Names that are really increasing in popularity

[dmpmercury]

Two of the names I am considering are really going up in poularity right now and I am deciding if that is really important or not. Cora is the name I wanted to use for a while it was always one of my favorites and I came up with it and my dd's name before she was even conceived. It was my one girl's name choice but the leap is making me reconsider.

I like old fashioned names and right now they are becoming more common and a bit of a trend. I don't mind that they are used more I just don't want it too sound like a name from this decade or time period and I don't want a name that would become really popular. I prefer to stat out of the top 200. Everett is a name I really like and one of the few my husband said ok too but the rate it is jumping has me reconsidering. What do you think? How popular do you think these names will get and will they be trendy names. I really want to avoid that. Do you think they will keep jumping every year and become really popular. I included the recent stats.

Cora
90s 652
03 439
06 384
08 322
09 303

Everett
90s 599
03 575
06 451
08 383
09 320

[yummama]

It doesn't look to me like either will get terribly popular. That said, I chose a name for my DD that was not on the top 1000 list for the last several decades. But guess what? I am going to a playgroup tomorrow, and there will be another little girl exactly her age with the exact same name. I was sort of devastated when I found out. So now I am faced with the decision to go even crazier next time, or to just pick something that I like, that isn't too popular, and just go with it. I don't know if this helps at all, but that is my experience of naming my child a "totally unpopular" name.

[Ambivalent Dreams]

I have no idea if those names will jump in popularity or not, but I love both of them! I like how they look together too - Cora and Everett would be great names for siblings.

[MaerynPearl]

my son, Matthias, is the only one I know... though his name is in the top 1000s (wasnt when I named him that and his birth year is when it started to hit the chart)

I dont know a single other little boy with that name though I have found a couple of other moms online with sons with that name...

My own name (not Maeryn but my REAL name... Maeryn is the little one in my tummy right now) is not in the top 1000 but I have met SEVERAL little girls born in the past 10 years with my name.

So it is really hard to decide.

I would worry more about a name like Rowan which has jumped 600 spots in 10 years... which is probably going to be in the top 10 within the next 3 years... than one that has only gone up about 250 spots in the same amount of time.

[Narmowen]

I'm just picking names that I know I'll love.

So far, we have Sebastian Rhys, Alistair Anthony & Eleanor Faye. Sebastian is the only one that's in the top 100, and i believe it made it to the 70's last year, so it's not horribly popular.

[Lauren31]

honestly, there are SO many names these days that the liklihood of another Jennifer is VERY low.

[queenofjuly]

I actually have heard of a couple of infant Coras recently, but it is a lovely name and in the 300s isn't what I would call popular. I think there was a movie title with 'Nora,' as well and I have seen that one on some baby name boards.
Name popularity is a difficult and interesting issue, and it does seem that some 'old fashioned' names are becoming trendy. However, there are still a good many that I think are way underused and not even on the radar---not even top 500 (think "Martha").
For example, my first name (Ellen) was #250 in popularity in the year of my birth and #700 last year). However, I have met only about 2 other Ellens in my entire lifetime who were even somewhat close to me in age. Most others are much, much older, when the name was more popular. I do not think the SSN database accounts for use of middle names, since I know Ellen is more popularly used as a middle name.
I guess just pray that no celebrity decides to use the name Cora. That is the end of obscurity!
We decided a long time ago to go with family names for my son, so I am not worried about popularity really, as the names are classic & Biblical. I would have had a much more difficult time choosing a girl name. Good luck.

[dejagerw]

It does seem that older style names are making a comeback. However, I haven't heard of a lot of Cora's.

I've heard the names you've got to be careful of are the names that are not popular, but then dramatically shoot up fast in popularity. Those names are typically likely the be more "dated" in the future. Slow steady climbers are less likely to be dated.

I like this website for checking on baby names I am interested in.

http://nametrends.net/

Good luck!

[laerhk]

I'm the same way...I don't want there to be a gazillion children at school with the same names as mine, yet I don't want to stay with known spellings and familiar names. For those reasons, I approved of (I didn't name either kid--just how it worked out) first names with my first two that:
1. Didn't make me, as a middle school teacher, cringe. (And there are a lot of those, lol.)
2. Didn't show up in the top 100.
3. Were traditional spellings.

