Anonymous wrote:I have a Lucy and am honestly shocked to see her name on this list! I've never met another Lucy in my entire life, let alone a child my daughter's age. I *thought* we were being orginal. Can someone please let me know where all the Lucy's are? FWIW, We live in VA and she attends school in NW DC.

We have 4 close friends with daughters named Lucy: one in our NW DC neighborhood, one in NoVa, one in Bethesda, and one in Chicago.

Anonymous wrote:(Leah, Madison, Emily, Naomi, Caitlyn).

i like it a lot - i only know one Naomi and she's 8.

girls: Sophia/Sophie, Lucy, Lilly, Isabella, Nora, Ava, Ella, Stella, Mia/Lia.

boys: Max, Jack, Joe. I met two 1 year old Joe's on the playground yesterday alone -- one short for Josiah, one short for Joseph.

Anonymous wrote:OK - so thinking of my mom's group of friends we have a Louise, Maryanne, Leslie, Diane, Berta (yikes!), Patricia and Amelia. I guess Amelia will always be around, but I don't know if I'm ready for the rest.

Well there you go. I have my future daughter's name picked out now: Berta. Guaranteed to be the only one!

PP, my mom is Amelia, and she hated her name growing up, so much that she still goes by a rather silly diminutive. When the current crop of Amelias sprouted, she was terribly confused. Couldn't believe that such an antique of a name was making a comeback.

Let's see... mom's generation's names... Sue, Lynn(ette), Pat/Patty/Patricia, Carol, Linda, Barbara, Janet, Valerie... I think all those are pretty safe for the moment!

I read in one of my baby names books that to our babies' generation, Linda would probably sound like a very pretty and unique name. When I thought about it--and removed from my mind all the Lindas I knew who I wasn't so found of--I had to agree. It's a pretty name. Linda...Sophia...they're not all that different without the connotations.

And sorry if your name is Linda. My name isn't very current either.

Pick what you like and what 'goes' with your last name. Don't forget the last name when picking out the first! We like 'traditional' names and tend to name after family members....so if they are on anyone's popular list..I could give a rat's a**.

I'd be careful with 'trendy' names that have no established name history...those are the first to become the trailer park names or to switch to the other gender.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will someone please explain me what's so bad about picking a popular name?

Do you really think nobody will ever move away?

Some names are popular here, others are popular somewhere else... in the end they'll all get mixed up.

My name, DD's name and DH's name are in this popularity list and we were all 3 born in 3 different countries.

What's the fuss all about? I just don't get it.

I had an insanely popular name growing up and I hated it. Others will say it didn't bother them at all. If you don't mind your child being one of 6 Sophia's in her class, then go for it and name your daughter Sophia (a name I really like, by the way).

To each his own.

I think it's just a matter of preference, and I agree: to each his own.

Here's the best analogy I can come up with: A classic name is like a classic piece of clothing. Some people like to fill their wardrobe with classic pieces that will never go out of style. So names like William or Elizabeth are the equivalent of a simple black cashmere sweater, for example. But some people might prefer to go to specialty stores to ensure they have clothes that stand out and say a little bit more about their personalities. You certainly don't want to do go to all this effort to find a unique sweater only to have your neighbor (or multiple neighbors) show up wearing the same one. It totally defeats the purpose. Sure, you don't want to dress like a total freak (think: Apple), but you still don't want to feel like a sheep, or worse, a yuppy.

OK - so thinking of my mom's group of friends we have a Louise, Maryanne, Leslie, Diane, Berta (yikes!), Patricia and Amelia. I guess Amelia will always be around, but I don't know if I'm ready for the rest.

Anonymous wrote:Will someone please explain me what's so bad about picking a popular name?

Do you really think nobody will ever move away?

Some names are popular here, others are popular somewhere else... in the end they'll all get mixed up.

My name, DD's name and DH's name are in this popularity list and we were all 3 born in 3 different countries.

What's the fuss all about? I just don't get it.

I had an insanely popular name growing up and I hated it. Others will say it didn't bother them at all. If you don't mind your child being one of 6 Sophia's in her class, then go for it and name your daughter Sophia (a name I really like, by the way).

To each his own.

I don't see anything wrong with popular names, although I think what parents are trying to avoid is their little Sophia having to be referred to as Sophia K., while her friend is Sophia H. and their other classmate is Sofia R. Didn't many of us grow up in the era of having 4 Jennifers/Jenny's in our classes? I sure did.

However, I also think that popular names are popular because they are, mostly, nice, good names. So you have to balance a name that you like and is nice with how many other kids your child might encounter with the same name. Which is why so many people try to find a name that's nice and good and recognizable but ISN'T so popular.

Will someone please explain me what's so bad about picking a popular name?

Do you really think nobody will ever move away?

Some names are popular here, others are popular somewhere else... in the end they'll all get mixed up.

My name, DD's name and DH's name are in this popularity list and we were all 3 born in 3 different countries.

What's the fuss all about? I just don't get it.

Interesting about that, because it's true that we have named our son (middle name) after DH's great grandpa and it's becoming pretty popular. Did the same with daughter's middle name and ditto. I guess that makes sense tho - you want to honor your family and those names are not around enough to have connotations so we make new ones.

For our group, it's definitely been much of the same:

Girls: Grace, Isabelle, Olivia, Harper
Boys: Elijah, Jack, Lucas (older now), Noah, Jacob

So those with Lucys, are they just Lucy or is it short for Lucille or Lucia? Just curious because I haven't heard any Lucilles or Lucias.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's FREAKY how we all try to pick an original name, and then end up inadvertantly picking the same name as everyone else. I know so many people who picked off-the-wall names for their kids, only to have them be super popular. Because we're so affected by our culture, it seems the only way to ensure a unique name is to pick something really old-sounding to our generation (e.g., Mildred or Edna), something that sounds pretty mundane (e.g., Susie or Bob), or something that has become a casualty of our pop culture (e.g., Kermit or Miley).

Anyway, I think there are a lot of "--on" names floating around for boys (Mason, Sampson, Soren, etc.). A girl name that seems popular lately is Bailey.

Actually, I think picking something old is how you get a popular name these days. If you want unique, pick something popular in your own generation, like Jennifer, Susan, Angela, Christine.

I actually read an interesting article about this. It's the REALLY old names that are popular now (like from our great-grandparents' generation). These are the names of those who are likely deceased, as morbid as that sounds. If you pick names from our grandparents' generation (or even our parents' generation), then you're more likely to be safe (originality wise). These names actually conjure an image of an "old person" to us. The old, old names don't actually make us think of old people; they sound new again because we're so far removed from them.

I agree with this. The two top names we are considering for our second DD have both been called "old lady" names on DCUM and they both happen to be mine or DH's grandmother's name. We'll still probably use one of them