Would You Use a Top 5 Popular Baby Name?

[Anonymous]

As long as it’s not a weird made up “name” - whatever you both pick will be ok!

[Anonymous]

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?

How does having an unusual name “benefit” you? That’s so weird.

I don’t understand this desire for scarcity when naming a child. It’s not like a name bestows uniqueness on the child. This mentality is just so bizarre.

Who cares if another child in class has the name?

And this isn’t the 1970s. The most popular names don’t even begin to approach the saturation levels of popular names from that era.

[Anonymous]

I think the saturation level can be higher at micro levels

In my friend group, there are soooo many kids with the same names. Isabelle, Sophia and Ava are just crazy prevalent

In my extended family, there are 3 Audreys (different branches of the family tree)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Yes but this is a matter of degrees. Top 5 first name and top 5 surname? Yeah, that's a problem. Top 20 name and top 100 surname? Actually probably fine, even if both names are highly recognizable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the saturation level can be higher at micro levels

In my friend group, there are soooo many kids with the same names. Isabelle, Sophia and Ava are just crazy prevalent

In my extended family, there are 3 Audreys (different branches of the family tree)

It's funny because in my friend and broader social group, I think there is an imperative to give your kid a less popular name, which has led to funny situations where two friends have each given their babies born a few months a part the same name that is not even on the SSN list, or where another friend gave their kid a name outside the top 1000 and then there was a kid with the same name in our kids' preschool.

Names like Isabelle and Ava are rare in my circle (I know only one of each, and no Sophias at all, except for a cousin who gave her daughter that name but that child is now in college). I don't know any Audreys. I do know a Mia. I think the one top 10 name that is maybe oversaturated is Charlotte, though each of the Charlotte's I know goes by a different name (one Charlotte, one Lottie, one Charlie).

My takeaway is that giving a child a less popular name just for the sake of your kid having a more unusual name might be a fool's errand -- you will be sad if your kid with the name in the 900s winds up in a class with a kid with the same name. Instead, I think you just have to ignore the noise and pick the name you love the most. If your kid winds up sharing that name with other kids, well, at least it's a name you absolutely love, regardless of it's level of popularity.

[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).

Hi, Jen!

Shoutout to Jen's brothers Josh, Jeremy, and Justin!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the saturation level can be higher at micro levels

In my friend group, there are soooo many kids with the same names. Isabelle, Sophia and Ava are just crazy prevalent

In my extended family, there are 3 Audreys (different branches of the family tree)

It's funny because in my friend and broader social group, I think there is an imperative to give your kid a less popular name, which has led to funny situations where two friends have each given their babies born a few months a part the same name that is not even on the SSN list, or where another friend gave their kid a name outside the top 1000 and then there was a kid with the same name in our kids' preschool.

Names like Isabelle and Ava are rare in my circle (I know only one of each, and no Sophias at all, except for a cousin who gave her daughter that name but that child is now in college). I don't know any Audreys. I do know a Mia. I think the one top 10 name that is maybe oversaturated is Charlotte, though each of the Charlotte's I know goes by a different name (one Charlotte, one Lottie, one Charlie).

My takeaway is that giving a child a less popular name just for the sake of your kid having a more unusual name might be a fool's errand -- you will be sad if your kid with the name in the 900s winds up in a class with a kid with the same name. Instead, I think you just have to ignore the noise and pick the name you love the most. If your kid winds up sharing that name with other kids, well, at least it's a name you absolutely love, regardless of it's level of popularity.

#1 to be fair, most of my friends kids are now teens

#2 since we so rarely even hear our children’s names being used, we would be amused if they ran across another one. They actually both have had other children at their dance school over almost 17 years - interestingly, both the other kids were Hispanic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Top 5? No. Top 10? No.

My son’s name was #19 the year he was born and I was bummed about that, but my husband and I really struggled to agree on a name and we both really liked it, so we went with it.

He’s starting PK3 this year. 32 kids total in the grade at school (2 classes). There’s another kid with his name, and I’m irrationally so mad about it. At least they put them in different classes. Still. Grrr.

Pick a different name.

Im sorry but it it isnt your name. The other parents have every right to name their kid what they want without seeking your approval. I cant believe you think of names that way!

[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?

How does having an unusual name “benefit” you? That’s so weird.

I don’t understand this desire for scarcity when naming a child. It’s not like a name bestows uniqueness on the child. This mentality is just so bizarre.

Who cares if another child in class has the name?

And this isn’t the 1970s. The most popular names don’t even begin to approach the saturation levels of popular names from that era.

Unusual sometimes equals memorable which means teachers remember your name, interviewers remember your name, etc.

[Anonymous]

I have one of these super popular names and in school there were a couple of us in the grade but I rarely meet people with my name now. The people I meet and know now are from a broader birth year range, not all concentrated in the same year or two, so there is much more variety. Popularity only seems to matter in school, not after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is actually a hyperlocal decision.
Of the top 10 baby names from my kindergartener's birth year we have one Isabella, one Sophia, and that's it in his class. None of the top 10 boy's names. However we have two Maeves and two Cecilias (and I know of two more Cecilias in the school) and a bunch of multiples of less common but classic boys' names (what I call Thomas the Train names.) I have actually never even met a Liam.

Please tell me there's a Percy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have one of these super popular names and in school there were a couple of us in the grade but I rarely meet people with my name now. The people I meet and know now are from a broader birth year range, not all concentrated in the same year or two, so there is much more variety. Popularity only seems to matter in school, not after.

I think some names were more concentrated in certain areas.

For example, I am a late 70s Shannon. It was crazy popular in the mid Atlantic, yet I spoke with one from TX who rarely met another one.

In the meantime, there was always more than one everywhere I went even through my very first job. I roomed with another at my college in NC (she was from Richmond area). There are lots of us in my current neighborhood here in NoVA.

[Anonymous]

Go to this page and select DC from the state list. It’s still not perfect, but you’ll get a much more accurate list for this area:

https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/namesbystate.cgi

[Anonymous]

In our area (NoVA) it’s Charlotte, Henry, Theo, Eleanor (Nora), and Amelia that have been the most insane. Ava and Olivia don’t seem nearly as popular. But my frame of reference is the elementary set. Am guessing the parents of babies are already starting to move on to the next big trends.

[Anonymous]

I think if you love it, use it. With my kids, I had a feeling- this is their name. Hopefully you will, too, and don't let popularity stop you IMHO.

There are also just so many names and diversity it names now, that it's just not the same thing as being named Jennifer or Michael when we were kids.

You will know 1 or 2 kids with the same name. I know a couple of Gavins. A couple of Olivias. Several Sophias, but not more than 2 in the grade. Not a big deal. I am not aware of 1 Charlotte in my kid's ES. (I am pretty involved) Maybe there is 1. In the 500+ school.

It's usually a name not in the top 10 that randomly saturates. Ex. In my DD's 7th grade there are 3 or 4 Haileys. Sometimes names randomly have a moment.