The name I like most for my first baby (if it’s a girl) is ranked #358 ([name]Penelope[/name], NN [name]Poppy[/name]). What does that ranking really mean? [name]How[/name] likely is it that there will be another child with that name in her kindergarten class, middle school, or college? Can anyone explain the rankings in a “real world” way? Is there a way to check if a name is more or less popular depending on geographic location? Thanks!
Popularity ranking is a tricky thing and I don’t always get it either. I definitely couldn’t explain how many children per 1000 the numbers mean. All I know is that the top ten names are much too popular for me! 
From my understanding, most popularity lists separate different spelling ([name]Sophia[/name]/[name]Sofia[/name]) so they don’t really give you an accurate picture of the popularity of the name itself, just the amount that particular spelling is used. A Suphfya (how horrible would that be?) would probably be considered one-of-a-kind, even though the pronunciation is still [name]Sophia[/name], which is a top-ten name.
I don’t think that will be an issue for a [name]Penelope[/name] though!
It’s a good idea to look at the popularity a couple years previous to see if a name has risen or fallen. If it’s jumped up the ranks a lot over a short amount of time you can know it’s likely going to get pretty popular.
Babycenter.com has 2009 and 2010 popularity list (not sure how-- must be updated every month?):
Babynamewizard.com’s name voyager is a good way to look at the popularity of a name over time too:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager#
Here are a couple websites that let you look up the popularity in a particular region or state:
http://namemapper.babynamewizard.com/namemapper/
[name]Hope[/name] I’ve been able to help a little!
Good luck to you!
It’s easy to think that a name is “too popular” because they’re talked about a lot online. People on nameberry seem to be REALLY ahead of the curve in terms of name trends, so it feels like a lot of names are popular that really aren’t at all.
[name]Penelope[/name] is number 358, which means that 907 Penelopes were born in the United States in 2008. Without taking into account populations/sizes of states, there are roughly 18 Penelopes in each of the 50 states.
[name]Poppy[/name] has never been in the rankings, that means there were less (and there’s no way to know how much less) than 261 Poppys born in 2008. Compared to [name]Emma[/name], the number one name, with 18,587 born in just one year!
I hope that gives you a picture of how popular it is. I would be totally comfortable with those odds if I were you! If you tell me what state you live in I can tell you it’s popularity there, or you can check it yourself, at Popular Baby Names That is the only official listing.
P.S. I [name]LOVE[/name] the name [name]Penelope[/name]!!!
My daughter (age 21 months) is named [name]Penelope[/name] - we call her [name]Penn[/name]. We definitely thought she would be the only [name]Penelope[/name] in her age group in our small town…but lo and behold, we met another family with a baby [name]Penelope[/name] just a few months younger!
I was a little bummed out at first, but got over it…our daughter is such a great [name]Penelope[/name], and people always comment on how much they love her name and how well it suits her. If you want to use it, use it! 
I’m wondering about the popularity rankings too - does the rankings count middle names too? Or is it just first names? If it counts middles too that would definitely skew the rankings.
[name]Just[/name] first names
[name]Penelope[/name] is a darling name!
The Social Security Administration is the only list that includes official data from the entire US population. The latest year with published data is 2008 although 2009’s numbers will be made public on Mother’s [name]Day[/name]. I have heard that some states keep their own numbers and publish them sooner so you could possibly try to find out what’s going on in your area. As for the babycenter website’s numbers I would beware of their own lists as they seem to be taken only from the “babycenter population” which I’m guessing means their own members, not the public in general.
Generally names below the top 100 in rank are not hugely popular as far as overall numbers of babies given that name. However another thing to look at is the rate of increase in popularity over the last 10 years or so: [name]Penelope[/name] has risen from near the bottom of the top 1000 from #945 in 2001, steadily, making a major jump every two years, most recently from #409 to #358 from 2007-2008.
To my eyes, that indicates a fairly quick rise and a trend that could continue further in the coming few years. Of course no one can predict whether it’ll make it into the top 100 or plateau sooner so that’s where you have to weight how important popularity of your child’s name is to you.
