baby name popularity - Page 2

[finnegansmom]

We don't go for trendy (like the aidan, cayden, etc) but we chose names we liked or that were more along the lines of family names, or had meaning to us. Finn and Samuel aren't super unique, but we like them. For a girl, we really like Emily - it's my aunt's name who passed away a few years ago, but I know it's SUPER popular. I also like Anne and Mary, and love Henry for a boy. We haven't decided yet this time, but it'll be something along those lines...

[maciascl]

I don't like popular names & I don't like kr8tv spellings either. That being said I also have learned that alot of kr8tv looking spellings are actually traditional spellings (such as my Rhys instead of Reese) I also really despise the trend of traditionally boy names being given to girls. It is so hard to find good boys names & now so many are being given to girls which for some reason makes them so much less likely to be used on boys much.

For a boy we are looking at either Dillon or Ian. Dillon, although more often spelled Dylan, is supposed to be in the top 20 but I've not heard of another Dillon in years.

For girls we are very undecided. We really like Lucy but that is the only name we have agreed on so far.

[SteelerMom]

My choices are no secret, so I'll be glad to share. If this is a boy, I really like Kieran, not overly popular right now but I can see it becoming very popular which really is no deterrant for me. My husband thinks it sounds too much like a girl's name. But I like the way it sounds with our last name which is McLean, and it happens to also be a Saint's name, which is a plus.

If it is a girl, we will likely use the name we had picked out for the last baby that turned out to be a boy. And that is Katherine-very popular but not trendy, more classic, so I don't care.

[JamieFay]

I hate popular names. I prefer out of the top 100, preferably in the 200's. I agree with the PP who mentioned you can't guarantee a name's popularity. In 2004 my oldest son's name was in the 300's on the SS name index and it's been gaining ever since (in 2008 it was in the mid 200's). I know 3 other boys with his name now! I don't know if it's just around here, but it's a bit more popular than I would like (although I don't care...it's still my favorite name ever!)
For a girl we have Romy picked out from our last pregnancy but we're clashing over the middle name. Either Calliope (DH's choice), Clover or Fay (which is my middle name, my grandmother's name, and his grandmother's middle name). It seems like Fay would be the obvious choice but I don't like to reuse names. I know, weird. lol! I'm trying to get over that because I think if it wasn't a family name I would really like it anyway and it would make my the Great Grandmas on both sides so happy. BUT, I really want Clover...we'll see.
For a boy it's been tough. My top choices were Heathcliff or Leo but since our oldest has a name that's the same as an actor, DH didn't want anything that might make it look like a trend. Even though that had nothing to do with ANY of my choices. ::sigh:: He agreed on Oliver and Felix. Oliver is my fave boy's name but it just doesn't sound right with our last name and it's getting a bit too popular right now. So, it looks like it might be Felix. Middle name undecided.

[limette]

Originally Posted by JamieFay

I hate popular names. I prefer out of the top 100, preferably in the 200's. I agree with the PP who mentioned you can't guarantee a name's popularity. In 2004 my oldest son's name was in the 300's on the SS name index and it's been gaining ever since (in 2008 it was in the mid 200's). I know 3 other boys with his name now! I don't know if it's just around here, but it's a bit more popular than I would like (although I don't care...it's still my favorite name ever!)
For a girl we have Romy picked out from our last pregnancy but we're clashing over the middle name. Either Calliope (DH's choice), Clover or Fay (which is my middle name, my grandmother's name, and his grandmother's middle name). It seems like Fay would be the obvious choice but I don't like to reuse names. I know, weird. lol! I'm trying to get over that because I think if it wasn't a family name I would really like it anyway and it would make my the Great Grandmas on both sides so happy. BUT, I really want Clover...we'll see.
For a boy it's been tough. My top choices were Heathcliff or Leo but since our oldest has a name that's the same as an actor, DH didn't want anything that might make it look like a trend. Even though that had nothing to do with ANY of my choices. ::sigh:: He agreed on Oliver and Felix. Oliver is my fave boy's name but it just doesn't sound right with our last name and it's getting a bit too popular right now. So, it looks like it might be Felix. Middle name undecided.

