L. writes:
I have a question about name popularity.
My own name is very unusual, but it is different from a common name by
only one letter. I have spent my life correcting people and spelling
my name out, and it is a PAIN. I would like to choose a classic, easy
to spell and easy to pronounce name for my child.At the same time, I have wanted to stay away from really common names.
I remember all the Sara’s and Sarah’s in college and how they all had
to go by their last name. There were even Sara’s rooming with each
other! It seemed like a pain. As an adult, I notice all the Chris’s.
Combined with the women who are Christina and Kristina and go by
Chris or Kris, it is downright confusing! They seem to be everywhere
and you always have to use a last name.So, I started out trying to avoid the top 50 or so popular names in my
state, and it eliminated many of my top choices. In particular, I
love the name the Jack. But Jack, Jackson, and John all top the
popularity chart in my State. So, I had nixed the name until I read
somewhere that the top names these days account for a much smaller
percentage of babies than they did back when the Chris’s and Sara’s
were born. So, I did the math. In 2012, Jack, Jackson, or John
accounted for a total of 131 births out of 12,754 births in my state.
So, only 1% of births. Theoretically, it seems like at that
percentage, you would have a small chance of having, say, more than
one Jack in a kindergarten class. Or, when he grows up, having his
electrician, his boss, and his plumber all also named Jack.I will admit, that even after doing the math, I do still feel a little
bit of “everyone will think I’m so boring for choosing a common name.”
But, I think my happiness over being able to use some of the top
names would override that feeling.I am curious your thoughts and the thoughts and experiences of your
users r.e. common names.
All four of my boys have Top 50 names. One of them has name that was Top 10 in our state the year he was born; in several school years, he has had one or two other boys with the same name in his classroom—but they are the same boys. That is, it’s not that there are so very many Williams that he’s very likely to have two or three in his class, it’s that there are two other Williams in his same grade who are frequently in the same class with him while other classrooms have zero Williams because his classroom is hogging them all. There were nearly twice as many Jacobs born in our state that same year, and yet he hasn’t had two Jacobs in a classroom.
My other three boys have names more in the 30s rankings, and so far none of them have ever had a boy with the same name in their classroom.
I did worry slightly that people would find the names boring—but on the other hand, when I considered less-common names I worried people would find them weird, so I found I worried either way. And what I found after naming all my babies and reacting to all my friends and relatives naming THEIR babies is that hardly anyone really cares what you name your baby. They might have a few seconds of thinking, “Oh, great, ANOTHER _____” or “Wow, that’s pretty unusual!”—but it will be a fleeting reaction, because they don’t deep-down care.
As you can imagine, I am VERY KEEN to see the class list every year, and usually I have to wait until Valentine’s Day to see it. It is not uncommon to have two children with the same name in a classroom. But it is not uncommon NOT to have any duplicates, either: many class lists come home without a single duplicate. More often there are two children with similar names: a Madison and a Madelyn who both go by Maddy, for example, or a Jaiden and an Aiden, or a Kayla and a Mikayla.
As you’ve found in your research, the current top baby names are not as common as the top names were when we were growing up. Jennifer, for example, was given to over FOUR PERCENT of baby girls at its peak—that’s FOUR TIMES the number of Jack, Jackson, and John COMBINED for current babies in your state. The name Sarah was a Top 10 name from 1978 until 2002—TWENTY-FIVE CONSECUTIVE YEARS of being in the Top 10! Combined with the spelling Sara (which didn’t hit the Top 10, but was Top 50 from 1976 until 1999), that is a LOT of Sara/Sarah—especially in settings where the popular sound of the name was made even more appealing by religious significance.
The only thing that might come close to that today is the -aden name trend (Aiden, Brayden, Caden, Hayden, Jaiden, etc.) or the Maddy/Addy trend (Madison, Madelyn, Addison, Adelyn, etc.). No single name gets anywhere close.
And with a traditional choice like John or Jack, popular for generations or even for thousands of years, I don’t think you’ll be sorry: a name that suddenly hits the Top 10 and then ducks right back out is one thing, but an enduringly popular classic is quite another.
********
Have you given your child a relatively common name—a name you KNEW was relatively common when you chose it? (It can be quite a different thing to choose a name not knowing it was or would soon be so common.) What has been your experience with that?
My first son has a top 50 then now top 60 name- Robert. I have literally never met another child his age with the same name.
I was so happy to read this, because we are also considering using Jack for our son (due in March). But does Jack seem like too much of a nickname? Does he need a more formal name? (Sorry to change subjects from the original letter, but I would love feedback!)
Jack only needs a more formal name if you think he does. I don’t think it would negatively impact his life to be named Jack without there being a more formal version especially since a lot of the Jacks being born are named just Jack.