I was born in the late 80s and there were 5 Margarets in a class of 60 girls. There was not a single [name]Heather[/name], [name]Nicole[/name], [name]Tiffany[/name], or [name]Amber[/name], [name]Rachel[/name], or [name]Melissa[/name], (all top 20 names the year we were born). So it’s hard to say what popularity means.
Yeah, I had a similar experience. I’m an [name]Elizabeth[/name] and although it was like number 2 or similar when I was born (in the UK) I never had another [name]Elizabeth[/name] in the same class, or school, until I was at least 16. [name]Even[/name] now in university, I come across them rarely. So popularity can be a good indicator of how many little Penelopes or Elizabeths are out there, but not necessarily an indicator of how many your [name]Penelope[/name] will encounter.
Rankings by state are on the same website as the national name info, for those of you who don’t know.
This is some really useful information, guys! 
The OP was not the only one who was confused by the rankings- I’ve never really understood what they meant. I just knew I didn’t like it when my favorites went up, haha~
[name]Man[/name], I can’t wait to see the results for '09! I predict that [name]Isabella[/name] trumps [name]Emma[/name]; [name]Matilda[/name], [name]Milo[/name], and [name]Violet[/name] all go up; and [name]Alfred[/name] continues his slow but steady descent into the ranks of obscurity. [name]Alas[/name]…
I’ll be looking to see if [name]Laurel[/name] finally drops off the list entirely. And watching if [name]Esme[/name] decides to make her unfortunate appearance.
Top 100 names are in cirulation in every state, but there will always be local flavor. Growing up my bff was [name]Jennifer[/name] V., in high school it was [name]Jennifer[/name] C. And in College it was [name]Jennifer[/name] T.!!! [name]Jennifer[/name] was popular in the 80’s. I have never had a classmate, co-worker or friend with my name, [name]Jacquelyn[/name], and its not an obscure name, and I have lived in 4 states and 3 countries!
[name]Ava[/name], Isibel, [name]Madeline[/name] and the like have all had their turns as the “new” [name]Jennifer[/name] in my book. I’m even iffy about Spohia at this point due to popularity (I think I prefer [name]Sonia[/name]).
My baby is due in [name]August[/name], and for all my opinions, I do believe you should go with the name you love no matter what!
Assuming your using the ssa site you can check rankings according to state it only gives the top 100 for the entire state so there nothing drastically different aside from [name]Hawaii[/name].
I think the best way to get a feel for the name is to look at the year you were born and maybe the before and after and see what name ranked at 358 then
Also look at you’re names rank and compare to how popular you feel your name was amongst your peers
Things to consider
- Spelling, I don’t think this will affect [name]Penelope[/name] as if there are any spelling variations they aren’t very popular. If anything it’s probably a bit lower.
But when you look at your name or the name that held [name]Penelope[/name]'s rank if it’s something like [name]Catelyn[/name] then look at slightly higher ranking name with no major alternate spelling. - nicknames & similar, you might want to see how [name]Penny[/name] ranks.
- Community, my hometown was largely Italian and had I not moved I would have bet [name]Nicolette[/name] was a top 20 name. I think [name]Penelope[/name] has a very general appeal it is Greek in origin but in my experience seems most popular in [name]England[/name]. So I wouldn’t sweat it much especially if you feel you lively in a fairly diverse area or there’s a good chance of you moving, but if you happen to be one of those [name]Nicolette[/name]'s from my home town then looking at your ranking may not do any good.
And for the record I think [name]Penelope[/name] is lovely
I’m so glad you asked this question lems!
I always wonder myself how this whole popularity thing works.
I’m glad that people have been mentioning that just because a name is popular doesn’t mean that you will encounter that name, especially in different places in the world.
I think that although popularity could be a good indication of certain trends, I don’t think they necessarily mean that you will be surrounded by the popular ones
Of course you all know that on the individual name pages for nameberry, there are charts showing the name popularity on the SSA charts for each year – just move your cursor over the chart for specifics. Yes, how much a name is trending upwards counts for how popular it’s really going to be over time, and popular culture counts too – [name]Seraphina[/name], for instance, is not yet in the Top 1000, but surely will be over the next five years.
