Why are people in the DC area so weird about name popularity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it has anything to do with geography.

I know some people who prefer classic names, trendy names, uncommon names, and everything in between. It doesn’t seem to vary by social class/socioeconomic status that much either.

A lot of times parents who grew up either with super common names (or very uncommon names) didn’t love it, and go in the opposite direction. My DH is this way. He grew up with a very unusual first name and insisted on more common names for our own kids. His own name has grown on him over the years, but he gets tired of having to repeat himself, spell it out, etc. That said, he is almost 50yrs old and times have changed.

You dont think there's an aspect of DC culture marked by being snowflakey, competitive, fear of being basic?

Where in DC are people seeing this? I only see this type of thing on social media. I find it tends to be hipster-y parents who, as PP said, think they have something super unique and then end up as the third Milo in a class. I never cared about popularity and my kids have names that are more popular on older kids- so maybe that is trashy as I am finding out from here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up as a Jennifer/Jenny in the Midwest, and this was absolutely an important aspect of naming my children. I just wanted them to have more unique names.

I had 3 Jenny/Jennifer (s) in my class. Same with Heather, and Ashley. Meanwhile, my name was an old lady name, think Nancy, in the world of Jennifers. I named my first Amelia and my second John. Yep, I didn't want my kids to relive what I did, so they have classic names always in style.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it has anything to do with geography.

I know some people who prefer classic names, trendy names, uncommon names, and everything in between. It doesn’t seem to vary by social class/socioeconomic status that much either.

A lot of times parents who grew up either with super common names (or very uncommon names) didn’t love it, and go in the opposite direction. My DH is this way. He grew up with a very unusual first name and insisted on more common names for our own kids. His own name has grown on him over the years, but he gets tired of having to repeat himself, spell it out, etc. That said, he is almost 50yrs old and times have changed.

You dont think there's an aspect of DC culture marked by being snowflakey, competitive, fear of being basic?

Where in DC are people seeing this? I only see this type of thing on social media. I find it tends to be hipster-y parents who, as PP said, think they have something super unique and then end up as the third Milo in a class. I never cared about popularity and my kids have names that are more popular on older kids- so maybe that is trashy as I am finding out from here?

Yeah I've never heard this from a parent in this area. Doesn't seem that common to me at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that a lot of people think that trendy names are a negative class indicator, and that might be where this is coming from.

+1 there's also a "special snowflake" aspect to it. But I think they also don't get that a "popular" name now is not as popular as the top names of 30+ years ago. I have a Jacob and it did give me pause that it had been so popular for a long time. But, it's a family name and that was important to me. He's ended up generally having at most one other Jacob in his classes. Glad I didn't let popularity drive the choice.

I have a son whose name is probably in the same “common name category” (Luke). Nearly half of the boys in his preschool class shared his first name 🤣 (4 of 9 boys). Yet, in his middle school grade of 250ish kids there is only one other. Preschool was bizarre but otherwise it has been fine.

Christian preschool, public highschool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because when people decide to name their baby Milo or Arlo they feel good about what a unique idea they came up with, and know their heart will sink to realize that Milo is actually rising in popularity and they aren't unique at all.

Then there are the people who do super corny things, like my friend who had a very Basic 80's Girl Name who named her kids (not in the DMV so I'm not worried about her finding this) Parker, Piper and Peyton.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. I bet she gets that all the time. She did it to herself.

[Anonymous]

A completely different area of the country so I'm not really outing her, but my friend has twins named Pyper and Brystol. I judge, but silently, because I always wanted to name a daughter Dale Junette, like Dale, Junior, after my dad. Thankfully, I did not do that.

Haven't noticed a lot of angst about names in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it is unique to this area. There are dozens of naming sites out there. So lots of people looking at this.

OP here. I'm not talking about people who are invested in what they name their kids. I think that's pretty universal. I'm talking about a specific obsession with unpopular names. Like the mom at the BBQ was specifically bragging about how her kids all have names outside the top thousand names, and how there were only 7 kids given her younger child's name the year they were born. That is a level of obsession I've never encountered anywhere. In the city where I used to live, people would consider any name outside maybe the top 30 or so sufficiently "unpopular" to ensure your kid won't be one of several in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that a lot of people think that trendy names are a negative class indicator, and that might be where this is coming from.

+1 there's also a "special snowflake" aspect to it. But I think they also don't get that a "popular" name now is not as popular as the top names of 30+ years ago. I have a Jacob and it did give me pause that it had been so popular for a long time. But, it's a family name and that was important to me. He's ended up generally having at most one other Jacob in his classes. Glad I didn't let popularity drive the choice.

I have a son whose name is probably in the same “common name category” (Luke). Nearly half of the boys in his preschool class shared his first name 🤣 (4 of 9 boys). Yet, in his middle school grade of 250ish kids there is only one other. Preschool was bizarre but otherwise it has been fine.

I was going to name my son Luke but changed my mind. There were 3 Lukes in kindergarten. I chose Connor and he never met another Connor until HS and I think he was 1 of 8 Connors in his HS graduating class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it's inconvenient when your child has the same first name as many others.

It's embarrassing to do something you think is less common and have it turn out to be trendy. That's why a classic and enduringly popular name like Elizabeth or Jacob is common but still okay, but a "sudden spike" name is a little bit cringe.

Why would that be embarrassing? I have a name that was popular, a pretty name. Girls who were given old fashioned names always wanted a more contemporary name.

For a while it was a trend to name a girl a non-feminine name like Madison or Spencer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A completely different area of the country so I'm not really outing her, but my friend has twins named Pyper and Brystol. I judge, but silently, because I always wanted to name a daughter Dale Junette, like Dale, Junior, after my dad. Thankfully, I did not do that.

Haven't noticed a lot of angst about names in Virginia.

Pyper is awful, Brystol is worse. Thankfully you did not name anyone Dale Junette or I think you might have been judged less silently.

[Anonymous]

DC attracts the worst of the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because when people decide to name their baby Milo or Arlo they feel good about what a unique idea they came up with, and know their heart will sink to realize that Milo is actually rising in popularity and they aren't unique at all.

Then there are the people who do super corny things, like my friend who had a very Basic 80's Girl Name who named her kids (not in the DMV so I'm not worried about her finding this) Parker, Piper and Peyton.

LOL, an old coworker had her first grandbaby, named Aiden. She thought that was so clever and unique. Circa 2000-ish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because when people decide to name their baby Milo or Arlo they feel good about what a unique idea they came up with, and know their heart will sink to realize that Milo is actually rising in popularity and they aren't unique at all.

Then there are the people who do super corny things, like my friend who had a very Basic 80's Girl Name who named her kids (not in the DMV so I'm not worried about her finding this) Parker, Piper and Peyton.

LOL, an old coworker had her first grandbaby, named Aiden. She thought that was so clever and unique. Circa 2000-ish

She named her grandchild? Also what is wrong with the name Aiden? Why did she think that was "clever and unique"? Maybe she just liked that name?

[Anonymous]

Why does it bother you that I named my daughter Balzarina?

[Anonymous]

Fallout from the Jessica / Jennifer / Justin generation