I agree with this perspective. I also know at least two people (a baby and an adult woman) who are named just Katie — not Katherine or anything else. If girls can be just Katie, then certainly boys can be just Jack.
Thanks guys! Nice to have some reassurance :)
Something to keep in mind, and there is a better explanation at the Baby Name Wizard blog, is that people with similar socio-economic profiles will be more likely to use similar names. My son has the same name as the sons of two college friends, and my daughter has the same name as another college friend’s daughter. In my son’s preschool class of 9, there are two Henrys. So you are more likely to find kids with the same names when you are around people with similar interests and taste. That said, as Swistle said, there are still many fewer babies given any given name, so it may ney matter to you.
Our son’s name was #15 the year he was born, and has been in the Top 10 for the past four years. Plus he uses the most common nickname … It has never bothered him. He’s resisted all attempts to use a different nickname. As of third grade, he’s never had another Alex in his class. He does have other Alexes in his school, and a second Alex on his hockey team. We know a lot of Alexes, both genders and all ages.
We knew it was very popular when we made the choice, but he was named after his grandfather, so we never considered other names, despite my hesitations about the name’s popularity.
Honestly, it does bother me sometimes. My personal shortlist tends more towards Rufus and Dante and Caradoc.
But the funny thing I’ve noticed is that it is impossible to predict the names that repeat. There’s one Alex in my son’s class – but a girl Micah AND a boy Micah. We know more than one Benedict and a couple of boys named Tobias. Kai and Max are everywhere. Zachary, too.
So … while the commonness of the name bothers me still, I’m glad we went with our #1 name.
My child has an uncommon name, but I am SO interested in this issue, so I am providing my own anecdotal evidence to throw on the pile.
I know only one Jack (and he’s just Jack; it’s not a nickname), so to me while it’s a familiar name it doesn’t seem overwhelmingly common (in the way that Jessica/Jennifer/Sarah was when we were growing up). I do know two Jacksons, but they don’t go by Jack (and they live in different states so there’s zero overlap in their lives). I do know quite a few Madelines, Sophias, Emmas, and Ellas, but they are all different ages, live in different areas, and/or do not go to the same school. Based on our preschool list of roughly 100 kids, it seems surprisingly unusual to have two of the same name in one class of 15-25 kids. I do know of one repeating girl name in my daughter’s class, but it’s the only one I am aware of at our school and doesn’t seem to be a big deal — plus it will be only this year, as one of them is going to a different school next year.
Anyway, it has really surprised me how even the super-popular names (like the ones I mentioned above) don’t seem to end up overlapping all that much. And the biggest thing to remember is that even if you end up knowing a whole bunch of children with the same name, it seems really insignificant, because they are such distinct individuals. Your Jack will be YOUR Jack and could never be confused with someone else’s Jack. To me, it’s almost like the same name feels different when it’s your Jack vs. that other Jack. If that makes any sense at all.
Something I’ve done recently during our name hunt is go to the SSA website and look up the number of babies born last year with the name I like, and then go back to the year I was born (1982) and look up that number. One of my favorite names had about 5,500 born last year. So I’ll go back to 1982, look up the names that had 5,500 and see if I ever knew any growing up or how common it was. That helps me to realize just how popular it is.
As a child of the 70s and one of the ubiquitous Sarahs I actually *wanted* familiar names for my kids. I liked that no one ever had to ask me to repeat my name when meeting me for the first time or ask me to spell it out, with the exception of H or no H. It’s common, but because it was popular for such a long stretch of time it’s also timeless. I like that my name doesn’t date me, like it would if it were Beverly or Doris or Michelle.
My one of my sons and my daughter have names that were ranked in the 20s and 30s during the years of their birth. Thomas and Anna. Not exactly original, but I have only rarely come across another Thomas and only a couple of times have I encountered another Anna.
My second son I named Henry. I knew it was a bit trendier since it had been making a comeback, but I loved it and didn’t care. In our old town you never met a Henry, really. But since we moved a couple of years ago I have found it to be very different. Even though his name is only ranked in the 60s you can’t throw a rock in our new neighborhood without hitting a Henry (and I’s surprised about the age range that this name is covering–H.S. students to preschoolers)! We moved 30 miles to a different town and the culture is that different!
So, in my experience, naming is somewhat counter-intuitive in terms of commonness. I picked two rather ordinary names that are hard to come by and one name that is supposedly less common and I hear it all. the. time.
We named our youngest William. It’s a name we love but I was a bit worried about the name being so highly used for so long. But as Swistle said at least it is a classic name and not one that is a trend. He’s only one so we haven’t dealt with school yet but there is another William that was born at our church recently so the two will be in the same nursery room and classes at times although with being a year apart they won’t always be. We certainly meet a lot of older Will’s and Williams but that hasn’t mattered. I am still happy we made our choice.
