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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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?! [/quote]

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

The "current fashion" is to give your child a less popular name. That's why no names are as popular today as some where decades ago. Because so many people are looking for a unique name. Which is why this entire conversation is silly -- there are no "super popular" names. You are rolling your eyes at names given to a tiny fraction (less than 1% of all babies, generally much less, a few thousand children out of millions) for being overly trendy?

I don't roll my eyes at anyone's baby's names because I'm not a jerk, but I do think it's the people who are going out of their way to choose an unusual name are actually following more social pressure than anyone naming their kid Charlotte or Elizabeth.[/quote]

You misunderstood the poster.  Names definitely follow trends as does fashion.  Ava isn’t inherently prettier than Linda but current trends dictate it is.  It is fashion.  You don’t have to give a unique name to not follow the trends dictated by nothing more than group think.  In 2022, name your daughter Susan or Linda and she’ll never meet another her own age.

I’m tired of the Ava, Olivia, Emma, Sophia, etc trends and do internally roll my eyes.  [/quote]

Nope, I didn't misunderstand anything. I just disagree.

First, no one has ever claimed that only popular names are pretty, or that they are prettier than less popular names. There's lots of pretty names. Also, pretty is subjective and what I think is a pretty name is probably different from what you think is a pretty name, which is fine. One thing more popular names tend to have in common is that they appeal to people from different ethnicities and language traditions, which makes them more universally acceptable. Sophia/Sofia works in English and Spanish and French and Danish and Russian and Arabic. Useful! That's how it got so popular.

Yes, names follow trends but it's not just what people think is prettier. Trends don't dictate which names people find attractive. Trends are caused by lots of things. Right now there are very strong trends for names that work in multiple languages, as well as for shorter names. That has nothing to do with pretty. People are thinking about their children living in a diverse world, or perhaps one with fewer borders. They think about making sure their name can be pronounced easily.

But there is also a strong trend toward giving kids, but especially girls, names that are less common and more singular. They've actually studied this! People have become less likely to choose names that are already popular, and more likely to introduce brand new names (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3592279?mag=science-baby-names&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents). This is why the top names are no longer as popular as top names used to be. There is also a coordinated effect on the bottom of the list which people don't notice because they don't publish the full list -- there are just more names on the list. Lots and lots of names only being used by a very small number of people.

So yes, giving your child an "unpopular" name is.... a trend! You are being trendy when you do this. Which is why it's weird to be critical of people who use more popular names as "following trends". Whatever you think of the names they choose, they are actually following an incredibly longstanding naming tradition of choosing a name from a smaller subset of known and relatively common names. This is the "classic" way of selecting a name.

I personally don't think there's a right or wrong here. I like how much variety there is in baby  names and I enjoy learning how people choose baby names and also seeing how kids always seem to grow into whatever the name is, like magic. I bet I'd like your kids names. But I also think you're wrong about who is being trendy in their naming approach and who isn't. You're trendy! Your kids' specific names may not be popular, but the way you chose to name them very much is.[/quote]

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