Name popularity question: similar/related names

[Anonymous]

I have an elementary school Eve and this has not been an issue at all. I still love the name and our choice - go for it, OP.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. In my 16-year career, I have never taught an Eve or anyone who uses that as a nickname. I have taught kids with similar names, though. Currently I have an Evelyn and an Evie, and I have had numerous girls named Eva and Ava (with every possible pronunciation) over the years. The thing is, some years there are lots of kids with similar names, and some years there aren’t any. Yeah, there was the year of the 5 Jacks (a pretty common name), but then the next year I didn’t have any Jacks. But right now I have 2 students named Rhys, which isn’t a common name at all. One of my own children has a top-10 name, and we don’t know any kids with that name. So it all comes down to chance. The only way to guarantee that your kid will not have the same name as someone else is to give them something totally out there with a creative spelling, but that comes with its own problems. Personally, I think the important thing is to pick something you like that most people will know how to pronounce. You have that with Eve. So go with that and don’t worry about whether it is the most unique name ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a terrible name. If she’s at all a tomboy or lesbian she’ll get called Steve, if she’s unpopular she’ll get called Leave, and it leaves zero room for any variation. As someone with a name like that it stinks. I have a short, stumpy ugly name too. Always hated it.

I hope this is sarcasm. It made me laugh.

1. I know two girls named Stevie
2. Obviously you found room for variation with Steve and Leave

OP it's a great name; classic and beautiful. Go for it.

[Anonymous]

The thing about random assignment is that it's random.

My daughter is a Zoe, so one of those names where you have to watch for Zoeys. The only time she's ever encountered another Zoe(y) was in her dance class. At school, none, in any grade and there never have been (smallish daycare/private school with maybe 300 kids). We've encountered more adults with the name than kids, which is weird.

A friend has a Beatrice, and there have been dupes for that name in our school. My son was in a class with 3 Benjamins, my daughter is in a class with 2 Emmetts, and there were 2 Vivians for a while. A few Santinos. None of these are names that you'd necessarily think of as weird or rare, but none are names you'd expect to see duplicated in a class of 20 kids (except maybe Benjamin).

As a kid with an extremely popular 80s name, I honestly didn't and don't care that there are others who share my name, but I know people do.

In any case, to your question, yes -- when picking my daughters name, I knew it would be popular and I factored in how much more popular it would be when you count all the Zoeys as well. And Eve is a nice name and I don't think I've *ever* met an Eve, so... there's one piece of anecdata for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a terrible name. If she’s at all a tomboy or lesbian she’ll get called Steve, if she’s unpopular she’ll get called Leave, and it leaves zero room for any variation. As someone with a name like that it stinks. I have a short, stumpy ugly name too. Always hated it.

I hope this is sarcasm. It made me laugh.

1. I know two girls named Stevie
2. Obviously you found room for variation with Steve and Leave

OP it's a great name; classic and beautiful. Go for it.

I also grew up with a girl named Stevie. It's a horrible name. She thought so too, and against her parents wishes had everyone call her by her hebrew name, which they refused to do.

[Anonymous]

My kid has a name with a slightly more popular variation with shared nicknames. He also uses the less popular variation of the nickname. It has never been an issue. A name that is immediately recognizable, easy to pronounce and spell yet not ubiquitous is a great gift to a child. FWIW I have one of those super popular names for my age group with a million spelling variations (think Caitlyn) and ithe variations never bothered me, just how not unique my name was!!

[Anonymous]

New parents are just precious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you're overthinking it and you should use Eve. It's a lovely name, and not over used.

Yes, Evelyn is popular right now, but I don't think people shorten Evelyn to Eve, because they're different vowel sounds. Same with Evangeline (which isn't very popular to begin with.)

Naming is so much more varied now than when we were kids. Even names in the top 10 aren't repeated as often as you'd think.

I know three young Evelyns who go by Evie, so they do. But they are all in late elementary school. Evelyn was very popular for a while but I don't know if it still is.

[Anonymous]

I like the name for the same reasons you do! Easy to spell, easy to say, not too popular. I wouldn't worry about the similar names being an issue.

My son has a name that is easy to say and spell as well but isnt one that was super common, I want to say it might have been 200 when he was born. In his class this year there is another one! For the first time ever! We've never met another on a sports team or even that I know of in other classes until now. He is 10. It bothers
me more than I expected it to, I think he and this boy
are the only duplicates and while it's not a rare name, I
was really happy until now that it was his and no one elses in our circle! So you just can't tell what youe surroundings will give you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like the name for the same reasons you do! Easy to spell, easy to say, not too popular. I wouldn't worry about the similar names being an issue.

My son has a name that is easy to say and spell as well but isnt one that was super common, I want to say it might have been 200 when he was born. In his class this year there is another one! For the first time ever! We've never met another on a sports team or even that I know of in other classes until now. He is 10. It bothers
me more than I expected it to, I think he and this boy
are the only duplicates and while it's not a rare name, I
was really happy until now that it was his and no one elses in our circle! So you just can't tell what youe surroundings will give you.

If you live in the dc metro area where parents perseverate over unique names, you are more likely to have duplicates of less popular names than to run into another kid with a top 10 or top 20 name.

Signed,

Mom of kids with classic top 10/20 names