0 voters
What popularity rank in your country would (or did) you consider “too popular” if you were naming a child/(renaming yourself)? When I changed my name, my criteria were: not in the top 100 in my birth decade, the previous year, or the last century in total.
I honestly would prefer the name/s I choose to give an actual kid to not be in the top 1000 at all, but I would consider anything within the top 100 in my state off-limits for myself to actually use, and possibly anything that ranks (or has ranked in the last handfull of years) within the top 250 nationally to be a no-go I’m in the US. But I would also take the “playground analysis” into consideration when it comes to popularity, as with all the various spellings, alternatives, and sound-alike names some may actually be more popular than their rank belies
Personally, I would like my children to have a name outside the top 1000 in the US & UK, and preferably something that is only given to a few babies each year.
As someone who love honor names and family names… I just can’t help that [name_f]Scarlett[/name_f] is #12 (which, woah, I had no idea she was so popular!), [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] is #48, [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] is #35, and so on. I totally understand people’s wishes to name their child something less commonly used. To me, in many cases, love, passion, and personal significance of a name trump popularity.
I don’t really care about ranks, to be honest. If I’d wanted to use a popular name, I’d base my decision on how often I hear the name around me, rather than where it ranks in the popularity charts.
I think I’d choose any name that was below the Top 50, ideally, since many of my favourite names rank high.
Top 50 for me - but it might be worth mentioning that I’ve worked/still work with kids and teens so I have met a lot of people with the popular names that puts me off 
I wouldn’t completely forgo using a name I really liked because of its popularity until it reached the top 50, though I’d rather avoid anything in the top 100 if I could. Though honestly I’d be more worried about a steep rise in popularity more than any actual number, as I wouldn’t want the name I pick to sound too trendy or generational.
Ideally, I’d definitely stay out of the top 500, but I decided that my first born son would be named Oliver when I was 5 years old, and I’m still completely in love with the name, so absolute love for a name wouldn’t stop me.
That being said, it does really irk me when something I love becomes popular. It’s an immature emotional reaction that developed in my youth as a side effect of being ridiculed for things I liked only to watch them become popular at some later date and have to hear people talking about whatever it is as if they discovered it.
It happens so often, in fact, that sometimes I feel like I’m a muse or something.
I hope that last sentence doesn’t sound pompous, it’s not meant in that way.
On a surface level, I would say no name is too popular and if it’s the one it’s the one, and end it there. However, I don’t think a name in the top 25, let alone top 10 would ever feel like “the one.” [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] is one of my longest baby name loves, and it’s currently #12 where I’m from, I also really love [name_u]Henry[/name_u], and it’s #4. For girls, I like [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] (#7) and [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f] (#9). And while these names are all on my baby name lists (three of them being on my shortlists), I don’t think they would be if I was currently pregnant. I know I most likely won’t be having kids for another 10+ years, so I expect these names to decline in popularity.
This aside, I do think a big appeal of certain names is how unique they are. For example, [name_u]Solstice[/name_u] is a name I absolutely love, and it’s never been in the top 1000 baby names. However, I will say that as I’ve been seeing it around Nameberry more, it’s lost some of its novelty and it has lost some of its flair! Of course I still absolutely love [name_u]Solstice[/name_u], and it has lots of meaning to me, but I think part of the fun was how unexpected it was as a name!
So do with the thoughts in this post as you will! And note that some people will have very different opinions from me, and that’s totally okay 
Im not sure I would use a name that WASN’T inside the top 1000. 
Maybe the follow up to this is What rank is “too unpopular?”
I voted that no name is too popular.
When I renamed myself, I wanted something familiar where I live but not strongly associated with my generation, since I didn’t want my name to feel too expected, but still liked the elegant, timeless vibe enough to still consider evergreen classics. I ended up choosing a name that was trendy for a different generation.
Preferably out of the top 300 but if I really loved a name I’d use it anyway (Sebastian is #5, [name_u]Angel[/name_u] is #19 and [name_f]Luna[/name_f] is #11 in my state but I still adore them and I’d use [name_u]Angel[/name_u] for a son in a second)