For those of you who care about the popularity of the names you choose, do you have any popular names that you would use, but hesitate/don’t because of their popularity?
Also any names you would consider using regardless of how oft used they are?
Mine:
[name]Emma[/name]
[name]Bella[/name]
*[name]Nora[/name]
[name]Hazel[/name]
[name]Lillian[/name]/[name]Lilly[/name]
[name]Allison[/name]
*[name]Ruby[/name]
*[name]Henry[/name]
[name]Emmett[/name]
*names I would consider despite popularity.
[name]Ava[/name] – Though would definitely stick in the middle
[name]Claire[/name] – GAH. So torn.
[name]Julia[/name]
[name]Leah[/name]
[name]Nora[/name] – Though would love to use
[name]Sadie[/name] – Ditto
[name]Violet[/name]
[name]Caleb[/name]
[name]Cole[/name]
[name]Daniel[/name]
[name]Evan[/name]
[name]Jack[/name] – But would definitely stick in the middle
[name]James[/name] – Might use
[name]Mason[/name]
[name]Max[/name]
[name]Owen[/name] – Middle is a definite
[name]Ryan[/name]
I also love the mega popular [name]Alexander[/name], but don’t hesitate at all to use
I agree with [name]Ruby[/name]. To me it has always been the perfect name. I was devastated when it became popular!
For boys I really like [name]Gavin[/name], but I meet a lot of young Gavins. [name]Max[/name] is a favourite of mine too thats too popular, not to mention I have 3 [name]Max[/name]'s in my family…
[name]Emma[/name] is this name for me. I love it and if my husband had liked it I might have been tempted to use it.
For boys, I love the name [name]Henry[/name]. I’d still use it even though it’s fairly popular now.
[name]Ava[/name]
[name]Sadie[/name]
[name]Claire[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]
[name]Isabel[/name]
[name]Audrey[/name]
[name]Grace[/name]
[name]Olivia[/name]
[name]Sam[/name]
[name]Jackson[/name]
[name]Asher[/name]
I would still consider them; I’m just sad they are so popular.
[name]Isabella[/name] and [name]Sophia[/name]… I always loved these names but they are way too popular to use now.
I like the name [name]Paisley[/name] but from 2006-12 it has jumped from (832 to 104) and seems to continue going up, definitely going in the direction of too popular.
Despite the association with the horrible fabric (which my mom constantly reminds me every time I hint at naming her future grandchild [name]Paisley[/name]) it’s such a cute name and I like that it starts with a P.
[name]May[/name] be getting there with [name]Sebastian[/name] as it has cracked the top 100, but is still low enough for me to use and seems to have plateaued.
Only time will tell.
I would still use a popular name if:
That said, DH and I agreed not to use a top 25 name for future children, so that would eliminate some names I love -
[name]Ella[/name], [name]Emily[/name], [name]Charlotte[/name], [name]Olivia[/name] and [name]Lily[/name].
I’d still consider [name]William[/name] and [name]James[/name] because they are family names.
Naming a girl was so much more difficult for me than naming a boy.
I would have gone with [name]Sophia[/name], [name]Emma[/name] or [name]Ava[/name] if they were not so popular and [name]Ava[/name] was a mean little girl down the street so that kind of ruined the name for us. Rather than [name]Isabella[/name] I liked [name]Arabella[/name], but I think that will become very popular over the next few years.
When I was pregnant with my first, I didn’t want to use a name that was “too popular” but when I came across the name [name]Emma[/name], I knew that was her name. It just felt right. So, I don’t pay attention to how popular a name is anymore. If I love it, I will use it. The only exception being a super trendy name. There are some of those that I like but wouldn’t use.
So many.
[name]Ruby[/name] *
[name]Stella[/name] *
[name]Molly[/name] *
[name]Scarlett[/name]
[name]Lucy[/name] *
[name]Violet[/name] *
[name]Paige[/name]
[name]Alice[/name] *
[name]Delilah[/name] *
[name]Willow[/name]
[name]Hazel[/name]
[name]Gabriel[/name] *
[name]Xavier[/name]
[name]Jude[/name] *
[name]Morgan[/name] * (popular for girls, ugh)
[name]Sawyer[/name]
[name]Archer[/name] (too trendy)
[name]Asher[/name]
[name]Tristan[/name]
[name]Jack[/name] * (firstborn boys are always given the name [name]John[/name] in my family and [name]Jack[/name] totally could have been my loophole out of this stupid tradition!)