I love Clover. Dh does not, well not for a first name anyway. We do traditional names for the first name and less common for the middle names.

[franjapany]

hm, this thread really got me thinking and doing some research...

when DS was born, we lived in thailand and needed not only to find a name that DH and I both liked, but that also worked in three languages - english, german, and thai. those were a LOT of vriteria to meet, since on top of it DH and I are from entirely different generations. So, the names I dislike, bc someone in my class I didn't like was called that, he likes and the ones I like, he had an old aunt/teacher/uncle/neighbour who had that name.

this time the language criteria is irrelevant, but we still have to agree. miraculously we already found a girl's name we both love.

BUT: I just checked and both our DS's name and the girl's name we chose (now I really hope for a girl, silly me) have both been in the top 100 for the last 10 years and even on place 15 and 16 in the past year in germany. I guess I just can't escape the trend... :

[carrierenee]

If we have a boy he will probably be named Camden, and if we have a girl, IDK but I am really liking Arabella and Adalyn. DH always just says "okay" which stinks but, I guess it makes it a little easier.

[Rosebud Perkins]

We're thinking very traditional Italian names to reflect our heritage and go with our last name. It's also a great way to avoid the whole "trendy" issue. A name that dates back to Roman times will never go out of style.

Our girl name is extremely common in Italy, but is only in the top 500 here. (A celebrity chose it a couple of years ago, which makes me nervous, but it didn't seem to catch fire afterward.) I've never even heard our boy name in the States.

[lunarlady]

Originally Posted by Rosebud Perkins

We're thinking very traditional Italian names to reflect our heritage and go with our last name. It's also a great way to avoid the whole "trendy" issue. A name that dates back to Roman times will never go out of style.

Our girl name is extremely common in Italy, but is only in the top 500 here. (A celebrity chose it a couple of years ago, which makes me nervous, but it didn't seem to catch fire afterward.) I've never even heard our boy name in the States.

We do that too! We named our daughter a very traditional Italian name, which fits with my DH's heritage. Giovanna. (Would be Judith in English). Here in the states the most common issue is people messing up the gender and calling her Giovanni (Which would be John in English). Sort of irksome, but I figure she can handle it.

For this child, I know we are going to struggle over it so we are waiting until we find out the gender so we can at least cut the possible options in half! I rather like Alessandro for a boy, but I think my DH is a bit unsure. I think the fact that it was #2 in Italy last year may be part of his hesitation. I'm sure we will make up our minds by August!

[Vandi]

Originally Posted by VillageMom6

Problem is, I like Violet and Rose! Not Violetta or Rosa.

Isn't that the most ridiculous criteria for choosing a name?

Violet was my great aunt's name, she passed last year and was *the* most wonderful woman extremely loving and devoted just fantastic all around

Also my uncle's name is Clement but that's a fairly common name in Jamaica

[amyrobynne]

Ideally, I'd like a name that isn't in the top 100, although the girls' name dh and I both seem to like is #44 or something and I might be okay with that so long as I don't know many locally. We'd planned to name each of our boys Eleanor, nn Nora, but my local natural parenting group has at least 3 or 4 of them now and that's too common for me. I try for traditional, easy to spell, but not that common, saint's name is a big plus.

[dannic]

I just checked our names at the ssa and it pretty much fits with my philosophy...I'm more willing to go out on a limb with my girl names and I like my boy names more common, tho not in the top ten...My girl names are between 300 and 1000, but my son's name is in the top 100 (tho it wasn't as popular when we named him--IL's HATED his name, siad it was too weird).
My first pick for boys name this time around is in the top ten, but he'll be called by a nickname with is in the top 300...DH wanted to go with the full version in case our son wanted to revert to it when an adult. I don't know...I've planned on this name for 7 yrs now...(and I'm pretty sure it's a boy this time around). We have a super common last name, not Smith, but close, so I'm not sure I want to give such a common first name...I'm so torn!!!

[Taylah]

I told my mom my pick for a boy's name last night (basically to get her ready as it's uncommon and she used to give me a lot of crap for liking really out there names) - but she really loved it and said it sounded "strong".

