Do you care if your baby's name is "popular"?

elizjane26 · September 2010

Ok, first of all, sorry for all the baby name posts, but it's all that's on my mind today!

I thought that I cared if LO's name was popular, but now I don't think so. I like what I like. I ask this because I posted a poll on baby names, and someone said my name was "insanely popular right now." Which I was unaware of. But, like I said, I'm not too sure that I care. Do you?

pawcall · September 2010

Clearly I do not. I don't really frequent the baby names board. There's a TON of hate for my son's name over there.

nkubon · September 2010

for some people they could care less if the name is extremely popular right now, and will just go with what they like - which i think everyone should do. i've always liked names that weren't extremely popular, personally, just because i know like 20 jessica's, and 20 lauren's, and 20 amber's, and so on, from growing up and i want my child's name to be a tad more unique, but not over the top. but in all reality, who cares what anyone else says. YOU and DH need to love the name, and that's all that matters in the end.

maltwin1 · September 2010

As someone with an uncommon-ish name, popularity doesn't bother me in the least. I was always jealous of kids that could find their name pre-printed on pens or cups or key chains. I wanted a name that I thought fit "our style" and if its known but not super popular, all the better, but something totally unique was never what I wanted.

simonra · September 2010

I agree with previous posters. Go with what you like.

I just read the replies on your baby names post. Wow. Who knew people had such strong opinions about what you should name your baby? I have a fairly popular name and it never freaks me out when I meet people with the same name. it's nice to be unique but its not the main goal in naming a child, IMO.

becoming.a.mrs · September 2010

my husband and i went back and forth on this, but we're going with a "popular" name cause we love it and it has special meaning for our family. i've decided that i don't really care if it's popular or not - the significance and our love of the name means a whole lot more to me.

PLUS, i know our baby girl will be able to find things with her name on it - keychains, mugs, etc. - which sounds silly, but i think is nice, since i always wanted those things when i was little and NEVER found anything like that with my name on it (i just have a unique spelling).

i say go with what you like the best - don't worry about what other people are doing!

NoemiJ · September 2010

My DH and I seriously considered the popularity of the name we chose for our son while we were discussing names. Deciding on a name was difficult because there are really few nice Italian names to chose from (there are a lot of Italian names, but we didn't want to give our kid a traditional/old name). After looking at thousands of names, we settled on one that was unique. We've gotten a lot of kudos from our friends and family in Italy because of our name choice.

elizjane26 · September 2010

I feel like this is so hard. Not that I thought it would be easy, but it seems like so many of you haven't had any trouble picking a name!

williaw · September 2010

I had a top 3 and went with the least popular one, just because I would really hate for her to be in school with 4 or 5 other girls with her name. We had that issue when I was in school with Ashleys and Saras and it got really confusing.

MarSamWhitney · September 2010

elizjane26:
I feel like this is so hard. Not that I thought it would be easy, but it seems like so many of you haven't had any trouble picking a name!

I know, I totally agree. I am all gung ho about it one night and writing a bunch down that I like, and then i dont want to touch it for two weeks.

NoemiJ · September 2010

elizjane26:
I feel like this is so hard. Not that I thought it would be easy, but it seems like so many of you haven't had any trouble picking a name!

Oh, it was definitely hard for us. Part of the reason why we hoped that LO was a girl was because it was so much easier to come up with names that were pronounced the same or similarly in Spanish and Italian (I'm Latina and he's Italian). Boys name that fit that criteria are really hard to come by so we decided in the end to just give him an Italian name and probably a middle name in Spanish. I must have printed out hundreds of pages with baby boy name ideas from google Italy, half of which had to be thrown out because they were really old fashioned names like Ermenegildo. Out of the pages we kept, we only liked 10 names....and thus began another process of elimination.

starsmaycollide · September 2010

Well, yes. It's not that there is anything wrong with popular names-I really like some of them. It's just that I work with children and as a teacher, sometimes you get tired of hearing the same thing all the time. I feel like it loses some luster after I have met or heard of so many kids with the same names. So, I gravitate towards names that are out of the top ten. They sound better to me.

DH feels the same way, because he is Christopher Michael, and honestly, he hates it. He doesn't like how common it is, as those two were literally the #1 and #2 names the year he was born.