[name]Benjamin[/name] *
[name]Oliver[/name] *
[name]Julian[/name]
[name]Charlie[/name] *
[name]Raphael[/name] *
[name]Jasper[/name] *
I would absolutely use [name]Raphael[/name] and [name]Jasper[/name]. I could see using [name]Gabriel[/name], and would maybe use [name]Benjamin[/name] as long as I was absolutely fascistic that he be called [name]Benji[/name] or [name]Jem[/name] and not [name]Ben[/name]. I would definitely use [name]Morgan[/name] for a boy. [name]Alice[/name] I would absolutely use if it didn’t sound exactly like “[name]Alexander[/name]” in conjunction with my surname. The rest I’ve found less-popular replacements for: [name]Iris[/name] instead of [name]Violet[/name], [name]Julius[/name] instead of [name]Julian[/name], etc. I’m also anxiously watching my longtime favorites [name]Eloise[/name] and [name]Juniper[/name], which are racing up the charts. [name]Even[/name] [name]Matilda[/name] is rising fast. If [name]Iris[/name] ends up in the Top 100 I shall cry – and probably use her anyway. I’m less worried about my boys’ names – I have a feeling [name]Roscoe[/name] and [name]Dashiell[/name], [name]Balthazar[/name] and [name]Atlas[/name], will stay pretty obscure.
If I reach a point where I can’t find a name I like as much as a top 50 name, I’d still consider using it.
From experience thought, I had like 5 Amandas in my class and you’d have to refer to them as [name]Amanda[/name] H., Panda, insert last name… it just got ridiculous when you’d have to stop a conversation to specify which [name]Amanda[/name] you were referring to. I thought it ruined the beauty of the name by having to refer to the person either by their last name or an alternate name. [name]Even[/name] the nicknames were of the surname (which is why I stopped as I didn’t want to post people’s last names on the internet). So for me it was just from personal experience.
In all honesty, I just took the qualities I liked from the name and searched for a name containing those qualities and they’re out there. I even combined qualities from 2 names I loved to search for a new name. It’s hard to find 1 name with all the same qualities from a previous one, so i sort of cut and paste (without overtly creating) to get there
I’m just one of those that would prefer to keep a name to myself until I’m 6 months pregnant as my friends/family members are the type of people to use name you like before you do. When I’m pregnant you’d be the first test audience for my names.
[name_m]Gabriel[/name_m]
[name_m]Liam[/name_m]
[name_m]Elijah[/name_m]
[name_m]Lucas[/name_m]
[name_f]Amelia[/name_f] - hate that its popular but probably going to end up using it because of a dream i had about having a girl named that. 
[name_f]Sophia[/name_f] - always loved that name but its just too popular
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] - i have two my grandma, aunt and cousin is called that so its out
[name_f]Emily[/name_f] - its just everywhere
( how do you guys make the names clickable ? )
I like a lot of popular names especially boys-[name_m]Jack[/name_m], [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] etc. For girls-[name_f]Julia[/name_f] + [name_f]Emily[/name_f].
Your names are clickable now, you just wait a little bit after posting and it’s done for you :).
For me it’s not so much that I’m “worried” about a name being popular. It’s that there are so many wonderful lovely names that are not popular and popular names are so well…represented that I feel like I’m doing a disservice to these lovely underused names by picking one that’s popular.
Anyway…[name_f]Olivia[/name_f] is the #1
Thank you
[name_f]Aria[/name_f]! I’m convinced its the next [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_f]Isabella[/name_f], etc. It’s such a beautiful name but I don’t want an [name_f]Aria[/name_f] C. I love the nn [name_f]Liv[/name_f] but can’t bring myself to use [name_f]Olivia[/name_f]. I love [name_f]Emma[/name_f] too!
If we continue our trend of family names then I really [name_m]John[/name_m] with the nickname [name_m]Jack[/name_m] and my husband and I both love [name_f]Sarah[/name_f]. I’m thinking we’ll probably use [name_f]Sarah[/name_f] since it’s one of the few names we both love. [name_f]Emma[/name_f] is also a family name but I’m not sure if I love it enough to use it despite it’s popularity. [name_m]Michael[/name_m] and [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] are also family names but we probably won’t use them unless we do a unique nickname like [name_u]Mickey[/name_u] for [name_m]Michael[/name_m].
I also like [name_f]Hannah[/name_f] and [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] but even if we decide to stop doing family names we won’t be using those.
My maiden name is [name_m]Owens[/name_m], and I’ve always wanted to name a son [name_u]Owen[/name_u] (a lot of women in my family have given their maiden names to a son), but it’s getting so popular! I will probably still consider it, but I wish it wasn’t shooting up to the top of the list so fast…