Using a popular name anyway?
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Anonymous
But is your kid going to live in the DC bubble their whole lives? |
Anonymous
But none of those names are the same as naming your baby "child". Y'all are just obsessed with this one metric for naming a baby (the national popularity of the name -- note that no one in here seems to care that a lot of the less popular names in the US are ultra-popular in other countries -- what if your kid moves there??). But why is that the only metric? Makes no sense. If no one named their kids these more popular names, then your own kid's names would be less unique and special. I mean, what's the ultimate goal? For a flat distribution of names each year, with 100 babies being given any particular name, no more no less? Or is it more than that -- do you need every baby to have a totally unique name? That's gonna be hard, and you better get ready for a lot of Kaylabelle-Eleanoras. This is the fight on DCUM that annoys me the most because it's so so dumb and inconsequential. And yet I get dragged into it every time because it's just makes so little sense. Poor OP. Charlotte is a sweet name. Congrats on your baby. Never come back here. |
Anonymous
| I am fascinated by regional popularity of names. My own name seems to have trended heavily in one section of the country. I’ve spoken to others in TX and CA who didn’t have others around as a kid. My husband is a Bryan from TX and said he only knew one other growing up (any spelling)-which is funny because when he called me for the first time and left just his first name, there were 4 who could have been calling me. |
Anonymous
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Use a name that you like.
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Anonymous
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I have a Noah, which is popular but really he doesn't run into so many others.
I have read that however popular the most popular names are today - it's not the same as when we were kids - now there is much more variety and fewer kids have the most popular names than they did with Jennifer in the 80s, for example. |
Anonymous
It is very interesting! My name was not very popular nationally when I was born (in the 100s I think) but shot to national popularity over the next 8 years or so and wound up top 10. Interestingly though, it was was definitely popular in my home town because there were always at least one other person with my name in my class and I had friends a grade above and below me in high school with the same name. I mean, I guess that's how names get more popular, via these little name booms in some areas that get replicated elsewhere and grow. But it feels random and I think often people are responding to stimuli that they can't possibly even be aware of. Like what caused so many parents in my relatively small home town to choose my name in those years? There must have been something, like maybe an adult with that name who had lots of friends (so her name got disseminated a lot and wound up on people's minds). Maybe it popped up in a movie or book that wasn't like a blockbuster, but enough people saw to make them think about the name, and it grew from there. That's kind of how we picked our DC's name. We saw a tiny indie movie years ago (no one saw this movie, I bring it up to people and no one knows it, I think we are one of a few hundred people who saw it) that had a character with the name, who went by a specific nickname variant. I remember turning to my DH in the middle of the movie and saying "I absolutely love that name and that nickname is perfect" and he said "wow, I really like it too and I've never met anyone with it." And that became what we named our kid and we basically never wavered from it. It's now a top 50 name after not even being in the top 1000 a decade ago. We've met people whose kid have this name and asked what inspired them and none of them have even heard of this movie that was our inspiration. They all have some other reason for choosing it. We thought we were so sneakily original. 
Name trends are funny and I know there are people on here who think they can predict it and sometimes you can. But sometimes you can't! There are names that get popular seemingly out of nowhere. But I still love DC's name and it suits them to a tee (and yes, I'm intentionally concealing the name because I don't want it to get anymore popular than it already is -- so sue me!). |
Anonymous
Well, as the PP Sarah, my congrats to you on your little Sarah. At this point the name is exactly what you say — classic but not trendy. It’s also super easy to say in most languages and I’ve never run into any problems introducing myself. |
Anonymous
| Charlotte is a pretty name OP, go for it if you love it. |
Anonymous
+1. A popular name can be super meaningful to a couple. For example, William is my DH's name and a very important name in his family. I would love to use it for a son. Emma Woodhouse is my favorite literary character. Gianna is a beautiful Italian name and the name of a very beloved recent Catholic saint. The only reason I wouldn't use it is that every American I've met mispronounces it. Gi is pronounced J in italian, not Jee. Daniel is the name of DH's grandfather and a very special name to him. The only reason we won't use it is that they're already up to Daniel IV and that will just get too confusing. DH loves the name Alexander because of Alexander the Great and it's one of his favorite names. This is just within the top 15. |
Anonymous
NP I am also a Sarah and I really started appreciating the bolded when traveling and living abroad. It's also nice that it is used (or a variation) in so many cultures. I've had many, many people strike up conversation with an, "oh, my wife/grandmother/sister/etc. is named Sarah. Beautiful name." It travels well. FWIW I only ever had one other Sara(h) in my grade growing up and we ran in totally different circles. Met others with the name, but it wasn't all that prevalent in my area and I didn't really care, possibly because a lot of my friends also had very popular names (in my case, Kate/Katie/Caitlin and its various spellings, Lauren, and Jennifer were by far the most common). |
Anonymous
I have a Noah, too. He’s in high school, and he’s never been in a class or on a team with another Noah. I think he was the only kid named Noah in his elementary school (500+ kids). I’ve pointed out the same thing in countless threads here: this simply isn’t something to agonize over since Americans use all kinds of names these days and aren’t limited to a select few like back in the 70s and 80s. Charlotte is a lovely name. I have 4 kids, and none has had a Charlotte in their class. I work at an org with 1k+ staff; zero Charlottes. |
Anonymous
+1 Literally the worst thing that can happen is that s/he has another kid with the same name in class or something. As someone to whom that actually happened, it's really not a big deal Annoying at most, but mostly no one cares. And there's no guarantee that will even happen, since popular names aren't as common, proportionally, as they used to be. |
Anonymous
I’m an Amy born in the 70s. There were 2 Amy’s in my small private grade school and 6 in my small private high school. There are 3 at my office with 1k+ staff. NBD. My kids have very traditional top 5/10 names for their birth years. |
Anonymous
+1 It's also dumb to have that reaction because you have no idea why someone chose that name. It could be a name they've liked since well before it rose in popularity. It could be the name of a beloved family member. It could be really meaningful in some way. They might not have been paying attention and not realized it was popular when they chose it. The eye-rolling is not only obnoxious, it's often misjudged. And it assumes that giving your kid an unpopular name is objectively important; pretty much no person has ever been harmed because their name was insufficiently unique. |
Anonymous
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I admit to thinking “ANOTHER ONE?” In my head. I would never say anything, though.
It’s just a reaction. Nothing more. |