I was successful with DD number one (have yet to find another Christine under the age of 15) and semi successful with DD number two (have one met one other kid...a 12-year old boy...named Morgan).

I'm hoping the next one will be just as successful.

[Masel]

Have you poked around the Baby Name Wizard site? She does a lot of analysis of name trends. She might have an idea of where Cora is going. One thing mentioned on that site is that for even the mostly popular names are applied to fewer people. I mean that there is more variety in name choices so even the most popular ones are used less.

[34me]

You can just never twll, honestly. Some teenybopper with the name could become incredibly popular in 5 years and Your child's name could go through the roof. When I named my dd 16 years ago her name wasn't in the top 500 - I now know several.

[lillymonster]

I named my child after my mother and MIL middle names thinking nothing of it. Then I was at a Target and there was another little girl the same age with the same name. Apparently it's a popular name. I also liked the name because I babysit a girl with the same name and thought it was so pretty. She hated her name because it was so different. Now she teaches kindergarten and she said there were 5 kids with that name in her class.

It gets misspelled and she gets called the wrong name - like when people call someone named Marie by the name Maria.

BTW, my nephew, who is 16, has the name Everett, it's a family name. I think you will find that might happen no matter how hard you try to pick an uncommon name

[dmpmercury]

I don't mind running into a few kids with my kids names. What I don't want is to hear it all the time and have it sound dated down the road or for it to be anywhere near the top 25. I don't want something trendy. My dd's name is hoavering around 1000. My ds is also around 300 and is in a slight upward trend but doesn't sound trendy because it has been around for a long time. There actually was a girl in my dd's preschool class with a nearly identical name which did annoy me at first even though it wouldn't if I ran into a little girl with her name. I guess I will still use Cora. I really adore the name and I think classics coming back are not quite the same as other trends. I still can't decide on the final boy name but Everett is still a top choice.

[thtr4me]

With DS, we just went with a name that we loved and had real personal meaning. It just so happened to be one of the top most popular boy names ever, and was the name of my brother and DH's cousin. But it was just the right name for our child.

I think if the name is something that you really love, the popularity of the name should not matter at all.

[nia82]

I don't think it's that much in fashion, really. You can also look up trends by state and see how many people are actually naming kids Cora or Everett in your area.

@ Maeryn: Matthias is very common in Germany. About 2 Matthias were in my class at school! But of course, not a single Jack nor Mary... Different country!

The names I'm looking at are Eloise, Emilia, William/Wilhelm. Emilia just became popular in my circles, as two other babies were named Emilia, which crosses it off my list as I know them personally... So Eloise it is if it is a girl.

[Amanda_Reyasmom]

I'm on who REALLY cares about that popular baby name list. I know it's dumb, those names are popular because they're beautiful names. I get that, but I spent most of my childhood being Amanda *last name* because there was another Amanda S in my class. I HATED it. A lot. Not to mention the OTHER Amanda and the Mandy. Sooo yeah. I've got baggage.

DD's name is Reya Kathleen. (like a ray-uh sunshine ) IMO it's lovely and it suits her so perfectly well. The flow works out well and fits with her last name and we've yet to actually MEET another one, but I know there are a few out there (although I've yet to hear of one within 5 years of her age!) She loves her name and that's what I love. By 11 I wanted to change mine to ANYTHING other than Amanda.

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by nia82

@ Maeryn: Matthias is very common in Germany. About 2 Matthias were in my class at school! But of course, not a single Jack nor Mary... Different country!

DSs bio-father was born in Germany which is why he chose that name. Around here its so uncommon I rarely find another but not so odd as to raise eyebrows.

[RedOakMomma]

skipping here from OP...

I don't think either of those names are too popular or will get too popular. 300s still means a very, very low frequency of use. In order for a name to be truly popular (showing up commonly), I would think a name would have to be in the top 30 or so. No way Cora or Everett are getting there.

Great names, by the way!