Apparently you can look through a list to see which names were least used each year and a lot of baby namer people on Youtube look through them. That’s cheating lol. Those poor parents tried so hard to find a name that they liked that not many people had and it got taken away from them and it may even become a popular name now.
I read such names are only released to the public if there are at least five babies named them per year in the US (or, I believe, three babies in the UK). So names that are truly unique and only given to one baby are not made public.
Unfortunately that’s the reality with any name. If it appears in a baby name book or website then the likelihood is that other people are aware of it.
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Voila, now you can look at them too
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It says if it would narrow it down to 5 babies in the country or in a specific state or area then it’s excluded, to give those people privacy. Also technically the MOST rare names would be ones that are given to 0 babies, and that can’t be recorded. But also I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking through rare name lists to come up with inspiration for your own baby’s name. Nobody owns any name and you always run the risk of your baby’s name becoming popular even if you completely make up a new name that’s never been used before. I mean every name had someone be the first at some point, right?
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I understand that no name is “safe” and any name can become popular at any time and that no name is really rare exactly, but it makes me sad how so many names that I like are really popular now so when I think of a name that I really like that isn’t in the 1,000, I get worried that it might become popular.
I can just imagine two parents naming their child a name that not many people CURRENTLY have and then some people look through that list and then the name becomes really popular straight after and then the child might end up with tons of people with the same name in the same class at school.
[name_m]Even[/name_m] if there are only 10 children in a certain courntry named a certain name in a year, that’s not many considering how many babies are born each year in that same country.
At least if the list isn’t shown, the name stands a chance of not becoming super popular when that child is young. It could happen anyway, but it’s not as likely.
I don’t think a name would ever become popular that quickly that it would cause an issue. The parents who are “copying” the name would have to do so the year after the child was born (because that’s when the stats are released). I suppose they could still be in the same class but what’s the chance of multiple people in the same town choosing the same name all at once. I don’t think it’s worth worrying about. I understand where you’re coming from but names don’t just become popular out of the blue like that. They increase slowly and then as more people become aware of them the rate at which their popularity increases increases (if that makes sense)
So yeah, a name that was only given to 5 children one year is not going to become a top 10 (or even top 1000) name within a year so there is no need to worry about your child knowing several other children with her supposedly unique name.
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Popularity stats aren’t always a reliable indicator of what is truly popular anyways. I work with children and have done for a few years, and I haven’t met any children with some of the top 10 names - a lot of the names I see are below the top 50, and I see repeats of names that “aren’t popular” all the time.
In 3 years working with kids exclusively, I haven’t seen half of the names in the US top 20 (24/40 for both genders - I counted).
I’m not saying ignore stats completely, but if you’re truly that concerned about popularity of names, stats only give a broad view, there’s 50 states in the US - a child in California’s name isn’t really going to have an impact on your child’s name if your child lives in Florida. Look at regional data if you’re nervous about popular names, but even then, your city itself could have a very different name landscape 
Also the sheer number of names being used now is higher than previous decades - the odds of multiples of a name in one class aren’t as high as they were, even when I was a kid in the late 90s/early 00s.
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I really don’t think names become mainstream popular due to appearing at the very bottom of the SSA extended list! I mean, how many people even know that data exists, let alone have time to trawl through thousands and thousands of names beyond the Top 1000 in CSV format?
Many/most of the names that low down are respellings and slight variants of more popular names, and it’s actually very hard to pick out any one name amongst all the “noise” (trust me!)
Names that become popular very suddenly almost always have some kind of pop culture or celebrity link to bring them sudden visibility, plus a fashionable sound.
Take [name_f]Luna[/name_f]: [name_u]Harry[/name_u] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] gave it enough visibility to break the Top 1000, then a few high-profile celebrities used it, plus it has a very current sound and style. That’s why it skyrocketed (no pun intended 
), not because it appeared on the extended US names list. You can see the same happening currently with names like [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] and [name_f]Maeve[/name_f].
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It’s nice to know that names may not be as commonly used as I thought they were even if they are currently popular or shown on a baby name channel. I know this topic sounded really silly, but I get worried easily lol. Thanks guys. 