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Popularity, in and of itself, doesn't bother me. If it's a good name then it shouldn't really matter if a lot of other people have it. What would make me avoid a name is trendiness -- if it was unpopular and then suddenly shot up the charts, I'd avoid it because it will become very dated later in life. Anna is popular but always has been, so it won't be dated in 30 years. Nevaeh came out of nowhere to be in the top 100 and it will sound like Linda in a few decades.

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Avoiding popular names doesn't always work, btw. It's possible for a name to be not in the top 1000 when a baby is born and then become very popular at a later date.

I used to not want to use any names in the top 1,000 in high school but in college that changed to top 100 and eventually that changed to the top 50.

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Then I realized a few years ago that popular names aren't as popular as they once were, so I compared what names I know far too many in my birth year to what percentage that was for my birth year and it was 0.50% of the children born of that gender on that year. So I will avoid any names in the top 0.50% - that is currently top 28 for boys and top 12 for girls. I'll also avoid any names that are close to that percent if you combine their multiple popular spellings. I'll probably also avoid the top 20 girl's names and top 30 boy's names from my state.

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Unless it is a name that I love a lot, when I have a kid in a couple of years, I'll probably avoid any super popular names from the past 30 to 40 years. The thing that matters the most to me though is avoiding the super popular names in my country from right around when my child is born. Finding a name that my husband and I both love is important but almost every kid I knew in school with a super popular name hated it, so not using a super popular name is also important to me.

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For example even though I have loved Olivia for a long time it is off the table. Luckily I love a lot of names, but if Olivia was my one and only name love I'd probably use it in spite of its popularity.

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This message was edited 4/22/2018, 5:04 AM

In choosing a name for my child who was recently born, I really preferred to stay out of the top 100 and away from names I thought were making their way to the top 100. I would definitely not use a top 25 name. My son's name (George) was #125 in 2016. I would have liked something even less popular, but my husband finds most unfamiliar names too "weird" to use.

I am not sure. I think I prefer to avoid the top 100 or top 50, but only the top 10-20 are a significant deterrent. Sadly that rules out Emma, Sophia, Alexander, and some other great names, which have wonderful histories but seem liable to date or be on four kids in a class.

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We chose August, in 2012 when the name was in position 333. (It is now 193.) That felt like it ought to be familiar enough not to be weird, but not a name every other kid would have in school or a name that would wind up strongly associated with only a certain decade or generation.

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We live in urban Maryland, and we have had several people in the last 5 years say that their new grandchild, cousin, etc. has the name, or else that their grandfather or great grand-father had it. My son's school, an all boy's academy, as two August's, and a third child with August for a middle. That out of around 800 students K-12. So, that feels reasonable.

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But for a girl our top names are a lot higher. We really like Alice, which has been rising quickly and is 76. We are still well outside "Sophia" territory (for now), but it does seem possible the name could migrate toward or into the top 20. So should we use our other favorite, Iris? It is closer to where "August" is today. But then again - I've actually bumped into children named Iris, but not Alice, in my local area. One is a teenager and one is in my son's swimming class. And "Iris" is moving up, too. We looked at Ada (which I still love, but my husband isn't as fond of) which is a lot lower -- but it has gotten from 838 to 345 since 2000 - which is a lot more mobility than our "popular" choices have had.

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What does this mean? If only I knew...

I definitely think it's subjective dependent on where you are in a country. You can look at national trends all you like (and I do) but if there's a pocket of Alexandra's in your area, it's no good moaning "she's one of three at nursery, how can this be, it's not even in the top 100!" I'm sorry but you should've done your local research.

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What you've experienced throughout school and life is exactly what I'm looking to avoid for any future children I have. I had the lovely experience of my name being really uncommon growing up (although it's exploded in the last five or so years) and I had so many compliments on it. I want that for my children, I want them to stand out and have an individual identity; not be "Sarah. G / Blonde Sarah / Little Sarah etc etc"

For me, it's not the number, it's what the name makes me think of. If I hear a name and immediately picture a typical "basic" person, then I consider the name to be too popular.

For me, I usually stay below the top 20.

Top 50 I'd say? Maybe 100 to be on the safe side? I was one of 4 in my class, never met someone who had it "worse"! I'd watch national statistics.

There are some names that I used to like when they were unusual (out of the top 300 at least, or not on the chart at all) that I stopped liking the more I heard them used. I wouldn't use those, but I don't think that's about popularity, exclusively.

