Using a popular name anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tend to judge people who are 100% white read who choose foreign names from another culture to be different. Liam, Siobhan, Eustatia, etc.

OK judge me as a “100% white person” but make sure you listen to my husband when he speaks and maybe you’ll change your mind when you meet my kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tend to judge people who are 100% white read who choose foreign names from another culture to be different. Liam, Siobhan, Eustatia, etc.

OK judge me as a “100% white person” but make sure you listen to my husband when he speaks and maybe you’ll change your mind when you meet my kids!

Her child’s name is Child.

[Anonymous]

No, my kids names are names that can some might consider trying to hard, but are names from DH’s county of origin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, my kids names are names that can some might consider trying to hard, but are names from DH’s county of origin

The other PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tend to judge people who are 100% white read who choose foreign names from another culture to be different. Liam, Siobhan, Eustatia, etc.

White doesn't mean American, or vice versa. Liam and Siobhan are names from a white culture. Plus people marry people from different cultural backgrounds, so you don't know. You also don't know how many generations removed a person is from an immigrant -- many seemingly assimilated Americans have immigrant parents and are still very connected to countries of origin and choosing a name from those countries makes more sense than choosing something that feels more quintessentially American.

That said, I have known some white people who chose Indian names for their kids in the last 10 years and I absolutely think it was about choosing a name that was "different" and also wanting to capture a sort of globalist sentiment, but it now reads pretty colonial to me. I think it would be strange to be a white kid with an Indian name. So even I have my limits, though generally I try to give people the benefit of the doubt with naming their kids.

[Anonymous]

My kids are 100% white European ancestry, and my older daughter wanted us to use names of her Indian classmates when her baby sister was born (she was already in es). I thought it was sweet that she didn’t see any difference, but it just doesn’t work on our girls.

[Anonymous]

There are four little girls named Ellie in DS’s preschool class. One Ellie, one Ella they call Ellie, one Elisabeth they call Ellie and one Elianna they call Ellie. It’s confusing and annoying.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s also strange when you have a name that was super trendy at a particular time like all cool people named their kids xxx in 1990. So you think oh your parents were hipsters? You and a few thousand other hipsters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are four little girls named Ellie in DS’s preschool class. One Ellie, one Ella they call Ellie, one Elisabeth they call Ellie and one Elianna they call Ellie. It’s confusing and annoying.

And I'm sure the parents who named their kid Elianna though they were being very original!

This is one reason why I don't think Charlotte is a big deal in terms of popularity. It's not really that popular numbers-wise, and it's really these name groups that cause the bigger issues, the Ellies, Evies and Evas, Bellas, Izzies, Maddies, etc. The nicknames for Charlotte are not common and it's not a name that has very similar other names or different spellings.

I've actually seen people who study this stuff talk about how it's actually somewhat impossible to get true popularity lists for this reason. Even if you group similar names together in your rankings, you can't account for what people actually call their kids. And so many names have multiple nicknames (like Elizabeth -- it could go super common with an Ellie or fairly rare with a Beth) so you can't even take a reasonable guess.

My general opinion is that standalone names like Charlotte will ultimately wear more easily than names that are part of a group like Evelyn/Evangeline/Eve/Eva/Everly. Even though some of the names in that group are well down the list. Obviously any El- name is out if you want to avoid name overlap, unless you are assigning a non-Ellie nickname at birth and plan to only call her that.

It's not just a question of picking an underused name. I know two people who chose names outside top 1000 for their DDs, but used more common nicknames and now they are of course one of a few in their preschool classes. Meanwhile my DD has a top 30 name and never runs into others.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Names follow trends. I do internally roll my eyes when I hear someone introduce their baby with a super common name. Like, come on, you couldn’t think out of the trend-pressure for one second?!

+1. No name is inherently prettier than another - it’s simply current fashion. I roll my eyes too.

+2 It’s like naming her “child.”

Except it's really not when even the most popular names are like .8%> of all babies born in a given year.

But there are regional trends, too. In the DC area, I know multiple Claras, Isabelle/Isobel/Annabels, Avas/Evas, Ellas, Charlottes, Harpers, Olivias, Evelyns, Sophias. Those all rank somewhere in the top 25-30 nationally, but probably top 10 locally.

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.

+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.

I'm sure whatever the reason is, the rude PPs being so snarky about it would not approve.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I just went through this! We had both always liked the name Henry and it is a family name on both sides. But we ruled it out early in the pregnancy because it is too popular. Then we just never found anything we liked as much. My husband was like this is stupid why should we choose a name we both like less and is less meaningful to us? As long as it is a classical name that has been around for centuries it doesnt feel tendy, just popular. As opposed to Maverick (cringe) or something which seems trendy.

I grew up with a super popular 90s girl name and the popularity never bothered me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I just went through this! We had both always liked the name Henry and it is a family name on both sides. But we ruled it out early in the pregnancy because it is too popular. Then we just never found anything we liked as much. My husband was like this is stupid why should we choose a name we both like less and is less meaningful to us? As long as it is a classical name that has been around for centuries it doesnt feel tendy, just popular. As opposed to Maverick (cringe) or something which seems trendy.

I grew up with a super popular 90s girl name and the popularity never bothered me.

+1

I think this happens often (it happened to us). It would be one thing if someone we knew had used the name, then we wouldn’t have used it though would have been very sad to set it aside. But the idea of not using a name because some people we’ve never met might have used it? It just feels attenuated to me.

We used a relatively popular name and it’s worked out well for us. I get it’s not for everyone, but I’m glad we used the name we really loved from the start. It felt more organic that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I just went through this! We had both always liked the name Henry and it is a family name on both sides. But we ruled it out early in the pregnancy because it is too popular. Then we just never found anything we liked as much. My husband was like this is stupid why should we choose a name we both like less and is less meaningful to us? As long as it is a classical name that has been around for centuries it doesnt feel tendy, just popular. As opposed to Maverick (cringe) or something which seems trendy.

I grew up with a super popular 90s girl name and the popularity never bothered me.

So what did you wind up naming your kid at the end?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I just went through this! We had both always liked the name Henry and it is a family name on both sides. But we ruled it out early in the pregnancy because it is too popular. Then we just never found anything we liked as much. My husband was like this is stupid why should we choose a name we both like less and is less meaningful to us? As long as it is a classical name that has been around for centuries it doesnt feel tendy, just popular. As opposed to Maverick (cringe) or something which seems trendy.

I grew up with a super popular 90s girl name and the popularity never bothered me.

So what did you wind up naming your kid at the end?

It sounds like they named him Henry. Otherwise this story doesn’t really make sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I just went through this! We had both always liked the name Henry and it is a family name on both sides. But we ruled it out early in the pregnancy because it is too popular. Then we just never found anything we liked as much. My husband was like this is stupid why should we choose a name we both like less and is less meaningful to us? As long as it is a classical name that has been around for centuries it doesnt feel tendy, just popular. As opposed to Maverick (cringe) or something which seems trendy.

I grew up with a super popular 90s girl name and the popularity never bothered me.

So what did you wind up naming your kid at the end?

It sounds like they named him Henry. Otherwise this story doesn’t really make sense.

I think Henry has reached a peak saturation point in the DMV. It really is like buying a purse everyone else has at this point. It’s a good purse. People like it so you feel validated. But when you set it down, you may pick up the wrong one. Lol.