all the kids in my child's daycare/preschool/kindergarten are named...

Anonymous
Mildred (grandmother), Irma (great aunt) and Julius (great uncle).

Yep, I know several young boys named Julius as well!

Anonymous
Oh well. It was number 383 when I named my son Julius, not that it is much higher ranked now.
Anonymous
I also watched SSA site- and somehow or apparently DS's name is up and coming- but it's a classic- so I guess I don't feel as bad- but for DD- a friend whose daughter is named Emma and is now in 4th grade has like 3 or 4 other Emmas in the classroom- so they call her by her middle name too (like Emma Grace) to distinguish them- I think it's harder for females than males with similar names- down the road, males call each other by their last names or nicknames- but females are more stuck.. that is my impression.. anyway, I agree w/ a PP who said if you watch the top 10 names (at least) that you may want to consider the consequence of a common name (at this time- trends change). I also agree that trendy names like mackensie or dylan - well, i;d rather stick to a classic name.. just my opinion of course!
Anonymous
totally random thought, but this thread has me trying to name a future not-even-close-to-being-conceived son using babynames.com search tool...

I was in a fast food restaurant while visiting my parents 8 hours from home, and noticed the kid at the counter was named "Keaton" I kinda dug it...do you know any kids with this name?

All I could think was that the kid's parents really liked Family Ties, which is fine by me because it is one of MY all times faves! Too bad it doesn't work with our last name (also ending in -on)

I also can't get the name of one of my favorite TV characters from a more recent show by my husband and it honestly is the ONLY name I liked for boys! I am at a complete loss - thank goodness I am startng early on this!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Also knew a Sabine growing up. Her parents were German. A very pretty girl. Hope your three weeks fly by and enjoy your daughter.


Thank you! My mother in law is actually from Germany, and she was thrilled when we shared the name. We had no idea it was popular in her home country when we chose it. We are happy that she is happy, and apparently there are some Sabines way back in her family.
Anonymous
I'll be the odd-woman-out I guess .... My name was extremely common in the decade I was born (60s). Think Lisa, Michelle, Ch/Kristine, K/Cathy, Debbie, Julie. I believe in my 2nd or 3rd grade class there were 4 of us, out of 13 or so girls, with the same name.

And I'd like to report that it was no big deal. I didn't feel un-special. Frankly, nobody cared. I don't feel un-special today.

Anonymous
I'll be the odd-woman-out I guess .... My name was extremely common in the decade I was born (60s). Think Lisa, Michelle, Ch/Kristine, K/Cathy, Debbie, Julie. I believe in my 2nd or 3rd grade class there were 4 of us, out of 13 or so girls, with the same name.

And I'd like to report that it was no big deal. I didn't feel un-special. Frankly, nobody cared. I don't feel un-special today.


Some people love it, some hate it. Everyone is entitled to their own feelings and opinions on the subject, right? I hated having a common name, my hubby couldn't have cared less (his name is also quite common) and thinks I am a bit nutty in my obsession to find a less commonly used name for our kids. But I came ridiculously close to getting my name legally changed to my middle name because of it, so it is very personal for me. Did I feel un-special? No, but having to go through school saying "which one?" or going by my last name was annoying to me. As I have gotten older, I have grown to like my name and appreciate the reasons why it was picked for me, but it took a LONG time. I was hoping to avoid this for my kids...but, again, I am well aware that they could go the opposite direction and think having a name that isn't easily found on cheesy keychains is horrific.

Naming our children is such a huge responsibility and we all want to do the right thing, but inevitably, someone somewhere isn't going to like the choice. Be it family, friends, your own kid...someone is going to say you screwed it all up, why didn' you name them something else, etc, etc.

Shoot, my mother would call allmost daily when I was pregnant with some new suggestion for a name and I just wanted to tell her "You had your chance to name kids...this is MY decision!"

ACK - you really can't win!
Anonymous
I would like to start a new movement whereby expecting parents do NOT share their prospective name choices with ANYONE until after the baby is born and the ink has dried on the certificate. it's done!! the parents have spoken!! let it be. and that being said, when i was pregnant with my son, my husband and i kept our name choice to ourselves. it turned out to be a good pick (very old school), but i would not have wanted anyone else's opinion. plus, it was fun to keep people guessing (we didn't know the sex of the baby either).
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

I was in a fast food restaurant while visiting my parents 8 hours from home, and noticed the kid at the counter was named "Keaton" I kinda dug it...do you know any kids with this name?


I used to babysit a boy in the early 90s with the name Keaton. He was named after Buster Keaton. I've seen a couple since then, but not many. I really like it.
Anonymous
I know a Keaton in this area. He's about 5 years old.
Anonymous
I like this idea from the PP:

I would like to start a new movement whereby expecting parents do NOT share their prospective name choices with ANYONE until after the baby is born and the ink has dried on the certificate. it's done!! the parents have spoken!! l"

My mom had me in tears when I was pregnant and told her our first idea for a girl's name (she didn't like it and made it very clear). We ended up choosing a name that everyone agreed on (it's a way too popular name but none of my friend's or family's kids had the name).

I have a slight variation of a very common 70s name and always found it annoying when I couldn't find the mug or the key chain, etc. with my name. My college roommate and two floor mates had similar names- we thought it was great when we all went out together- made us all memorable.
Anonymous
I like this idea from the PP:

I would like to start a new movement whereby expecting parents do NOT share their prospective name choices with ANYONE until after the baby is born and the ink has dried on the certificate. it's done!! the parents have spoken!! l"

My mom had me in tears when I was pregnant and told her our first idea for a girl's name (she didn't like it and made it very clear).


