i just fell in love with it and it was always a contender for me, it beat of some of the more popular choices with a big stick

I love Brooke and Meadow!

I only just noticed reading that that Brooke and Meadow actually got together quite well

A little stream and a a meadow, thats so cute

 

[didda]

I am primary school teacher and wanted a name of someone I hadn't taught! I thought I had picked something a bit different (Lucas), and I hadn't met any others, but now there seem to be hundreds of them!!! To be honest, I am a little bit disappointed as I think he'll end up in a class with about 5 others!!! Oh well!

 

[amylw1]

i hated the fact my name was soooo popular - amy-louise. and said my kids would have uncommon names.

when i was young i had a boy doll and it was called jarred (no idea where it came from, as wasnt old enough to watch neighbours etc and mum doesnt recall a boy of it at plasyschool). i alwasy said if i had a son that would be his name - my eldest is jarred lee.

my lil man is mackenzie tyler, again not too unusual but not common and this 1 is blake ethan - again not common or too unusual.

 

[princess_bump]

i wanted my princess to have a name that was quite classic and i always thought madeleine was quite a classic name, we actually changed the spelling as me and james wanted to put a modern twist on it!

 

[x-amy-x]

My name is Amy Louise... Wouldnt want to be called anything else

It doesn't bother me how popular a name is, if i like it, then that's the name i'll pick!

 

[Mervs Mum]

I chose Emily when I was about 18 and had a dear friend by that name. It just always stuck with me. Hebe was a girl who Emily has gone through school with and I loved her name from the moment I heard it. One popular, one not so. Both just names I loved.....OH didnt get a look in!

 

[sarah1989]

All throughout school, I had atleast 2 or more Sarah's in my class. I always used to say to my Mum, why did you pick such a popular name, and her response was "I picked it growing up and it wasn't popular, not my fault people copied me". My FH and I went through the stats for currently popular names and didn't chose any of those. I do not want our kids to go through what I did lol. FH and I both have very popular names for our birth year, I was ranked 5th, and FH was 9th.

We have chosen: Myla, Avery, Cameron and Marc for possible children's names

 

[nataliecn]

I wouldn't want my best friend to turn around and name her baby Grady. I'd actually be really pissed off.

But I chose Grady because obviously I loved it, and as Tasha said, I didn't want to give him a name that there are multiple people with the same name, and we were always in the same classes!

 

[Rebaby]

If i truly loved a name the fact it was quite popular wouldn't stop me calling my LO that name, but i do think it puts me off a little.

I work on a neonatal unit and we see a lot of babies with the same name coming in around the same time, and i think to myself "wow, there will be a lot of x/y/z's" in this year group at school!!!! Then a baby will be admitted with a more unusual name and it makes me take notice, and i'll normally ask the parents "what inspired you to call them that?"

I wouldn't want a totally wacky name for my child, but i do want something which reflects my OH and i, and what we want for our child (if that makes any sense)

It is making picking a name a bit of a nightmare though as it becomes the quest for the 'perfect' name that is unusual but not stupidly so, and goes with the middle name and surname and everyone will be able to pronounce and will please both families...etc etc etc!

 

[jenstar]

I feel like nowadays though everyone is trying to have a not so normal name, so there won't be a million kids with the name Amy or Daniel in the class.

Thanks everyone for answering!

Totally agree!

Also I'm a different generation to my child; the names that were common when I was at school have mostly gone out of fashion now so although I think of Sarah Rachel Amy as common they're probably not any more...

 

[3 girlies]

my twin chose the name Reese & i love it, she WAS the only Reese until someone in my village called her daughter Reese too. I dont know any other Roxies though. I wouldnt be offended if someone i didnt know chose the same names but if they are in my circle of friends then id be annoyed!!

 

[verona]

i grew up with an unusual name, Verona, and to this day ive still not met another person with my name, When i was younger i hated it! dont mind now though, I sort of went midway with Joel, i didnt want anything too unusal, but i wanted a name that no everyone had for him
x

 

[xxleannexx]

when i was picking a name i didnt do it by whether it was popular or not i was looking for a pretty name and i thought summer was, tbh i think there is so many names out there now that the chances of kids having the name in their class is becoming more rare, prob got just as much chance of there being 2 amy's as there would be of 2 apples's for example.

 

[jessthemess]

It's a big factor for me in future name picking! Just because my name is so popular. My brother's isn't. And I grew up thinking it was so much cooler. Even though he begged us all to call him John! Haha. I think its just a personal choice.

 

[Mummy2B21]

Qhy wouls you want tour child to have the same name as everyone else, I think its important to encourage uniqueness.

 

[Skyy82]

My next door neighbours children are called Finnlay and Byron and when we were discussing names she said the same thing that she wanted something a bit different. I prefer the old fashioned names like henry, jessica and Charlotte. Her response was that my children would be the odd ones out when they are older as people are picking more unusual names these days and not names like mine. I'd never thought of it like that but it doesn't bother me.

My names Rebecca and during School times there was only ever another 2 at the same school, all in different classes so didn't have to worry about being rebecca P or rebecca L. but since leaving school I have only ever worked with 1 (14 years ago) so I'm not fussed if our little one ends up with a name that during school time has a few of the same name as to me when they end up going to universitys and jobs things usually change by then as you work with a variety of ages of people i.e mixing up the popular/classic/different names.

As a kid growing up I loved and still love the fact that during my child years my name was the most popular on the list of names for a few years and felt quite proud of that

 

[Lilicat]

Both my son's name and brother due in January's names are popular, both top ten I think (William and Thomas).

Aside from the main criteria of loving the name I wanted them to have something that was -

• Easy to live with
  
• Sounds professional when they are old enough to apply for jobs
  
• Easy to spell (dyslexia runs in the family)
  
• Isn't likely to sound dated, both names have been around for ages and most likely will be around for ages. You wont be able to guess how old they are by their names.
  
• Isn't going to be embarrassing, I knew a guy called Merlin when I was younger. He said his name was hard to live with as a teenager.
  
• Would be something they could make their own, some names imply certain types of personalities to me and I wanted something they could put their own stamp on to.
  
• Something that would sound just as good on a little boy as it would on an adult man.

Popularity didn't really come in to it as the other criteria were so much more important. No matter how many other children there are called William and Thomas that doesn't make my William and Thomas any less special or unique.

 

[Bevziibubble]

My name is Beverley, which isn't very common these days. I shorten it to Bev and I'm the only Bev I know. My parents said that they wanted an unusual name. I was so excited when I got talking to another Beverley on holiday once when I was about six!

 

[JenX]

As a Jennifer who was never in a single class without at least one other Jennifer in it, I refuse to give my child a popular name. I hated that I felt like just one of many rather than an individual. In high school I was on a soccer team with nine Jennifers. Talk about chaos!