No kids yet, but I was given a spelling variant of a name (Kayla) that ranked in the top 30 the year I was born in the late 1980s. Nevertheless I managed to never meet another one in school or out of school until I was in college, where I suddenly stumbled upon a half dozen. Equally startling, in my elementary/middle school the two most popular names by far were Ashley and Sarah/Sara (each clocking in at around 5-7 per class year of 100 kids), followed closely by Jessica and Megan with around 3-5 each, yet these days the only one of those names that I still seem to know dozens of is Sarah/Sara.
Searching my facebook friends list now, I have ZERO “friends” named Ashley, more than 18 named Sarah/Sara, 4 named Stephanie, 5 named Jessica, and only 1 Megan. I am friends with 5 women with variants on Kayla/Kaila/Mikaela, none of whom I knew as a child.
The most popular male name among my facebook friends is by a large margin Nicholas/Nick. I am friends with close to 20. It ranked in the top 20 the year I was born, but nowhere near Michael (#1 in the late 1980s, of course), and I only know 3 Michaels on facebook. I seem to remember a lot of Nick’s in elementary school, too, though.
I’m not entirely sure what I’m getting at here, but maybe trying to show that besides the well-demonstrated fact that popular names are less popular now than they used to be, the numbers are quite random and also influenced by geography and culture, as well as some mysterious forces that are difficult to pin down, like, Where did all the Ashley’s in my life go? Why didn’t more Ashley’s go to art school– there were none in my college class that I was aware of. (Two of the Ashley’s I knew from middle school did go to college for professional cheerleading though…)
I think you should go with the name you love. Even if Jack has another Jack or two in grade school, it’s possible that will be it. Life is random. I know several Milo’s under the age of 10, and that is a much rarer name, for example. I don’t know any children named Jack.
Okay, this comment is a total ramble, but I hope it gives you some sort of assurance that it is ok to use Jack!
I have a Carter, which was number 3 in our state the year of his birth and has been right around the top 3 ever since. In all his five years, we’ve had one other Carter, on his baseball team. There has not been another Carter in his class (either preschool or Kindergarten).
I have noticed pockets of popularity though. I know SO MANY Lilys. Even though Lily hovers around 15 in my state, there are so many full names with Lily as a nickname, it’s more popular than it appears. Do you have friends with children that could tell you if Jack, Jackson, or John is a pocket in your area? I also think that while I love the name John with nn Jack, that might be a more uncommon thing now? I would strike John’s popularity from my consideration but I might add in Jax and Jaxson because I think those are trending up and while I say them slightly differently than Jack/Jackson some people may not.
I’m a Jennifer born in 1980 so I was LOATHE to give our baby a popular name but really, it is so much less common than it appears.
I find it’s not so much the actual names that repeat, but the sounds. My kids are older, but there were so many “Em” and “El” names on girls that I find I’ve gotten pretty tired of many of the names, even though they were different. Emily, Emma, Emme, Emmaline, Amalie, Ellie, Eleanor, Ella, etc. were ubiquitous. Same with “Mad” and “Ad”. Younger kids have a lot of “Ev” , “Av”, “Liv”, or “Viv or similar. For boys, in our area there are a lot of Jack, Zach, Jackson, Mac type names, as well as all the ..aiden sounds and every variation of anything ending in n. So the actual names don’t necessarily repeat as much as they used to, but it can definitely be confusing at a soccer game! I agree that you can’t necessarily predict what will repeat, though. In one of my son’s elementary school classrooms there were 5 Joseph’s and a Yusef, and this isn’t a name I hear all that often.
My 12-year-old son’s name was around #30 for his birth year (more popular now). I don’t think he’s ever had another boy with his name in class, though it happened once at day camp. Not a big deal.
My almost 1 year old son is named Jack (full name John after daddy) and while I haven’t met any in real life, my Facebook news feed is full of new baby Jack’s and my OB mentioned that she had delivered tons of Jack’s recently. It’s odd the online presence that seems to increase my perception of the popularity of the name when I haven’t actually met one yet in person. :-)
We’ve had a similar experience – we have a two-year-old Nora, and I feel like on facebook and blogs I read that EVERYONE is using Nora these days. Yet I’ve never met/known in real life another Nora. I definitely think the internet makes names seem more common than they actually might be.
I have a William. We’ve run into a couple of others around his age, but they’ve all used different nicknames (my son doesn’t use one at all). And he’s never had one in any of his classes so far (he’s in 6th grade). It was the name we both loved & had family significance on both sides, so popularity was never a concern for us.
If you love Jack (or another popular name) I say go for it. Being Jack Last Initial is hardly the end of the world. If you want him to have options (just in case) I think John with the nickname Jack would be lovely. Seems most people don’t get to Jack via John these days, so I’d find it very pleasant & unexpected to come across a little John who goes by Jack.
