Zo\u00eb writes:<\/p>\n
Hi Swistle! I\u2019m Zo\u00eb, and my husband is Jamie. (Zo\u00eb Isabelle and James William Martin). We are expecting a baby boy on September 21st, and we still can\u2019t decide on a name for him. This is especially important because he is our first son (we have three girls) and he will be our last child.<\/p>\n
Our girls are Mathilda Rosemary (Rosemary after Jamie\u2019s mother, who passed away about a month before she was born), \u201cTilly,\u201d and our twins, Hazel Beatrice and Amalia Claire. Beatrice and Claire are both after family. Our naming style seems pretty consistant; names that have a classic, slightly old fashioned feel, but not too common. Amalia was most popular in 1924, and Mathilda and Hazel 1918, respectively. But we just can\u2019t seem to agree on a boy\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d initially agreed on Henry, which we both liked, but we don\u2019t want a very common name, and Henry is number 78 and on the rise. So that\u2019s out. The same goes for Benjamin, which we\u2019d thought about, but it\u2019s number 25. Popularity (or, for us, lack of it) is very important to us. We want a name that\u2019s somewhere in the middle \u2013 not a name that people do a double take when they hear, but we don\u2019t want him to be one of five in his class.<\/p>\n
Other names we\u2019ve thought about are Owen (too popular), Griffith (I liked it, he didn\u2019t), Toby (vice versa), Oliver (too popular), Grant (our last name is Grande), and Julius (too popular). I also really love Jack, and Jamie does too, despite it\u2019s popularity, but I feel like it has to be short for something, and neither of us likes Jackson. And we also discussed Trevor and Fletcher, both of which are more modern and popular and don\u2019t really go with our daughters names, but we kind of like them.<\/p>\n
Oh, and we really want to honor both of our fathers (Lyle and Earnest) in the middle name, but we don\u2019t particularily like either of their names.<\/p>\n
Oh my, we are in a pickle here. If you could help us with a classic, early twentieth century name that isn\u2019t too common now, as well as finding some way to honor my dad and Lyle, that would be amazing.<\/p>\n
Thank you so much!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let’s talk for a minute about commonness. The name Jacob (not on your list, I know, but stay with me) is the number one most popular boy name in the United States, and it was given to 1.0355% of boys born in 2008 (source: Social Security Administration<\/a>). This means that out of 100 boys, approximately 1 is named Jacob. Assuming a class size of 30, where 15 are boys, that gives you roughly one single Jacob per SEVEN classrooms.<\/p>\n
And that’s the most popular boy name in the U.S.! The name Julius, which is on your too-common list, was given to only .0501% of boys born in 2008. That’s 5 boys named Julius for every 10,000 boys—or roughly 1 Julius for every 667 classrooms.<\/p>\n
My point is that if you want a classic and non-double-take name, I think you’re dramatically over-limiting your options—even if you want it to be quite uncommon.<\/p>\n