Would You Use a Top 5 Popular Baby Name?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. My name was SO popular in 80s/90s and there were always at least 4 of us in every class with the same name which was very annoying.

Ashley?

We have 20+ Ashley's now in our school where I teach. All of them Latina.

I was going to guess Jessica.

As a Jessica, who was Jessica LastNameFirstInitial in every class, and who just stopped responding to Jessica at all in my high school hallway, I refused to name my kids the SUPER popular names. Nonetheless, my kid's first daycare class of 8 kids had another kid with his name. The other kid's parents asked us if we would call him something other than his name, to avoid confusion, LOL (our response: no... maybe you do that if you care so much..) Hasn't been an issue since, thankfully.

[Anonymous]

Looking at the top 5 for 2022, I think the names that stand out as more “trendy” in my opinion are Liam and Oliver. The others are more classic and it won’t really be that noticeable if there are more than one in the class, and in the future people won’t be able to pin down their birth year as much.

[Anonymous]

No way

[Anonymous]

My toddler has one of those old timey European sounding names because she was named after her European grandmother and DH liked the alliteration with our last name. I didn’t realize it was a top 10 name until after she was born. I was annoyed to be constantly told “my friend’s kid has the same name”.

Baby #2 has a top 10 name too, but a classic one that isn’t trendy so I don’t care that he’ll be one of many.

[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).

+1 (1976)
I wouldn’t consider anything in the top 100 after growing up with this name 😂

6 of us in my 6th grade!

I still have people who always call me by a nickname derived from my maiden name or first name-maiden name as if it was one name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Husband likes a baby name that was on the top 5 list last year and I’m hung up on it. I like the name, but hung up on it being super popular and baby being one of many in their class. FWIW I have a very unusual name that has benefited me so perhaps that is where my feelings stem from! Anyone else avoid popular baby names or use them regardless?

Or course! Who wants their kid to have an obscure or unpopular name?

My husband and I described our choices as “unique but not weird”. One of us has an Uber popular name the other has to explain their name daily.

[Anonymous]

You can’t worry because even if you pick something unusual, they will be the only one in their class but then if you get unlucky later they’ll be 40 with a trendy 5 year old’s name which sucks in a different way.

[Anonymous]

My boys have Thomas the Tank Engine names and never a duplicate in the immediate class. Surprising, but true. Huge public schools too.

[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.

You can check by state—and yes, some names are hyper local!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t worry because even if you pick something unusual, they will be the only one in their class but then if you get unlucky later they’ll be 40 with a trendy 5 year old’s name which sucks in a different way.

Hi Olivia!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t worry because even if you pick something unusual, they will be the only one in their class but then if you get unlucky later they’ll be 40 with a trendy 5 year old’s name which sucks in a different way.

Hi Olivia!

Ha! Though if I met a 40-something Olivia, I'd be more likely to think of Olivia Coleman (who I adore) than any of the 5 year old Olivia's out there.

Names are so funny. We fret and fret about them when we name kids, but outside of some truly unfortunate circumstances (names that are just very ugly like Gertrude, or have awful cultural connotations like Adolf, or that develop negative associations like Karen) by the time your kid becomes an adult, most names are fine. Even an issue like having a hyper-popular name sort of disappears as you get older. I had a super popular name as a kid and it annoyed me growing up, but by the time I was out of college, it truly didn't matter anymore. Just... no one cares. I definitely made sure to give my kid a less popular name than I had growing up, but I encounter kids with more common names and like, they will be fine. It doesn't matter.

People obsess over names with kids because it's one of the very few things about your child you have a lot of control over. But really, as long as you don't TOTALLY mess it up, it's will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Sure, but I dislike the name Noah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You can check by state—and yes, some names are hyper local!

I work at an elementary school and I've seen a lot of naming trends specific to the different ethnic/cultural groups in the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

+1 (1976)
I wouldn’t consider anything in the top 100 after growing up with this name 😂

6 of us in my 6th grade!

I still have people who always call me by a nickname derived from my maiden name or first name-maiden name as if it was one name.

My name wasn’t even Jennifer and there were 7 of us in my graduating class. I actually went further down the list - nothing over #500. It was a fun exercise, actually. And we also were going for the “not weird” category, like the poster just after you.

I gave my husband veto power over the names I found, so I couldn’t sneak Tanith or Clover onto our list (I really do love these names). But we are quite happy with the names we did use-they are known names that just aren’t in heavy use currently, for various reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only if the last name is not too common.

I think this is important…if you have a common last name, don’t also choose a common first name for your child