I am a Stephanie born in the 80s (who was almost named Jennifer). I remember in school I often had to use my last initial, but it didn’t bother me. Now, though I know my name ‘dates’ me, I run across my own name much less commonly because places I’m around (work, church) have people of all ages. I’m the only Stephanie in 300+ employees and the only Stephanie in 200+ church-goers. So from my experience, even though name popularity may be noticeable as a child, by adulthood it becomes even less of an issue.
My son’s name, Alexander, was number 6 the year he was born (2011). He’s not old enough for school and class lists yet, but I haven’t encountered many other Alexanders in my day-to-day life. Sometimes when we’re out and about, we’ll hear a parent of another Alexander calling his/her child, but it’s only happened a handful of times.
On a related note, we’ve always loved the name Emily and it’s a strong contender if we ever have a girl. It’s been in the top 10 for years (even spent some time at #1 recently), and I have yet to encounter a child named Emily. Purportedly it’s a very popular name, and yet…where are all the Emilys?
Because of this, I don’t really hesitate to use statistically popular names. My main hesitation comes with using names that friends/other people I know have already used for their kids. I see it as a division between statistically popular and real-life popular, if that makes sense.
You inspired me to do a search on my school’s digital directory. A K-5 school with between 400-450 kids and not even one Emily. Not even amongst the mothers!! So odd!
I have one adult friend named Emily who has said as a child she felt her name was frumpy and was quite pleased when it became popular while she was in her 20s, but where are the Emilys??
All the Emily’s live by me :) I can think of seven I know of all different ages…
My boys are Charles and James, both pretty common… we occasionally hear other boys with these names at their ages, but they are preschool, so I don’t have classes to compare with yet. And we are in a largely Hispanic part of the country, so it is likely that 50% of their classes will have children with more typically Hispanic names. The bottom line, though, is that I’m not worried about name duplication of “common” names like James and Charles, largely because they are also traditional names. However, I think the popular, didn’t-really-exist-twenty-years-ago names, like Aiden, Caden, etc, will end up feeling a lot like “Tiffany” to the next generation. Tiffany is a fine name, but there aren’t a whole lot of names that say 1980s like Tiffany does. I’m afraid that Aiden will be the kind of name that, when the child is in his 20s and looking for a job, does not signify dependability or responsibility.
We have a 2.5 year old Ben. Benjamin was #7 in our province the year he was born, but when you also add up those named Bennett, Bentley, etc. (all potentially going by Ben) I think it would almost be (or in fact be) #1.
I can add to the discussion that I am never disappointed when I encounter another Ben – because I expect it. I know that Ben isn’t original, we weren’t trying to be original, we knew the ranking when we named him…and went ahead and named him our favourite name, which continues to please me.
I feel that had we chose something more unique (Arlo was a contender for a while), it WOULD be disappointing to discover the name on someone else.
Another positive: a popular name doesn’t have strong imagery (which is a positive in my opinion). There are SO MANY Bens that (I don’t think) people meet him and make an immediate association like “BEN – like Ben Harper”, or “BEN – like the creepy guy in the Lost series”. It’s just Ben. :)
I’m one if the 76k+ Jennifer’s named in 1980. In elementary school I was always a ladst inital, in Hs there were two of us & now I have tons of friends with a Jen, Jennt, Jenna, variant. In college I was once one of 6 Jennifer’s in a class of about 40. I didn’t want a popular name for my son. I didn’t mind the popularity if my name but I don’t love the name- it’s weird to me. I do find the Jennifer naming phenomenon fascinating. Anyways husband & I could only agree on one name -Noah. It was either 5 or 7 when he was born and 5 or 7 today (can’t remember which). We have run into 1 other Noah as a friend no others in school. But now the number 1 name only accounts for about 22k people’s names in a given year (instead of the 75k+ Jennifer’s in 1980).
In the end just go with what you like. Jack was my number 1 name but husband didn’t agree. In the end I’m happy we didn’t go with it bc I do know a lot of Jack & Jacksons ( none in our class of 14 tho). But personal preference.
I am one of the MANY Amanda’s born in the mid 80s. My current employment is the ONLY place I have been (job or school wise) that doesn’t have other Amanda’s, and really its only because I am a younger demographic here, as they bring in more new hires I am sure another Amanda will come in. I hate it.
I swore I wouldn’t use a common name when I named my child.
Then, there was a perfect confluence of events, and I ended up naming my son a top 20 name that was #3 in my state, because everything else about it felt perfectly right. It is a name my husband and I have both liked since we were children, and our TWO best friends in the world both have the name. We have yet to meet another toddler with our sons name, but I am sure its only a matter of time. I don’t regret the name one bit though, and never doubted it.
So I guess the moral is that its a balancing act. If you are inclined to want an uncommon name, but you LOVE a common name, you have to decide for yourself how much you love that name. In my case, it was too perfect to pass up.
