Name Popularity

FlipFlop1025 · February 2016

DH and I are team green, we have both a boy and girl name that we love! We picked these names out months ago, have been calling our little baby by these names and they feel right! Recently we noticed both names are on the top 100 baby name lists. Is that bad? We have a unique last name, and according to sites like https://howmanyofme.com/ there aren't many people with the same first and last name combo we decided on, so that's good!

My name is very unique, I have never had another with my name in class, work, teams, etc. I have no idea what it is like to share a name or have to be referred to by a nickname or last name. My question is, how popular is too popular? Who else has decided on popular names? Any insight into what it's like sharing a name?

smushi · February 2016

Both of our names (for DS and for this LO) are apparently in the top ten. Oh well. Go with what you like, no regrets

KMKaiser07 · February 2016

I always had at least 3-4 other people in my classrooms growing up that shared the same name and it didn't bother me one bit. Yes sometimes we had to go by first and last name but most times you just responded every time you heard your name called and if it was meant for you great, if not, you didn't waste much time finding it out.

mb0112 · February 2016

The names I'm looking at are also in the same range- #70ish in my state and #100ish in country. I have a common last name so I wasn't sure if that would bother me.

For comparison I looked up my birth year and my name had been #23 which was still less than 1% of baby girls-- it was 0.79%. Growing up I was almost always the only one in classes at school with my first name. I think there were 2 others in my high school graduating class of about 350 people. And that was back when names were less diverse. 2014's #23 girl name was only 0.35% of the population. The #5 name was closest to the percentage that my name was back in the 80s.

So so that's my nerdy way of telling myself that a #70/100 name will not feel overly common at all. If we have bad luck, it's always possible she'll share the same first and last name as someone who is in all her classes forever! But chances are she won't and just might come across one or two others with her name as she goes though childhood.

As far as how it feels to share a name, I never expected to be the only one with my name so I never really thought about it. I'm sure it would get annoying if you were always "Jessica B." Because there were always 2 other Jessica's in every class, but that isn't happening much these days especially if you stay out of the top 10 names.

eivaska · February 2016

I don't that any name is really too popular. If you like it go with it. My experience with having a relatively common name, Erin, is that it's not a big deal. I didn't really get a nickname since my name is so short. If I was in a situation with another Erin people would just refer to us as Erin X. And Erin Y. Which has never bothered me. My experience with men is that by high school 3/4 of men end up calling each other by their last names whether they have the same first name or not. This seems to be especially true if they play sports. I think if you like the names go with it.

Cowboycorgi · February 2016

According to the website you linked there is only 1 of me in the United States, woo!
(I know there is a Canadian twenty something with the same name as her grandmother tried friending me on Facebook)

unique names can be fun because people love to give you 50 million nick names, and you are usually the only one in school with that name, but they can be frustrating as well... People mispronounced my name all the time, or misspelled it. (It's was a city/state in Greece so it's not just made up)

so honestly, I don't think you can go right or wrong with a popular name. You can go very wrong with a unique name. At the end of the day as long as you love it, your child will probably grow to love it as well.

FlipFlop1025 · February 2016

Thanks ladies! I feel so much better about our name choices now. We will stick with the names we love!

flowerpower5838 · February 2016

My name was a top 3 name the year I was born. It never bothered me being 1 of usually 2 or 3 other Amandas in a class or on a team or anything.

The only thing I would think twice about when it comes to "popular" names is if they will really date your child or not. For example, Tiffanys are pretty commonly dated as girls born in the 80s, as I am sure the Harpers and whatnot will be similarly dated as girls born in the 2010s.

mamaimmoos · February 2016

I always had other girls in my class with the same name as me. I think at one point in high school there were 7 Kayla's in my "class". It has never bothered me a bit. I started basically going by my last name/nickname in high school because of sports and it just stuck! I appreciated always being able to find my name on the personalized stuff at the store though! Our name choice is in the top 35 and i didn't even think twice about it because we love it and we have a unique last name so it was hard enough to pick a name that suited our last name let alone worry about the "popularity" factor.

FutureMrsCaesar · February 2016

Being in the top 100 isn't really all that popular. I'd say top 10 is where you are really going to see the most redundancies. After that it drops off pretty sharply. Most of the top 10 names right now are popular for good reason, they are beautiful, classic names, and it's hard to go wrong with those.

emjeve · February 2016

My name was #1 the year I was born and in my high school class of about 450 kids, I only knew of 2 other Emily's, so I don't take name popularity to seriously!

bntfroggie · February 2016

Honestly I think if you have a popular name it doesn't bother you at all, it is only those people with unpopular names that we think it is odd when someone has our name. Like that's my name get your own.

eileenmcgoo · February 2016

I just stay out of the top 10. Names are very diverse these days.

jenniferamcooper · February 2016

Like @mb0112 I ran some analytics for our baby name. Unintentionally we named our first a top 10 name, we discuss named had lengthy conversations and then saw "oh crap this name is getting popular". We were team green the first time around so we had a boy name and girl name picked out... let's just say in our area Charlotte (our likely baby girl name) wasn't as common (it was top 20) as it is now.
I am a 1984 Jennifer so I ran some stats to make myself feel more confident about our choices. Basically about 6% of baby girls born in 1984 were named Jennifer, compared to 1.01% of babies were named Ava (#1 baby name for our region in 2015). Kids are being named diversely so I think the worry about having the Jennifer-Amanda-Jessica-Ashley issue many of us faced is becoming not a concern.
It's not a big deal if your kiddo has one name twin in elementary school. There was only one other Jennifer in my class growing up (and even only a few years since there were 2 elementary school classes) but I went to school with 2 Tara and 3 Stacey's which were in the top 100 (just looked) but in the back 50s.

So pick what you love.

elle313 · February 2016

If you love the name, go with it. Popular names aren't like they used to be, now even if your name is in the top 10 that doesn't mean you'll have 4 other kids in your class with that name. There's so much more variety overall.

oceanchild · February 2016

When I was a kid, my name was extremely uncommon. Nobody could spell it or pronounce it. It's a normal, not-made-up name, and it's more popular now, but not at all when/where I was in school. I lived in a big city and I went to a small private school. And there was a girl in my class with my name (same girl - she also went to my church and was in my Sunday school) every year from 1st grade until we moved out of state in 7th (to another school where the teachers couldn't get my name right on the first day of class). So for all the people with "popular" names above that happened to never have a name twin in their classes, it can happen the other way too. Always go with the names you love

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