[name_m]Hi[/name_m] friends! I’m in the mood to expand my list and thought I’d ask for suggestions to see if anybody has ideas I haven’t considered.
[name_f]My[/name_f] style tends to be well-known, well-established names – I love how comforting and familiar they feel. However, while some of my top names are statistically very popular, I especially love when names fall into the “sweet spot” of very well-known, but not statistically that common, at least among current children. So that’s what I’m looking for!
Specifically, I’d love name suggestions for any gender that fit the below criteria:
- [name_f]Pretty[/name_f] much everybody in the US will be familiar with the name
- Not currently in the top 500 names – extra points if it’s not even in the top 1000
- Not overwhelmingly dated to a specific time period (admittedly this is subjective: names that feel “kind of 80s,” “vintage,” or “a little retro” are fine, but I don’t want anything that hit the top of the charts then dropped dramatically, or that’s very much seen as an “old person name”.) More of a “steady familiarity” or “classic but not currently popular” would be best.
- Nothing that has a very obvious reason for having fallen off the charts
A few examples of names that fit this criteria would be [name_f]Claudia[/name_f], [name_f]Antonia[/name_f], [name_f]April[/name_f], [name_f]Renee[/name_f], [name_f]Marla[/name_f], [name_f]Celia[/name_f], Christina/Christine, [name_f]Bridget[/name_f], [name_f]Jacqueline[/name_f], [name_f]Miranda[/name_f], [name_f]Cleo[/name_f], and [name_f]Shelby[/name_f] for girls, and [name_m]Bruno[/name_m], [name_m]Forest[/name_m], Howard/Howie, and [name_m]Jerome[/name_m] for boys. As you can tell, they vary a lot in origin and some are a little “dated”, but they’re not dated in the way, say [name_f]Gertrude[/name_f] or [name_f]Debra[/name_f] is. I’m also having a much harder time with boys’ names for this criteria.
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!