So funny! I was an Amanda born in the early 70s and I don’t often run into another one. I’ve been working in this large office for 9 years and we just recently got another Amanda. So funny the different experiences.
I have two children named Juliet and Oliver. Both are classic names but aren’t overly common. Every person (mostly adults) who has met them and asked what their names were have made a comment about how lovely they are, or how it is nice to hear classic names again. My husband and I both LOVE the name Jack but opted to not use it as his name is Zack. As for it requiring a more formal name, I don’t think it requires one at all. Jack is lovely and simple on its own.
My opinion is, if it is your favourite then you should use it. How would you feel
If you choose a different name that was less common but you didn’t really love? Would you forever wish you had chosen that name to avoid the possibility of meeting someone else with the same name (which will happen, even if it’s only 1% of the population) ?
If you are looking for something else, what about Jude? It is similar style to Jack just much less common. Once again, was on our short list but because of our last name starting with a D- it didn’t sound good at all. Just another name for thought?
Good luck. Stick with how you feel rather than letting overthinking/anxiety over all the potential issues win.
I have a six year old Olivia. I knew it was a popular name when I named her but I loved the name too much to give it up due to popularity. We’ve only ever met one other Olivia that is her age and that was in a gymnastics class.
My older daughter is Alyssa and that name was number 15 the year she was born. I had no clue it was that high on the list and yet we haven’t met one other Alyssa that is her age. We know several who are older (we didn’t know them before she was born and named, sigh.)
I say go with what you love, I really don’t think you’ll regret it.
This is something I have thought a LOT about. I am pregnant and I always said I would not use a top-100 name. But now that I’m actually thinking of names, I like a lot of the top picks. I was worried about the same thing, primarily I didn’t want my kid to be “William M” or “Ava M” or whatever.
But then I looked it up. In the year I was born my name was #13 in my state and was given to 930 baby girls. The MOST popular name in Ohio last year was Sophia (which isn’t even on my maybe list) and was given to 830 baby girls. So no matter what name I pick, it will be less common than my own name was in the year I was born. And I have never felt my name was too popular. Sure it is common. Sure I know other Rachels and I had a few years in school where there was other Rachels in my grade or class. But it never bugged me and it never felt omg-so-common like Jennifer or Jessica did. So now I’ve decided to not care. If we end up with a less-common name, great. But if we ultimately decide on a top name, who cares!
We just wrote in and are actually in the process of deciding on our 3rd baby due in december. This helps a ton because our two current top contenders aren’t necessarily top of the charts popularity, but are a little more on the trendy/popular and potentially rising, so do we care? This makes me lean towards no, I don’t think we do care! As long as you love the name and can’t imagine anything else, it will work perfect! It’s still hard to decide though. I say go with Jack!
My name was given to 104 other girls the year I was born (in Vic, Australia – to give an idea of popularity there were 800 more Jessica’s and 600 more Stephanie’s, Sarah’s and Emily’s). A few years ago I had a class where there were THREE of us. There was one Stephanie, one Sarah and one Emily, but no Jessica’s in this class.
I guess my point is that you cannot predict nor control how many other kids you will encounter with the same name as your children.
We used the name Nicholas for our son. When he was born in 2001, it was #6 in popularity (now #49), but it was the only name we really loved. And, like Swistle says, that aspect meant less to us since it was/is a classic name that will always be somewhat popular. At his current school and grade (about 70 boys?), there is only 1 other Nicholas/Nick, which is the norm. I don’t think there has ever been more that 2 others his same age.
My own name was #737 the year I was born and has never gotten higher than #235. I can count on 1 hand the number of other girls named Brenna I have met, and all of them have been much younger (minimum 5 years).
Even rarer is my youngest daughter’s name. Traditionally a boy name, but hardly used for either sex, her name has never broken the top 1000. She is only 6, but we’ve never met another Berkeley.
I think my biggest take away from this is utter shock that there’s no school directory for you to analyze! Directory time and book fair time; two of my favorite school events.
My first son’s name was around #220 the year he was born. We have been in swimming lessons with another child the same age with the same name and one of my co-workers has a child by the same name born the same year.
Our second child’s name was in the 240’s the year he was born and for a number of years surrounding it. There are 2 popular spellings and together the name would rank about 170-180. I meet SO many kids with his same name as well (though I may just notice more since it is my child’s name).
We considered Logan for our second but nixed it due to popularity (#20ish his birth year) and I haven’t met any baby Logans.
Basically, from my experience, it doesn’t necessarily matter what rank your child’s name has – there is always the chance of overlap :)
My son’s name, Milo, was #422 the year he was born and we have met quite a few Milos over the last three years. Even though it happens pretty frequently, I still think it’s cool to meet another little Milo, it doesn’t bother me at all. My daughter’s name (Cora) was in the top 100 in my state the year she was born but I’ve never met another Cora anywhere.