Judging what popularity really “means” is difficult, especially when you’re looking at a small pool like a neighborhood or a classroom at school. Two Penelopes is probably one too many if you’re picking a name that will really be individual. But this is something you can’t control.
You may want to look at a piece we did on the The [name]Daily[/name] Beast this week on Elite Popularity, using the most-searched (i.e. most popular) names on nameberry – http://www2.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-03-10/the-elites-top-50-baby-names/p/
As others have already stated, I really would not worry about popularity being a problem with [name]Penelope[/name]. Coincidences do happen, and your daughter may end up being one of three Penelopes in her class, but that could be the case even if you named her [name]Agnes[/name]. You’re certainly not increasing the odds of that happening with a name like [name]Penelope[/name] (as you would be, for example, with an [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Sophia[/name], or [name]Isabella[/name]).
One other thing I think is important to point out about popularity, though, that I think a lot of people don’t consider: the popularity lists for a year only speak to babies born that year; they do not indicate how many people in general are living with the name. Obviously, your child’s same age-peers are going to be the group that will determine whether or not she is one of three with the same name in her class, but I think it’s important to remember that your child will live in a world filled with people of all ages, not just her peers. If you give your child a name like [name]Lisa[/name], for example, you might not be made aware of “popularity” issues from looking at the 2008 SSA list alone, which will indicate to you no danger of your child being among other same-age children named [name]Lisa[/name]. Nonetheless, if popularity is a concern for you in selecting a name, you would be remiss to not consider the fact that a child named [name]Lisa[/name] will probably quite often encounter others with her name - they will simply be more likely to be significantly older than she is (aunts, teachers, mothers of friends, etc, not to mention actresses, writers, fictional characters, and others in the public eye). It is also a name that has a more “familiar” quality to most people, for better or worse, than a name like [name]Eulalie[/name]. A good question to ask yourself when thinking about a name is: when my daughter meets someone for the first time and introduces herself, what is the likelihood that the person she is meeting will know someone else with the name? And how many others? So many that my daughter will become just another ________, just a few so that the name is not surprising but still has a unique quality, or absolutely none so that the name sounds strange or even made up. Where along that spectrum do you want your daughter’s name to fall; there is no right or wrong answer, but it is something you should consider before picking a name. A name is an identity, and sometimes the impression it leaves is determined as much by the name’s familiarity in collective consciousness as by the sound of the name itself. [name]Amelia[/name] and [name]Aurelia[/name], for example, are extremely similar in sound, but leave two entirely different impressions, in large part because of the vast difference in rates of common usage. [name]Amelia[/name] sounds like it could very well be someone’s very own grandma, reminds us of American heroines, and beloved childhood books and has an overall characteristic of comfort and warmth, with a downside of potential fudiness; [name]Aurelia[/name], on the other hand, is a name most people have never known on a real live person and so it instantly takes on the opposite characteristics of being exotic and worldly, bold and sophisticated, inviting us to ask more about how one came to have that name, but also on the downside feels perhaps a bit unapproachble.
I think when we look at SSA lists, and talk about rising popularity, at bottom what we’re doing is the following: we’re saying, we know what the name sounds like to our ears now (e.g. familiar as apple pie, exotic as flan, etc), but will this name sound the same 20, 30, 50, years from now. For a name that is consistent in its popluarity over time, and anticipated to remain so, we can feel somewhat confident that the name will retain the feel it has to us now, whatever that feel may be, throughout our child’s lifetime. For a name with more erratic risings and fallings, though, we wonder if the name will actually sound so different in the future that what we intended the name to “feel” like will actually change. It’s like the expression “every [name]Tom[/name], [name]Dick[/name], and [name]Harry[/name],” an expression intended to convery the average guy down the street, an expression likely to go out of common usage over the next few generations considering our children probably don’t know any Dicks or Harries and very few Toms. But what will the saying be 25 years from now: “every [name]Max[/name], [name]Jack[/name], and [name]Aiden[/name]”? If you like the name [name]Aiden[/name] for your son - and it is a great name - checking the SSA list before you give it to him will give you pause to remind yourself that naming your son [name]Aiden[/name] won’t mean just giving him this great name but also making sure he’s just another “[name]Tom[/name], [name]Dick[/name], or [name]Harry[/name].”