People talk about trendy names on here all the time, and I have a few questions about them. What exactly makes a name “trendy?” ([name]How[/name] many people have to be using it/considering it at one time? Is it because a celebrity used it and then other people liked it? etc).
I’ve seen “Today’s Trending Names” on the side of the home page of babynames.com, but where does this information come from? I think it might be from Twitter, but I can’t remember, but even then, are they the most mentioned names on that site for the day?
What is the difference between trendy and popular?
Would you use a name you honestly loved even if people said it was trendy? I’m not close to naming a child right now, so this is not an issue for me at the moment, but if I had a name that had been on my list for years that was suddenly trendy when my child was born and I still thought the name fit him/her, I would still want to use it, but part of me would be afraid that people might give me crap for it anyway.
I do think that a lot of names people consider “trendy” are only trendy on this site, because I know I have mentioned some names to people that are talked about here, and they cringe or think the name is weird.
Anyway, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts. Can you also add some names that you think are trendy right now and why?
When I think of trendy it is quite different to popular.
Trendy is a name that is following an upward trend. Trendy names may rise for a few years then fall away- a bit like a firework. Popular names might include trendy names or classic names. Examples of popular but trendy names from the past: [name]Shannon[/name] and [name]Taylor[/name]. Examples of classic yet popular [name]Emily[/name].
Names I see as trendy: [name]Harper[/name], surnames, [name]Addison[/name], [name]Avery[/name], K…y, _iden names, some vintage names.
What makes me think they are trendy is when I had my older children I literally never heard of them and I am a name freak.
Some names are popular: eg [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Sophia[/name], [name]Isabella[/name]- but while their current popularity may fade off after a decade they will still remain in use in the future.
In the end, if you watch naming statistics, some names are essentially always there. Other names come and go even if they are classic (eg [name]Jessica[/name] was huge but has dropped). If you love a name, use it. In life they will be born of a certain era so why hide it at the expense of a name you prefer?
I don’t think trendy is the same as popular either. To me a trendy name is a name that will eventually become dated just like [name]Jennifer[/name], [name]Britney[/name], and [name]Ashley[/name] have now even though they were extremely popular before.
Names like [name]Emily[/name], [name]Sophia[/name], and [name]Olivia[/name] may be popular but they have been used in the past 200 years and probably still will be in the future. No one will look at a [name]Sophia[/name] and automatically think of the decade in which it was super popular. They are classics
However names like [name]Addison[/name], [name]Madison[/name], [name]Makenzie[/name], [name]Kendall[/name], [name]Kiley[/name], [name]Kennady[/name] were rarely used in the past for girls and even though they are wildly popular now will fade once they loose their flare or appeal and when they are heard in the future people will automatically think of the decade of the 2000s and 2010s because thats when they were most popular.
However I do believe some traditional names can be trendy, like [name]Mia[/name], [name]Ava[/name], [name]Chloe[/name], and [name]Madelyn[/name]. All are perfectly normal, some what traditional names but see them becoming like [name]Patricia[/name], [name]Deborah[/name], and [name]Melissa[/name]. Perfectly good names but they’ll just sound too dated for our generation.