Reply to A useful thread for figuring out if a name is "too popular"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just stay away from the top 200 names and keep your ear to the ground for what your friends are naming their babies.  You primarily want to avoid names that are prevalent/popular in their generation.

And it’s not hard.  There are a lot of beautiful names out there.  [/quote]

The idea of crossing off the top 200 NAMES for being too popular is absolutely crazy to me. Yes, there are a lot of beautiful names out there, but that's severe.

Example: one of the names we considered but didn't use was Lucia. It's ranked #163, which mean that 1,724 girls were given that name. Out of 3.6 million babies born in 2020. It's a great name! We found one that was a better fit for us, but I think anyone could choose this name and not worry about their kid sharing a name with many, if any, other kids/people in their lives. Some other great names in the top 200 that really do not pose a big risk of what people seem to be referring to as &quot;the Jennifer Problem&quot;:

Julian (#34)
Anthony (#41)
Micah (#107)
Kingston (#118)
Vincent (#121)
Calvin (#143) ---&gt; I really love this one someone use it!
Ivan (#153)
Atlas (#189)
Victor (#200)

Riley (#33)
Anna (#68)
Samantha(#90)
Jade (#97)
Iris (#127)
Esther (#153)
Sienna (#166)
Catalina (#178)
River (#186)

None of these are spelling variants. They don't have common nicknames. They are mostly familiar names, but not hyper-trendy (though they all fit into naming conventions that will sound good to modern ears, which does matter! you usually need two people to agree to a name, and it's nice to have some acceptance of it in your family and friend group for most people). And all in the top 200.

Nothing wrong with going lower on the list, but the idea that you HAVE to in order to avoid the Jennifer Problem is crazy. Of course not. You're talking about, at most, a few thousand babies with this name in any given year. Meaning your kid may meet a few people with that name in their life but is extremely unlikely to be in a class with three of them at any point in their life. There is not some scourge of Kingstons or Irises in America's preschools. Come on, folks.[/quote]

True but that’s today and doesn’t take into consideration upward trends.  A generation is 20 years.  If it’s important to you, I think staying away from the top 200 names is generally a good bet.  If it’s not important to you, then don’t.  [/quote]

If that's your metric, almost no name is safe unless you are literally making one up or choosing something unpronounceable (or as a PP suggested, intentionally choosing something that sounds bad to modern ears, like Bertha). Because lots of names have gone from deep in the list to top 200 in the course of just a few years.

You have to decide what matters more to you: your child having an uncommon name or your child having a name that sounds good to people. There is a balance to be struck, but you can't guarantee both. Appealling names WILL climb the list. If the name you pick doesn't, it's not because you are a genius. It's because you have hyper-specific (or just bad) taste. And your kid might resent that a lot more than they would have ever resented sharing a name with some kid on their soccer team for a year or two.[/quote]

NP here.  Again, what is appealing is just fashion.  Again Susan is not less beautiful than Sophia.

But yes names will climb and fall on the list.  I think those of us who chose and search for less popular names were looking for a metric and “out of the top 200” is as good as most can do.  [/quote]

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