That all being said, there is a difference between some peoples' perception of popular and what actually is. I can tell you without looking (because I am a baby name nerd) that Ellie and Anna are NOT in the top ten. Not even top 20. They might be common names, but they aren't in the the most popular bunch. I also guess it depends on your definition-to me popular is the very top names, not the whole list to 100 or anything.

If you are curious, check out the Social Security Administration's list, and you can even check out your state. Sometimes things really vary by region, too.

https://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/

MrsYam · September 2010

Olivia is in the Top 5. So, not so much.

Alexandria is actually #174 so its a little less popular.

stbmittleman · September 2010

For us we thought about the fact that the name is popular and wanted to try and avoid it, but balanced it with how much we liked the name. We also looked at the people we knew IRL and the trends we were seeing. Natalie is the 11th most popular name for girls, but IRL I know one Natalie and knew one Natalie growing up. When I've told people our name I haven't heard "oh, I know someone who named their kid that, or I have two cousins named Natalie" like I heard when we were considering naming our baby Madeleine. On here, I've only seen the name three times for other people's child. So even though it is rated as a popular name by the SSA, it's just not a common name from what I've seen.

krista613 · September 2010

none of the names we liked were in the top 100 and most not even 200... but i'm surprised because they werent wierd names.

and a friend of my cousin recently named her baby carina which is the same name just spelled differently, and mchupie is also using carina. but we liked it with a k.

i have a feeling the name will become more popular because IMO its a beautiful name.

elizjane26 · September 2010

krista613:
none of the names we liked were in the top 100 and most not even 200... but i'm surprised because they werent wierd names.

and a friend of my cousin recently named her baby carina which is the same name just spelled differently, and mchupie is also using carina. but we liked it with a k.

i have a feeling the name will become more popular because IMO its a beautiful name.

That is a very pretty name I might ask my DH if he likes it Wink

lovemytannerman · September 2010

Yes and No

I would like LO's name to be a little unique so he's not 1 of 5 kids in his class with the same name. My hubbys name is Chris, and we have a really popular last name. There were always tons of Chris's when he was growing up, and there still are. Almost everyone knows a Chris!

Now if I had a name picked the I absolutely loved, I don't know if I would change my mind because it had gotten popular. We had picked Caroline for a girl and still have no boy name picked out.

If the name is popular but you love it, then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks!

houndbaby · September 2010

nope. I named my DS Jacob and it's been the #1 name for years. This LO will be Audrey, which I think is #40, but the ranking had no affect on the name, we just went with what we liked.

broccolitree · September 2010

starsmaycollide:
That all being said, there is a difference between some peoples' perception of popular and what actually is. I can tell you without looking (because I am a baby name nerd) that Ellie and Anna are NOT in the top ten. Not even top 20. They might be common names, but they aren't in the the most popular bunch. I also guess it depends on your definition-to me popular is the very top names, not the whole list to 100 or anything.

Anna's been just under top 20 for the last couple decades. The year I was born it was #50. I've met 3 other Annas IRL besides family members, one of which was my college roommate, heh. It was far more popular in the 1900s, and if you look at the statistics, even then the breakdown was 20 or so out of every THOUSAND baby girls were named Anna. The most popular names right now are ~7-10/1000.

I'm of two minds on the popularity thing. The girl name we picked was 'lightning-bolt-from-heaven' perfect... Charlotte has a lot of familial ties for us, it's a lovely name, has lots of nickname options for different personalities. However, it's really, really popular all of a sudden, and ever since we picked it, it's been popping up like crazy all over TB. There are at least 5 people on Jan 11 alone who've picked it too.

I figure that the name may be common but our baby will set him or herself apart regardless of what its name is. I can't pretend it doesn't irk me that it's popular all of a sudden, but it's also the perfect name for our family, if our kid is a girl.

CAB'smommy · September 2010

I don't want a name that is super popular, like 5 of the same name in the kindergarten class. But it doesn't bother me to know another child by the same name. We picked out both of our kids' names before they were popular. Now they are both in the top 10 baby names. Oh well.

mchupie · September 2010

krista613:

none of the names we liked were in the top 100 and most not even 200... but i'm surprised because they werent wierd names.

and a friend of my cousin recently named her baby carina which is the same name just spelled differently, and mchupie is also using carina. but we liked it with a k.

i have a feeling the name will become more popular because IMO its a beautiful name.