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There are some names I like, regardless of popularity. I wouldn't use those, if they were in the Top 10 (Benjamin is one of those)...maybe not even if they'd been in the Top 10 in the last 40 years...unless the commonness of it actually appealed to me; I think in that case, it'd have to have been around the Top 10 or 20 mark for at least a century (I'm thinking of Joseph, which I wouldn't mind using, and Daniel, which I like but wouldn't use because it sounds dated to me, even though it's current: it hasn't been super popular for as long).

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About trends vs local, and names in the top 50 - My name was #44 (and rising) the year I was born, and I was the only one in my school until I transferred in the middle of high school...although there was one boy with the same NN, his full name was Salvatore...I've met lots of people who share my name now, but most of them are younger, and it's never been a problem...it never quite got into the Top 10, though it's been in the Top 30 my entire life.

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I'd maybe hesitate to use a name in the Top 11-30 range, but I wouldn't dismiss it completely because of popularity.

This message was edited 4/20/2018, 8:32 PM

It's hard to know what will happen. I am Anna. It was #44 the year I was born and still I usually had another in my class or on my sports team. There was probably a Hannah or an Ana if not. I was the only one in my entire school in Upstate New York, but that changed when my family moved South. My son is John, we meet tons of them who are older, but have only encountered one his age, and he was called Jack. My other son is Hector which is far less common and yet we encounter more of them who are young. I think unless you're in the top 20, popularity is highly varied from one area to the next and I've given up on the charts, as I'm constantly surprised in real life encounters. Blaise hasn't broken the top 800 and I know several under age 4.

I don't have kids and don't plan to have kids for a while so it's not something I've thought about that seriously. However, I'd probably want to avoid the top 50, or any name that looked like it had a high likelihood of reaching the top 50 soon, for a real child, but even that's not a hard and fast thing if it was, for example, the only name my partner and I could agree on. And my state's popularity list would be more important to me than the national one.

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I think it's interesting to see different perspectives on this, mainly because my mother was named Mary in the early 60s, right after it fell from the number one spot, and she loves her name. She has never complained about it being common. She has claimed that if it wasn't her own name, she would have considered it for a daughter (and I got it as a middle name). Like no name has ever gotten as common as Mary once was, no name will ever be as common as Mary was. Some people really don't care about having a distinctive name. I think my avoidance of super popular names would end up being more for my sake, than my child's.

Officially names given to more than 1000 babies in the most recent stats go on the guilty pleasure list, but in terms of actually using names, I like to stay out of the top 1000 where I live, if I can.

I think top 10 would be my line not to cross even if I love a name. I might have used Alexander - back in 2007. I named my son a name that's been steadily top 50-100 for a while.

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I basically eliminated Sophie for my daughter in 2006 because of popularity of Sophia. The most popular name I considered naming her, was Charlotte, at #125 that year. I might still have used Charlotte as late as 2010. But not after I realized how it was taking off.

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I never watched local trends - because I don't expect them to matter in the long term. I think it's only really the names that crack national top 10 and stay there for a few years, that become prone to seem too common. Like Rachel Shaina says, no names are as frequent as the most popular names were a few decades ago. Not even Sophia / Sofia / Sophie all taken together, are as frequent as Jessica and Ashley were.

This message was edited 4/20/2018, 3:09 PM

300+ is where "familiar but uncommon" sweet spot starts for me, personally. Anything in the top 100 I would have to really love in order to use because popular names, as you've said, can be an inconvenience.

My daughter's name ended up being #65 for the year she was born. It had been rising and I had no way of knowing that at the time. She was born in January so I didn't even have a way of knowing what its rank was for the previous year. There was no internet back then to boot.

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But she still says that she stood out name-wise among her peers. It did seem that way. Her name did rise into the top 25 but not until later. So my criteria is nothing in the top 50. Outside of that is okay. Even if the name rises later, it will be more common among kids younger than yours.

If a person is really concerned about popularity, I'd probably advise not using a name in the top 100 and also checking names within the top 500 for large recent rises (Rylee is #105 for example but rose 16 places last year-- I see it in BAs all the time and it'll probably be in the top 100 for 2018 if it's not for 2017). I would also advise them comparing their own state's data.

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Though I'm always pointing out that a name that's very popular now is not anything like a name that was very popular even 20, 30 years ago. Kids aren't going to be 1 of 8 in a class anymore unless whoever makes up the class lists is feeling very malicious.

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For me, I probably wouldn't use a top 20 name as a first name unless I really loved it (and there aren't any at the moment I really love). I'm fine with a top 100 name.

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I think choosing a name you love is more important than how popular it is.