Ok That makes much more sense! 
Anything in the top one hundred scares me a bit, and sometimes even in the 200’s. I don’t like names that are super popular, and I wouldn’t want there to be five other kids with the same name in one class. I think I really draw the line at the top 150, and anything above that I would have to really love to consider.
- [name]Athena[/name]
No number.
I choose names because I love them and feel a connection to it. I would never nix a name due to the SSA number.
However, if I hear a name more than I feel is average in a given time, say a week or a month, then it starts to lose it’s specialness to me, and I lose interests because it no longer feels like my future childs name.
If I was completely in love with a name and wanted to use it, I would use it regardless of its popularity ranking, whether it out of the top 1000 or number 1.
In general I avoid the top 500 or so and below that, I tend to look at how they’re trending. So for instance one of my favourite boy name choices when we were naming DD 3 years ago was Ronen. It’s only ranked 507 but seems to have been on a sharp incline over the last few years. As a result it’s out, whereas a name of similar ranking but with a flat trajectory would probably still be in. To be honest, I’m even happier with names that are outside the top 1000 but I wouldn’t totally discount something I loved just because it’s ranked a bit higher than that.
I also try to pay more attention to regional name trends in my province as they can be somewhat different than what’s happening in the US.
I really struggle with this. My last name is extremely uncommon. My husband is the only male in the US with the ability to reproduce with our last name. [name]Even[/name] in Poland it’s uncommon… So as a result we try to go with names that are not terribly popular, but that people have heard of. DS #1’s name is in the 250 range… DS #2’s name is the number 2 name right now, I think. We chose it because we loved it. I really wish I had known about nameberry before we chose his name though, because we certainly would have chosen something different had we known how popular it was already. I had never met an [name]Ethan[/name] before, and now I meet them everywhere. Sometimes I really wish I could change his name, but I also knew the moment I saw him that his name was [name]Ethan[/name].
I do tend to like some of the popular names, but I won’t refuse to use a name because of its popularity if I really love it. When I look at the SSA list, I use the option to see the percent of children with that name… [name]Even[/name] at #1 or #2 it’s like 1.3%. So you’re looking at only one percent, which isn’t enough to make me shy away from a name. So many parents are like us berries, they are looking for names that are a little more unusual and so just because a name is #1 doesn’t mean it’s like the Ashleys or Jennifers of the 80’s.
I see what you mean, but still, lol, I think that’s quite unlikely these days. I have looked up statistics for some of the most popular girls’ names ([name]Lily[/name], [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Hannah[/name], etc.), and did the math, and it averages that there’s only one [name]Isabella[/name] born per every other school district or so each year. Yes, there will be multiple kids with the same name in a school year, but it’s nowhere near as common as it was when we were in high school. Names are much more diversified now than they were in the 70s and 80s and even the 90s.
Normally I would avoid the top 10 for my state…but sometimes those names are up there for a good reason. Its just universal appeal.
In general, I like to avoid the Top 100… however, my son’s name ([name]Asher[/name]) is getting close, and a couple of the girls’ names on my list ([name]Julia[/name], [name]Zoe[/name]) are there but I still can’t let go of them!