So that’s all to say that I agree with other posters that you never know where you will find overlap and where you won’t. If you go with the name you love more than anything else, I don’t think you’ll regret it even if you meet several other Jacks!
My eldest daughter has a Top 50 name, and has never shared a classroom/sports team/whatever with another of her name. (Although we know several adults with her name).
My youngest daughter has a name which was around #600 when she was born, and the first day of school, a family who had just moved to our town showed up with another little girl with the same name. They are now best friends, and they love sharing a name with a classmate, so not only it is hard to predict these things, but it’s not necessarily any great disaster if there’s another Jack in the world.
Our older daughter’s name is Livia – so we essentially went the “similar to a popular name but off by one letter” route, which I think could, like the letter writer’s name, come to drive our daughter crazy. But she is only in preschool right now, where they wear name tags, and there are so far no Olivias. We didn’t choose the name to avoid popularity – Olivia wasn’t ever on the table, and Livia came out of a discussion about some other names – but it’s amazing how no one tells us they like it until we make it clear that it’s “without the ‘O'” and then everybody says how pretty it is. My grandmother’s middle name was Olivia, and I’m always a little offended on behalf of Olivias everywhere, because it’s a great name that people appear to be tired of hearing.
For our younger daughter, we went with Josephine, which is far more popular, although not in the top 50 yet (somewhere around 150 as of 2012, I think). I liked the name enough that I didn’t care if it was trending upward, but our pediatrician mentioned both at her day-old check up and a few months later that they didn’t have any Josephines at their practice. I’m very interested to see if she ever meets another one. Our alternative pick, Juliet, already cropped up in nametags at library story time, and it’s LESS popular overall, so you really do never know. My daughter’s class has no repeats, but her teacher’s other 3-year-old class has three Owens.
Her class actually has a lot of different names, and no repeats, but the other class her teacher has includes THREE Owens. You just never know what the make up will be.
A little anecdotal on the popularity of the current -aden trend (as observed by Swistle) versus Top 5 names. Named my son Brendan in 2004 (ranked #149 — seemed safely out of the top 50 but not uncommon). What I hadn’t counted on was the popularity of Brandon (#22), Aidan (#40), Jordan (#43), Landon (#86).
In 2004, Jacob, Michael and Joshua were in the top 5 names. There was NOT ONE of those in my son’s class in preschool NOR is there even one of those in his (different) elementary school grade (20 boys total his year; small school–two classes per grade). His soccer team two years ago: two Brendans, a Brandon, a Landon, and a Jordan.
I would also keep in mind that a child is only in school for a part of his or her life. There might be multiple Jacks in his class (although 1) that’s not super likely and 2) it’s not really that big of a deal, coming from an Elizabeth of the 80s!), but that pool will be diluted when he goes to college, and then once he’s out in the working world he’ll be with people from different cities and states, and from different generations, so there won’t be many repeats.
For what it’s worth, Jack on its own seems trendy to me; Jack as a nickname for John does not. Like if on a class name list you saw little John Smith, but knew that he was always called Jack, that would seem really timeless to me and would stand out. I could totally be splitting hairs here though. :)
Gabriel has a top…25ish name for his birth year nationwide, and it is top 20 for our state. I have met an occasional Gabriel in his general age group, but overall there hasn’t been much overlap at all. For instance, there are two other Gabriels at his school, but neither is in his grade. And I think there was a little brother named Gabriel on his baseball team, but not one of the actual kids ON his team.
Compare that to me, an early 80s Jennifer, and the difference is quite striking. I think that in any group of more than…say ten people in my peer group? I am more likely than not to be one of at least two Jennifers. I also have a very common last name, which somewhat compounds the issue. I considered popularity of names as one of my PRIMARY CONCERNS when naming my son, and ultimately decided that I wanted to avoid the -aden trend and the top 10s, but any name below that position-wise was really not likely to be an enormous issue. Also, Gabriel’s father has a highly unusual name (he’s the only one I’ve ever met), and that has it’s own set of issues, as the reader mentioned. We found we were most comfortable in the 11-100ish position for popularity, insofar as our naming style, and feeling like the names were ‘real’, and etc. I still feel too personally name-shy to use a top 10 name based on my own Jennifer experience, but I agree with Swistle in that a number 1 name now is not nearly the same as the number 1 name picks from 30/40/50 years ago.
I had the most popular name for my year of birth and I hated it! There were SIX of us in one of my high school classes out of 25. This led to lots of unflattering nicknames (the notable ones being the pair of ‘little xxx and big xxx’ to describe two friends – I always felt sorry for the big one). As an adult I am becoming more and more aware of how much it dates me – it will be the Doris or Myrtle of my generation even though it is a quite pretty name. I was also very aware of the sound alike names that masquerade as less popular on the charts, think of all the girls named Kristen, Kirsten, Kristy, Kirsty, Christine and in the late 80s or the Melissa, Melinda, Melanies of the 70’s.
