Would You Use a Top 5 Popular Baby Name?

[Anonymous]

Top 5? No. Top 10? No.

My son’s name was #19 the year he was born and I was bummed about that, but my husband and I really struggled to agree on a name and we both really liked it, so we went with it.

He’s starting PK3 this year. 32 kids total in the grade at school (2 classes). There’s another kid with his name, and I’m irrationally so mad about it. At least they put them in different classes. Still. Grrr.

Pick a different name.

[Anonymous]

Only if the last name is not too common.

[Anonymous]

My son was a top 5 name the year he was born. I’ve met 3 others in any form in the 9 years he’s been alive. 1 is 3 grades ahead of him at his school, 1 was on his soccer team one year, and one was on vacation at the beach with us and the kids started playing then realized they had the same name.

It has literally never been an issue.

If you like the name, use it. Especially if it’s a name that lends itself to nicknames. Charlotte or Amelia can have oodles of derivatives, so your Mia won’t get confused if she runs across a Mely or a Lia.

[Anonymous]

If it would bother you to encounter other kids with that name, I would try to find another name you both like.

However, I would also work on accepting that there is a balance to be struck between finding a name you like and finding an original name. Even if you find a less popular name you like, others in your community and social set may choose it because it appeals to them for the same reasons it appeals to you. So it could be ranked in the 500s and you might still run into others with it. At some point you have to let go of the idea of your kid's name being the thing that distinguishes them.

But I still might look outside at least the top 20.

[Anonymous]

This is so hyper localized. Is there a way to check top 5 by zip code? I can guarantee Kathleen hasn’t been in the top 10 in many many years, but I had 3 of them in my class the past 2 years, yet no Isabella or Charlotte.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so hyper localized. Is there a way to check top 5 by zip code? I can guarantee Kathleen hasn’t been in the top 10 in many many years, but I had 3 of them in my class the past 2 years, yet no Isabella or Charlotte.

It's true. My kid has a top 20 name and we've only ever met one kid with the same name and it was on a playground years ago and we never saw them again. My best friend gave her kid a name that wasn't even in the top 1000 at the time and even now is in the 800s, and there are 3 kids with the name in her kid's preschool. I think she caught a hyperlocal trend whereas we benefit from the fact that so many people in this area won't use a name deemed too popular.

[Anonymous]

As someone with an Isabella who has to negotiate with whatever other Isabella is in each of her classes each year what each one will be called, definitely not. I’m so angry at myself for letting her father pick her name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I normally tend to avoid popular names. Two of my kids have names outside of top 100 (105th and 160th the years they were born). My last kid's name is the most popular name of all time. I don't care because they were name after somebody special to my heart.

The point is don't let popularity deters you from naming your kid, if you really like it.
My non-popular named daughter keeps complaining about not finding anything in her name at the souvenir shop when we travel.

This was me. All I wanted growing up was one of those tiny license plates with my name on it. -Nina

[Anonymous]

Sure! I'm a Jennifer (born 1969) who loved having Jennifers in class. All four of my kids have ordinary/popular names that DH and I happen to love. E.g., we have an Emily, a Katie, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 1970. My name was the most popular name from, I think, 1970 - 1984. There were at least 2 of us in each class. I hated it.

But "top 5" is different from that situation, if the name is #5 or even #3 or #4 (if that makes sense).

Hi Jennifer!

OP- I tried giving my daughter a unique but classic name. She was born abroad and I knew no one with this name. I didn't think to check "most popular names" or anything like that. The name I gave her can work in pretty much any country with a Christian population. I moved home and there are tons of girls with this name with a slightly different spelling. So for my second I named her something I just loved. It was maybe #2 at the time. Neither girl has had a repeat of their name in class or in school. It's a small private school and a good chunk of the class has ethnic names from different countries, so that helps.

So for my genX these are equivalent names to Sarah, Jennifer, Heather, Anna, Lauren, etc.

[Anonymous]

We ended up not choosing a name I loved since I was a little girl (and still love) but our last name is very common (let’s say Smith).

When our 10 yr old was born (Sibley) she was early and we still had three names we were considering. The name I loved was Abigail. I don’t know how highly ranked it was in 2012, but at about 24 hours postpartum the nurse asked what we were thinking and, when I named the 3 names, she said “oh, I absolutely LOVe the name Abigail, we had five Abigails born here yesterday! She could be the 6th!” We picked the other two names we liked as first and middle. I love her name, which was ranked about 120 or so at the time, but I think in 10 years I’ve met 2-3 other children with her name AND that’s about how many Abigails / Abby / Gails I’ve met her age too.

The name we chose was “botanical” (think Lily, Rose, Iris, Laurel…) and I read once in 2013 that botanical names spiked in popularity in 2012. So we tried avoiding the popular name, but ended up being part of a trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a teen aged Noah.

When younger, met a few others and they thought it was cool that their name was so popular.

Now, doesn't think about it at all.

I have a teenaged Noah as well. He’s never been in a class or on a team with another Noah.

My other kids have top 5/10 names as well, and it’s never been an issue.

The reality is most people avoid popular names and random names end up being popular/repeated. Think: zero Isabellas or Emmas, but multiple Coras and Maeves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We ended up not choosing a name I loved since I was a little girl (and still love) but our last name is very common (let’s say Smith).

When our 10 yr old was born (Sibley) she was early and we still had three names we were considering. The name I loved was Abigail. I don’t know how highly ranked it was in 2012, but at about 24 hours postpartum the nurse asked what we were thinking and, when I named the 3 names, she said “oh, I absolutely LOVe the name Abigail, we had five Abigails born here yesterday! She could be the 6th!” We picked the other two names we liked as first and middle. I love her name, which was ranked about 120 or so at the time, but I think in 10 years I’ve met 2-3 other children with her name AND that’s about how many Abigails / Abby / Gails I’ve met her age too.

The name we chose was “botanical” (think Lily, Rose, Iris, Laurel…) and I read once in 2013 that botanical names spiked in popularity in 2012. So we tried avoiding the popular name, but ended up being part of a trend.

This is true. It's not uncommon for names to make big jumps over a year or two. You can pick a name in the 300s and it will be top 80 by the time your kid is 2. Or you can pick one ranked 93 and it will be 30 in the same time.

You can also pick a name ranked much lower on the national list only to discover that it's in the top 100 in your state, and as others have noted, there are hyper-local trends. If you live in the DC-area, picking a name ranked low on the list can be little guarantee because of how international and diverse this area is. On the one hand, this means that there is a broader variety of names used here than you might find in a more homogenous metro area. On the other hand, this means that names that would seem very unique in other parts of the country can be more commonplace here. For instance, here are some names ranked in the top 100 in DC that are well outside it on the national list:

Zara
Amara
Frances
Noa

An extremely popular trend in this area is names that are easily pronounced in multiple languages, reflecting how many people here were born or have lived abroad, or have family abroad. So you see lots of names like Zara/Amara/Noa as well as the more universally popular Mia and Ava.

The point is, you can try to game the popularity game but it's more complex than just choosing a name ranked very low on the national list. Unless you are going super deep in the top 1000, or off the list altogether (and even then, you never know!).

[Anonymous]

We are using one of the top 5 boys names, for kid #3 who is expected to arrive in a few weeks. My older two have names that are in the top 100, but don't seem to be popular these days.

[Anonymous]

Before I had my kid, I’d have said no way, but I gave her a name I loved in the 400s, and she had another one in her grade last year and one more in her summer camp. Meanwhile she’s never been in a class with an Emma, Olivia, or Sophia. So you never know when you’ll inadvertently hit on a micro-trend and might as well just use a name you like.