I totally agree with not sharing your name choices until it is on the birth certificate - I don't think I will ever forgive my mother for nearly ruining our big moment when she made it clear she was NOT thrilled with the name we eventually did choose. I decided not to share BEFORE we even tried to get pregnant after my mother made faces at every one of the names we liked at the time. We had gone through the whole pregnancy not sharing names (OK, I shared with a select few, but only people I knew wouldn't blab it or make fun of any of our names) and right after our daughter was born and we still had 2 top contenders, we hinted at the one we did choose the next morning and she actually said "I sure hope it's NOT..." I could have smacked her! However, my mother now LOVES the name and is so proud to share it with others.

Since we knew the gender, not sharing name choices was the last big mystery and it was fun to have a list and pick the one that fit her after seeing her. We had everyone trying to guess what names were on our list and it was driving people a little crazy.

Everyone has an opinion before the baby is born - once the ink is dry, only the tactless will say anything nasty. I dislike one of my cousin's names, but I NEVER would say so out loud, especially not to my aunt.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I also watched SSA site- and somehow or apparently DS's name is up and coming- but it's a classic- so I guess I don't feel as bad- but for DD- a friend whose daughter is named Emma and is now in 4th grade has like 3 or 4 other Emmas in the classroom- so they call her by her middle name too (like Emma Grace) to distinguish them- I think it's harder for females than males with similar names- down the road, males call each other by their last names or nicknames- but females are more stuck.. that is my impression.. anyway, I agree w/ a PP who said if you watch the top 10 names (at least) that you may want to consider the consequence of a common name (at this time- trends change). I also agree that trendy names like mackensie or dylan - well, i;d rather stick to a classic name.. just my opinion of course!


Okay - I have to express my annoyance. I know there are some people that truly picked a name and didn't realize there would be 4 or 5 other kids with the same name, or somehow managed to amazingly pick Hannah which was their great-grandmothers name and of course has special meaning over the Mildred, Irma, Bertha, Sarah Jane, Nellie etc. that were the names of the other great-grandmothers, grandmothers, parents etc. between the father and mother - but please just admit that you picked trendy in it's own way instead of making it a "oh I just love the classic names they so aren't trendy even though half the parents in the class had the same idea" Is that not the definition of a trend? It's like the person that thinks they are low maintenance and really aren't and points out high maintenance another person is. Just own it please. There's trendy modern as in no one had these names 20 years ago and trendy old-fashioned as in people had these name 40 years ago and now they are making a comeback. Okay, off that soapbox.

I'm with the other posters that did not disclose the name until the baby was born. We had a list of names and down to the top two and the first time anyone heard the name was when they got the call that the baby was born. No one even got list of contenders. My MIL was a little miffed but I think it did work out better that everyone learned about the name the same time the baby was born. We wanted to look at the baby and decide. I have to be honest there was a bit of superstition why I didn't want to pick a name ahead of time. I also think I had a little more pull with my favorite name after so many hours of labor Anyway, I've posted earlier with a list of popular names. I was convinced we picked a somewhat unusual though trendy name and to date we haven't met any other girls with the names EXCEPT at a Saturday my gym type class there were two sisters - one had the same name as my oldest dd and the other had the name I really liked but my husband said no - but the name was pretty similar to what we picked for our second. So it seems we read the same names book and had the same idea. But even more bizarre, the husband had the same name as my husband. It was like a scene from the twilight zone. If the wife had the same name as me I think I would have passed out - especially since my name is very uncommon. I thought about keeping up but it seemed weird to me pick a name that most people didn't have then hang out with a set of sisters with the same names as my daughters.
Anonymous
With my first, we didn't know the gender. We shared the names. The second time we knew the gender, but wouldn't tell. We shared the names we picked out though.

I didn't use Veronica Charlotte or Jackson Paul. I can't tell you how relieved I am that we didn't have a Jack. We ditched it as a name when Monica and Chandler (on Friends) named one of their twins Jack, all I could think is how popular Emma became after another child from that show was given that name.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I also watched SSA site- and somehow or apparently DS's name is up and coming- but it's a classic- so I guess I don't feel as bad- but for DD- a friend whose daughter is named Emma and is now in 4th grade has like 3 or 4 other Emmas in the classroom- so they call her by her middle name too (like Emma Grace) to distinguish them- I think it's harder for females than males with similar names- down the road, males call each other by their last names or nicknames- but females are more stuck.. that is my impression.. anyway, I agree w/ a PP who said if you watch the top 10 names (at least) that you may want to consider the consequence of a common name (at this time- trends change). I also agree that trendy names like mackensie or dylan - well, i;d rather stick to a classic name.. just my opinion of course!


Okay - I have to express my annoyance. I know there are some people that truly picked a name and didn't realize there would be 4 or 5 other kids with the same name, or somehow managed to amazingly pick Hannah which was their great-grandmothers name and of course has special meaning over the Mildred, Irma, Bertha, Sarah Jane, Nellie etc. that were the names of the other great-grandmothers, grandmothers, parents etc. between the father and mother - but please just admit that you picked trendy in it's own way instead of making it a "oh I just love the classic names they so aren't trendy even though half the parents in the class had the same idea" Is that not the definition of a trend? It's like the person that thinks they are low maintenance and really aren't and points out high maintenance another person is. Just own it please. There's trendy modern as in no one had these names 20 years ago and trendy old-fashioned as in people had these name 40 years ago and now they are making a comeback. Okay, off that soapbox.

Actually my daughter is named after my husband's mother. The name is mentioned in this thread numerous times. I liked it and no I did not realize that it was "trendy modern" or "trendy old-fashioned". So I'm supposed to admit to picking trendy and own it? What does that even mean? Why do you have your panties in a wad about my reasons for picking anything?
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