My oldest has a top 10 name but it has no obvious ‘soundalikes’ that I could think of so I felt it would sound less popular than it is. My second is top 50 and both of them have encountered one or two other kids in the school – but not yet in the class. My girl’s name is out of the top 100 and I feel unlikely to return, it also has no sound-alikes to worry me. I deliberately avoided all the E heavy names (Emma, Emily, Ella, Elle, Isabelle because I think they have the Kristy factor). I think it is sooooo important to consider nicknames, sounds and spelling variants when assessing the popularity charts. I also agree that there is a huge difference between a newly popular name and a perennial.
I have a common name, Christine. I’ve met a few people named Christina but never a Christine. I go by my middle name and I find that to be more annoying then having a common name. You always have to correct your teacher, explain it to employers, to my in laws….. it’s sucky. But I love my middle name, regaurdless of it being common. We named our son Robert, also common. I have yet to meet another Robert (child) but have met plenty of Gavin’s, Sebastian’s, Jackson’s etc. We live in California and I feel like people here tend to follow what is popular more then other places ( we have family spread across the country). Hence why there are numerous Jacksons etc. That I have noticed anyway. I have a sister in 3rd grade too.. what I’ve said is true to her classmates names.
I think you have to just go with what you love.
My husband and I are Matt and Amanda, both relatively common the years we were born. Neither of us have very many friends/acquaintances with those names but we all know some, they aren’t names that anyone asks to spell or thinks twice about. We chose Zachary for our son and while everyone knows someone with that name, I can’t pinpoint anyone close at the moment. We chose our daughter’s name hoping to be a bit more original. The name was in the high 200s for girls the year she was born. Skyler. Both of my kids have a Skyler in their class and a Skyler on their soccer teams. It’s turned out to be quite common wear we live now which is not where we lived when we named her.
You just never can tell what is going to happen to make a name popular or unpopular or rise and fall on the charts and maybe it won’t matter at some ages and will at others. Just go with what you love and don’t worry about where it falls on the chart.
Name popularity is a funny thing–as all the stories above attest, it’s highly local and subject to change every time you change your surroundings. When my son was an infant I was helping a pregnant friend with her name search, and I made a list of all the babies I knew through mom’s groups, church, work, day care. I was pretty surprised at both the overall diversity of names and the similar sounds (long O and hard C for boys; surname and place names for girls). I think the best you can do is be observant of the young children in your neighborhood, at church, your coworkers’ kids, your child’s future day care, etc., and see if Jack feels too common to you. Ultimately you’ve chosen a classic name with a long history of use, so it will never feel tired or dated.
My spouse and I have very uncommon names and we gave our boy a top-50 classic name . I knew it was a little bit more popular than I would have liked in my heart of hearts, but I also looked at graphs of popularity obsessively and concluded that what was important to us was not that he never run into another kid with his name, but that his name not pinpoint him immediately in time and geography and subculture the way names with big spikes do. That is, very common-but-classic names like William are names I find delightful, and names like Brayden/Jayden/-den are just not my style, no matter how common or rare.
I found looking at the Babynamewizard graphs to be most helpful in avoiding names with big spikes.
I agree that there is SO much more that goes into the perceived commonness of a name. In my state, the most common names in my birth year were Jessica and Jennifer. I don’t remember any classmates of either name until I got to my large public high school, and even then I only knew two of each.
On the other hand, almost every close friend in my small private elementary school was an Anna, a Katie or a Lindsey. By the numbers, I should have known 4 Jessica’s for every one Anna, but that just wasn’t the case. There were three Lindseys in my Girl Scout troop and even taking into account the spelling variations, there should have still been three Jessica’s for each of them — but there weren’t.
I don’t think I met an Amanda until I moved out of state for college — even though it was the #4 name in my home state. And I didn’t meet a Kelly my age until my current workplace — where there are two on a staff of less than 30.
Now mind you, it’s not that I’d never heard of the names Jennifer or Kelly or Amanda. I knew these were names and knew they were common, popular names. It’s not like the first time I met a Kelly I was like “Ooooh! How FRESH!” It’s just that I was surprised to hear that they were considered SO common and overused in my generation.
I worked for a tutoring company a decade ago. Three people in my office – two of us were Robin. 300 tutors, not a single one named Robin. You just never know when you’re going to hit a pocket. No need to worry about it because you really can’t plan. Just love the name you pick and roll with it. I remember having a few Jennifers as friends as a kid and only wishing that were my name too.
