Two of our kids have names in the US top 100–[name]Madeleine[/name] and [name]Sebastien[/name]. As spelled, they have lower rankings, but for all practical purposes they are the same. We chose [name]Madeleine[/name] because it was easy for both the French and English sides of the family to pronounce and it is a family name. My husband has genealogical charts for his family that go back to the 1500s. There are Madeleines all over both sides, but it had not been used for about 100 years.
I see people on here being warned off of [name]Madeline[/name] all the time because it is super popular. According to the SSI, it is. But since her birth we have lived in two states and three provinces–and we have only met three other Madeleines. [name]One[/name] of them was in her eighties…and one was a cat. So popular on paper does not always mean one on every block.
We definitely hear more people calling for their little Sebastiens on the playground. But we live in an area where about 50% of residents speak French. [name]Sebastien[/name] is a French classic, so we don’t feel as if we are a part of a trend.
I think it’s better to choose a name for reasons other than a quest for uniqueness. It can be really hard to anticipate what names might end up popular, even only in your town/neighborhood. We are in a toddler storytime group at the library. It started last week and when they called the roll, there was a little girl named [name]Dahlia[/name]. I thought to myself that I had never met someone with that name. Then five names later, all of us were introduced to another little [name]Dahlia[/name]. [name]Both[/name] moms looked stunned.
I don’t choose popular names because they’re popular, I find it interesting to know, but I really don’t let it make or break my choice.
For purposes of this thread, I’ll use my choice of [name]Olivia[/name] since I know it’s quite popular.
I have [name]Olivia[/name] on my list because I’ve met two girls named [name]Olivia[/name] at my daycare, and I’ve grown quite fond of one them in particular. They’re both lovely girls, who I really wouldn’t mind having has a daughter, especially the youngest one, who’s an [name]Olivia[/name] [name]Rose[/name].
I think the name is pretty, and I like the nickname versitilaty: spunky and trendy [name]Liv[/name], vintage [name]Olive[/name], modelesque and modern [name]Via[/name], and the tomboyish [name]Olly[/name]. I think it’s great that my daughter would have so many options to choose from should she want.
[name]Olivia[/name] is familiar, so she won’t have to endure misspellings, mispronunciations, or weird looks. I also just love the sound, and the meaning is positive so it’s a totally win/win in my eyes for both me and her.
I just tend to like the sound, and appearance of more popular names than less popular. Generally, I do have love for some unpopular ones as well, [name]Vittoria[/name] being one of them.
I think my taste is pretty balanced, but more in favour of popular names.
Thanks for all the posts. It is interesting to hear from other people’s perspectives. Maybe it will help me realize that the popularity of a name shouldn’t deter me from using it.
My son’s name is fairly common ([name]Luke[/name]). I chose it because it was a strong, masculine name that I always thought sounded handsome and it was a name we could both agree on (those were few and far between). I know I made the right choice because, to this day, whenever I hear the name [name]Luke[/name] on someone else (especially a grown man), I think “oh, what a handsome name”.
It didn’t bother me overly that it was fairly popular. It wasn’t top 10 or anything, but we have encountered a few [name]Lukes[/name] (more Lucases than [name]Lukes[/name]). I probably wouldn’t have picked a top 10 name though.
I choose names I love because I love them. I’m not swayed by any need to be a trend-setter. I just want to love my kid’s names. And I do.
When naming my kids, I wanted them to have attractive, timeless names with solid histories. I never wanted to use names that were very common. However, I was more concerned that they have ‘normal’ names that they would never have to explain or feel self-conscious about. I did not know the popularity rankings for their names at the time, but I later learned that (according to the SSA) they ranked at #8 (Daniel), #40 (Timothy), and #30 (Rebecca) the years they were born.
When I was growing up, my (then-future) kids’ names were not too popular. I only came across those names occasionally. (Incidentally, the boy names that were mega popular when I was growing up were David and Michael. In my 5th grade class, there were 5 Davids and 4 Michaels!) Anyway, I considered Rebecca to be an underused classic. My knowledge of changing name trends was based only on my circle of acquaintances.
Even though Daniel’s name was ranked at #8 the year he was born, it had no negative impact on him. He made it all the way through elementary school as the only Daniel in his class. One year, I carefully checked the school’s yearbook (Kindergarten through 6th grade) to see how many Daniels were there. Counting my son, out of 600+ students, there was a total of just four Daniels in the school, and we were only acquainted with one of them. Daniel is in high school now and says he knows of “two or three” others. Perhaps we just lucked out and the name was less popular in our area. I also think it’s true that names tend to be less common in real life than the rankings imply.