[dannic]

Originally Posted by Rosebud Perkins

We're thinking very traditional Italian names to reflect our heritage and go with our last name. It's also a great way to avoid the whole "trendy" issue. A name that dates back to Roman times will never go out of style.

Thanks for mentioning this. I was stressing out about my name choice when I realized it dates back to Rome as well and the nickname (real name) is 14 century England. Whew. So it may be popular, but not too trendy...

[andtay23]

Ever since I was little (uh, 4yrs old) I knew I wanted to name my first child Taylor - boy or girl. It's a long-running family name and I was part of the line that received it (as a middle name). We had a girl and found out that Taylor was a hugely popular name for girls in 08 (around #30?)...actually part of a rising trend. I'm thinking perhaps it started with Jonathan Taylor Thomas (as I roll my eyes to think of the correlation).

We chose DD's middle name, Elise, just because it sounded good with the first and last name and it had a good meaning - "consecrated to God." I knew that El- names were really popular for girls at the time, but I really liked it. It's also a bit of a homage to my grandmother's middle name - Eloise - and my mom's middle name - Ella. Now I have a niece named Elisa, which is a little weird for me.

For this baby it seems that my top picks right now are wildly popular or the names of aunts/uncles who I don't really want our child to be "named after." Can you do that - name a child the same name as a not-so-distant relative but not have others think that the baby was named after that person? I'm not really close with those relatives, but I do see them every few years.

[amyrobynne]

Originally Posted by andtay23

For this baby it seems that my top picks right now are wildly popular or the names of aunts/uncles who I don't really want our child to be "named after." Can you do that - name a child the same name as a not-so-distant relative but not have others think that the baby was named after that person? I'm not really close with those relatives, but I do see them every few years.

My oldest's name is Peter, which isn't the most unique name in the world, but is surprisingly uncommon for people under 25. My husband's cousin's name is Peter. When my son was born, the cousin lived across the country and his parents lived 5 hours away and we saw all of them once or twice a year at the most. A couple months later, the parents moved to our area and the cousin moved here and even moved in with dh's sister, who we saw all the time. So it turned into Big Pete and Little Pete/Baby Peter when they were both around. It wasn't that big a deal and we joked about it, but now the names Joseph, Julia, and Laurel (cousin Peter's younger siblings) are definitely out for us because it's one thing to have one matching name -- if more of them were the same it would be too weird.

[boringscreenname]

DS's name was around 191 on the Social Security's popularity list. With this baby we don't want any names in the top 100, nothing hard to pronounce or spell, but is still somewhat unique but not totally unfamiliar. We aren't even discussing names until after we find out the gender.

[KelliHope]

chosing a name is SO tough!! I'd prefer to stay at least out of the top 100, but we are having such a hard time that if we happened to love a name that was. . .say 30 or lower I think we'd go for it. Our boy name (Grant) is 140ish and has gone up about 10 points every year for the last 4-5 years. So it is gaining, but I'm ok with it, I love the name!

What really ticks me off though is stupid Vermont! LOL that's where we live and often times I have looked up a name on the baby name wizard site, on their name mapper, and the name isn't in the top 100 in any state EXECPT Vermont!! Some names, like Amelia, were not in the top 100 anywhere but was like #14 in Vermont, wth?? Very annoying. Of course, being 14 in VT means there were like 10 babies named tht, but still!

ITs a balance though b/c I don't want a popular name, but am averse to really odd names and ones that are tricky to pronounce. I feel like I have looked at and considered every single girl name out there and hav yet to find one we like as well as our first dd, Isla Hope. And Isla - man! It had NEVER been in the top 1,000 and in the year she was born it leaped to the 600's and I bet it's even higher now. It was #70something on the "users favorite list" on a baby naming site. You just never know!!


Is there a baby naming forum here on mothering?

[craftmuffin]

Ideally, I also prefer names that aren't in the top 100 list, but it's not a total deal-breaker. Fortunately, these days there are more names out there being used so even the popular ones don't necessarily represent *that* many babies. Know what I mean?

I mostly just don't like the trendy "new" names. We try to pick something that is special to us and isn't the same as our close friends or family (unless it's a name honoring one of them, of course!).