Yay another January Karina!

I believe that Karina and Carina have different origins. We went with Carina since it is Italian (and DH is Italian). I think Karina might be Greek?

kierstensteck · September 2010

I only care to an extent. We had originally fallen for the name Ethan, but after a little more research, found out that it was the #2 name last year and #3 name in 08. We decided to keep looking, not because it's popular, but because I don't want LO to go to school and be Ethan S. because there are so many Ethans in his class. If I wanted him to be Ethan S., I'd name him as such. LOL.

E12A3396-380D-76AE-46AA-33A0C895872E

1.02.28

cera.rn · September 2010

We will be using a name that is not at the height of popularity right now. I was a Sarah born in 1981, so I was always "Sarah R." I would rather our child not be known by their last initial.

kmcrn08 · September 2010

I thought about the popularity of our name for a brief minute, but when I first mentioned it to DH, he said "That's a pretty name". And I was sold. This was the first name he really showed a liking to, plus it is his grandmother's first name. Kate is a VERY popular middle name around our town, for some reason. But I like it with our "McC" last name.

nygirl07 · September 2010

Nope, probably b/c I work in a school and help place our students every year and we always make sure not to place to many kids with the same name in one class

Emma has always been my girl name from back when Rachel named her daughter Emma on friends Yeah it's very popular on the list right now, but I still don't know anyone using the name or any babies with the name. My mom thought she was being unique with my name (kristin) and I ended up best friends in middle school with 3 other Kristin's and never felt weird about it...if anything it's what made us friends

luckybride1128 · September 2010

I refuse to name my child a name in the top 100. Here's the thing...my name is Jessica. I was born in 1987 when Jessica topped the charts at #1. I was always Jess LastName. Not even Jess C., there were just so freaking many of us! Jessica is a beautiful name that was essentially ruined. Did it scar me for life? No. But have I told my parents a million times they should have just given me my middle name, Florence? Absolutely!! Our top runners are Timothy (after DH) and Mary Naomi (after our grandmothers). They are traditional, and at one point very common, but they are not Ava or Aidan.

krista613 · September 2010

mchupie:
krista613:

none of the names we liked were in the top 100 and most not even 200... but i'm surprised because they werent wierd names.

and a friend of my cousin recently named her baby carina which is the same name just spelled differently, and mchupie is also using carina. but we liked it with a k.

i have a feeling the name will become more popular because IMO its a beautiful name.

Yay another January Karina!

I believe that Karina and Carina have different origins. We went with Carina since it is Italian (and DH is Italian). I think Karina might be Greek?

ive seen greek and russian for karina and that is good because im greek and the husband is russian. so we are both satisfied.

*sallymad* · September 2010

Yes, pretty much our only "rule" when naming our kids is that it can't be in the top 250 on SS list.

I should add though that I really don't care what other people name their kids, that just how we feel about naming our own kids.

HUrquiza · September 2010

I kind of care about popularity of a name...

If it was a girl we were stuck between Isabella and Lucia at first, then I realized how many Isabellas I know... a TON. We decided on Lucia.

Well in the long-run, it was a boy. lol, my luck, because we could NOT come to an agreement over boy's names. It was between Orion, Xavi, and something else (horrible I can't remember, right!?).

We went with Xavi, not only for the fact that its unique, but our last name is Urquiza (Spanish, as is Xavi) and its really hard to come up with something that goes with that. Bob Urquiza just doesn't work. lol

so the short answer is, I don't really care for popular names.

AppleMomma · September 2010

Actually part of me does, I was going to go with Emily, but found that is such a popular name I found that I like Rebecca better anyways.

I have no problem with others naming their kids with popular names, it's your choice, and it will be perfect for your baby.

Want a personalized experience?

Do you care if your baby's name is "popular"?

Re: Do you care if your baby's name is &quot;popular&quot;?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Want a personalized experience?

Do you care if your baby's name is &quot;popular&quot;?

Re: Do you care if your baby's name is &amp;quot;popular&amp;quot;?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards

Do you care if your baby's name is "popular"?

Re: Do you care if your baby's name is "popular"?