There are a few popular names I really like: [name]Ethan[/name], [name]Daniel[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], james, and [name]John[/name]; [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Chloe[/name], and [name]Sarah[/name] (well, without the h), in the top 20 for last year.
My own name is popular but peaked at 3rd 5 years before I was born, and was at 12 the year I was born. It is still in the top 200! When I think about how people are looking for a name, “preferably not in the top 1000” just how many little baby Karens have you met lately? NONE. 1,805 were born last year with my name, 8 more than were named [name]Violet[/name]. And the year my name was 12th, [name]Karen[/name] was as popular as the name [name]Emma[/name] was at #1 last year. Of course me and [name]Violet[/name], we’re going in different directions, and I accept that.
I don’t know that I place a lot of stock in how popular a name is. Of course, I would like to seem “original.” I think “original” sounds better to me than worrying about how many classmates they will have with the same name, if that makes any sense. Ideally want a name that people would wish they’d thought of if they ever heard of it, rather than a name you hear every now and then, just not in the neighborhood.
If I really like the way a name sounds, it is good, and if I don’t, it shouldn’t matter. It kind of does. Once in a while, I dreamed of having a name that was really cool and made me sound “cool” like other girls with a cool name (that no one else had). You know, sometimes you could feel ordinary, with ordinary life, and project some exciting coolness on someone else, like it must be their name or something, when you’re young. [name]Even[/name] still, sometimes I wished I was a [name]Jennifer[/name]. They had a popular name and they were popular. I always liked my name more than [name]Jennifer[/name], but you were set if you were a [name]Jen[/name].
So yeah, sometimes those feeling stick with you a long time after you get over it and accept your regular boring name, that’s popular but doesn’t make you popular. In the end I think I lucked out. I still like the sound of my own name, and don’t feel like it has an “image” of my socio-economic status and probable upbringing, or what I am probably like, and that’s important to me (I could be deluded). The thing I worry most about popular names is image - where is this name going after it peaks?
The name [name]Linda[/name] peaked in, well it was last #1 in 1952 and 40 years later, it was still in the top 200. Now it is below 500. I don’t think anyone minds the name’s image; it just went out of fashion. Names that were popular 10 or 20 years ago already sound like a different era. If I chose [name]Chloe[/name] next year, will it drop like a rock in 5 years? 20 years ago [name]Chloe[/name] sounded really “cool” and original (whereas [name]Isabella[/name] sounded really pretty but not “cool”) but if it’s so popular, what do people think of it now, merely nice? Catchy? One of the reasons I liked it seems to have vanished over time.
I like the name [name]Amber[/name], and most people have terrible associations with that name. If fewer people use it today, it would reasonably set your child apart in the classroom, and the other children wouldn’t have associations with that name - or maybe that’s their mom’s name or their aunt’s name. Maybe the teacher will not treat [name]Amber[/name] fairly because she went to school with an [name]Amber[/name] or 20. I still think it’s pretty to look at, free of any associations, it sounds sunny and warm and carefree, but unlikely for me to choose it. So if I chose a popular name today, I would want to know in what way will people think of the person with this name 5 or 10 and especially 25 years from now.
I don’t think most of the boys names I like have this problem at all, but I don’t know how boys feel about their names. I prefer the names I like by sound mostly and image, and they are long-lasting names that are unlikely to be diminished in popularity or image for a while. I guess my “[name]Amber[/name]” analog for boys would be [name]Zachary[/name]. I still like [name]Zachary[/name], but it sort of came and went before I got around to it, now “sounds dated.” Whatever that means. [name]Young[/name] [name]Zachary[/name]'s mom had a cell phone the size of a brick. I get it. It’s still at #47, so still reasonably popular, but I get it. My [name]Chloe[/name] analog for boys would be [name]Ethan[/name]. I’m surprised it took so long to be as popular as it is now, and is still popular… so when is it going to be a [name]Zachary[/name]?
I think the popularity of a name that still sounds good to you shouldn’t matter, except it kind of does. There’s nothing wrong with a popular name until it stops being popular, which could happen within your child’s first 20 years of life, but at least they will have company on the way down. I did.