I named my daughter Mary (although it was the MOST popular girl’s name for at least 150 years, I read in a baby name book that it was being used so seldom as a first name nowadays that it is now considered an “unusual” name, but still so familiar that nobody has trouble spelling/pronouncing it). I liked the weight of the name – substantial, you know. We have always used the nickname Molly, figuring she could choose that or the more formal Mary when she grew up. So far (she’s in the 9th grade currently), there has never been another Mary in her grade, but there were 3 other girls named Molly in her elementary school, and there are even more in high school.
As an aside, she would rather have been named “Wolf”.
Another Elizabeth here, to say you make an good point. I have a younger sister Anne (Annie) and while her name is common and well-known, it really stands out among her peers. So even well-established names can sound fresh!
My kids are named William, Kate, and Elizabeth so I’m all aboard the common name trend. My brother and I are Anne and John and we never had repeats in our classes. So far we’ve only met one other Will (my son is in 1st grade) and several Katelyn’s but no other Kate’s. I love their names- they’re classy, gender specific, easy to spell, and all have great meanings. I see way more Jackson’s/Aiden’s/Madison’s/Sophia’s. For me the question was “Is this an enduring and timeless name” not just a popular name. I don’t mind if there are multiples with their name- I just didn’t want a Brittany/Jessics/Ashley kind of name for my kids.
Besides school directories, I think one of the best barometers for name popularity is pop culture. TV shows and movies often have top baby names for their protagonists (even if they aren’t names you typically hear on that generation).
I gave very, very little thought to popularity when choosing baby names. Our oldest is Scarlett – it was #218 overall when she was born, #61 now, and it appears to be about the same for the state we currently live in. We haven’t met any other Scarletts and she hasn’t had another one in her class, so far.
Our youngest is Sosie. The SSA site assures me that her name has been outside the top 1000 for at least the last 25 years. I highly doubt we will meet another Sosie or that she’ll have one in her class, but you never know.
My name is Megan, which was the #11 girls name the year I was born. I knew of one other Megan in my entire school career, and we never had a class together. It’s hovered on the low end of the top 15 from 1984 – 1999! I really haven’t met very many Megans and I don’t know any other Megans now. Very weird.
My son’s name was #163 nationally the year he was born, but we know 2 other boys his age with the same name – George. It feels like a familiar, sturdy name, and neither he nor I mind meeting other Georges; in fact, we both like hearing their name stories. Plus, it tickles old men to share a name with a kid, and we’ve pleased many gentlemen in line at the grocery this way. I imagine the same is true for Jack.
I LOVE the name George and lobbied hard for it with my spouse, for exactly the reasons you mention. He didn’t fall for it, but we did give our kid another old-man name, and indeed, older men are frequently tickled to meet a young namesake.
I am a 1977 Jennifer, but I’ve always been called Jenny, and that seemed to cut down on the duplication in classrooms and such. Jenny may be unusual here in the South, however, where the tendency is to say “Ginny,” and to hear “Jamie” or “Jane” when I introduce myself. Also, I have an outlier last name, which I like to think balances things out. In my hypothetical musings I’ve been rather militantly against popular kid names, but it helps to know that there’s unlikely to be another 4% name anytime soon.
I’m late to the party and only commenting because I’m wondering whether we share a name! I’m called Laura at least 90% of the time, often by friends I’ve had for 15-20 years. The rest of the time the pronunciation is split by those closest friends and family who say it correctly (LAR like “car”) and those who rhyme it with Sarah. No, people. No.
My husband was given a uber-70s J name but has been called Jake — not short for Jacob! — pretty much always. My mom wanted to name me Jennifer, and sometimes I wonder if my dad shouldn’t have caved! Sure, Jennifer is common, but it has cute nicknames and nobody gets it wrong!
We chose a name for our son that was ranked 126 when he was born (2000) and is ranked 43 today (a per the 2012 stats). 126 seems quite popular but we received a lot of backlash when we chose it, proving that it was not, in fact, “in style.” We’ve never met another kid his age with his name, but it is definitely one you hear everywhere for babies and toddlers in recent years. I don’t mind the huge spike in popularity so much as everyone (save one forward-thinking friend of mine) hating on it when we chose it during our pregnancy. :P
Our daughter was born last year and her name hasn’t been in the top 1000 since 1972 when it was ranked 986. Many of the girl names we’d chosen early in our babyplanning days have gotten more common over the intervening years: Mary was our girl name when expecting our firstborn, and we also liked Alice, Lucy, Violet… We just worried that our ultra-common last name would pair badly with a trendy first name, so we dug a little deeper and chose something slightly more “dusty.” Even if her name does become popular (it’s currently in the cloud on Nameberry’s homepage), I just can’t imagine it reaching the ubiquitousness of her brother’s name. I wish I’d thought more about this when naming him, but I wasn’t looking at SSA stats, just going by what wasn’t trending at the time, so I never thought his full name would seem so plain!