Still use a name if it's top 10? - Page 2

[abmom5]

I was just talking to DD and telling her we had to run out to someone's house.  When she asked who, I told her it was Kaden's house (which happens to be her step brother's name and also a friend of hers in her Kindergarten, and also my cousin's name, and also the name of one of our babysitters + we know numerous others).  This was very confusing to her and she had no idea where we were going until we got there because she hasn't grasped the concept of last names yet.

I personally prefer unique names or names that aren't trendy or popular for their time.  My name was popular back in the 50's and in my entire life, I've only met one person with my name that wasn't 30 years older than me.  In  a way I liked that.  Common enough that people don't say "What??" when I tell them my name, but unique enough that I don't have to worry about hearing my name in public and wondering if it's me they are talking to.

I don't know what they have in the states, but here in Alberta, I can go to the government of Alberta website and look up the birth names for the past couple years just in our province.  It tells the most popular names and then also shows a list of ALL the names of babies born in that year in our province and how many kids with that particular name/spelling their were.  I like to look at it because some names that I've only just heard that I think are cute turn out to be super popular.  I have yet to see my DS's name make the list.  DD1 turns out her name became popular that year.  I had never heard it before - she doesn't have any friends with the same name but we have heard of people with children with the same name.  DD2 has a name that HERE is not popular but in other parts of the world it is.  In fact a cute thing is, I bought her a coloring book the other day that had a story line in it and one of the Princesses had her name (spelled differently) and we thought that was pretty cool.

All that said...I think if you really like the name you should go for it anyway...unless you already know 5 little boys in town with the same name.

[Kmama2]

I am a name nut too. I check every name choice at the SS website. Jacob has been a top boys name for years but I just read an article that Aidan was the number 1 boys name in America right now. I personally try to avoid the top 100 names so if my name choice was in the top 10 I wouldn't use it for sure. Of course name data changes. My dd name ( Keira ) is now number 55.... But I def try to avoid the top 10 for sure and hopefully the top 100. I dont want my kid to have 3 other kids in her class with the same name.  Just personal opinion. My Sil is naming her son joseph and both her and her dh have siblings named joseph! Just to show you how different people can be when it comes to names.

[abmom5]

my dd name is Keira too...I had no idea it was common.  Before we named her I had never heard the name and it wasn't until after that people started saying "Oh I know so so and with a daughter named Keira."  Oh well... you never know.  I think it's a beautiful name.

Originally Posted by Kmama2 

I am a name nut too. I check every name choice at the SS website. Jacob has been a top boys name for years but I just read an article that Aidan was the number 1 boys name in America right now. I personally try to avoid the top 100 names so if my name choice was in the top 10 I wouldn't use it for sure. Of course name data changes. My dd name ( Keira ) is now number 55.... But I def try to avoid the top 10 for sure and hopefully the top 100. I dont want my kid to have 3 other kids in her class with the same name.  Just personal opinion. My Sil is naming her son joseph and both her and her dh have siblings named joseph! Just to show you how different people can be when it comes to names.

[madcap150]

DDCC from June. :) We are thinking about this too and have checked out each of our name possibilities on the SSA website, which has fabulous info. For my family, we don't want any name in the top 100, but that's because we both have names in the 400-500s for the years we were born and always liked having names that weren't "weird" but weren't common. Even a top 100 name now doesn't mean there will be a lot of kids with the name, especially in your area.

Some numbers to demonstrate how diversified things have become since many of us were kids, as referenced by PPs:

In 1982, Michael was the top boys' name, with 3.6% of births, which means there were 67,000 Michaels born that year! For girls, Jennifer was top with 3.1% of births, which translates to 57,000 births. If you were born in the late 70s/ early 80s and always knew tons of Jennifers and Michaels (or were one), this is why-- those are pretty large numbers and held true through much of that time period.

OTOH, for 2009, Jacob was the top boys' name-- but it accounted for just less than 1% of births and there are only 21,000 of them. Isabella was the top girls' name, but again, only 1.1% of births and 22,000 of them. Right there your child's odds of being in the same class with other kids named the same go down, even if they have the most popular name of the year. And the effect continues down the list.

So Finn was #343 for 2009-- but that's only 907 kids with the name in the whole country! Even if it has rocketed up the charts (and names very rarely make THAT big of a leap in one year) to, say, #8, there would still be only 17,000 of them in the country and less than 1% of kids with the name.

BTW, I didn't find any reference to Finn in the Today Show article. Is it possible that they mentioned it as one of the top "up and coming" names based on the 2009 list? Sometimes name experts make lists like that based on how much a name jumps up the charts from year to year. So if it made a big jump from 2008 to 2009, it might be an up and comer.

So, OP: I definitely understand the concern about not wanting your kid to have a common name. For us, even if we love a name, we don't want our kids to find their names date them too much as they get older (because they peaked in popularity at the time they were born) or to feel like they are boring because they are always one of many and always have to be "Michael P." or "Jennifer B." or what have you. BUT that phenomenon has greatly diminished in the last 25 years, and in any case "Finn" doesn't seem to be that popular at all. So unless you have recently met 8 little Finns in your own town and think you are living at the heart of the Finn movement, I think you are safe!

And in any case, I imagine kids have different experiences of the "Jennifer B." phenomenon. For every kid who hated being "Jennifer B.," there's probably another who enjoyed having a name that wasn't "weird" and liked the experience of sharing it with others!

BTW, totally OT, but I think someone mentioned having an Isabella? Be sure you know that anyone named Isabella gets free admission at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston, for life! Isabella Stewart Gardner was a bit eccentric. :)

[alireb]

The name that we are considering for this baby is Lillian because she would be named after my grandmother.  I know Lily is higher on the charts than Lillian but to us, it's a family name so that is what is important. 

Also, we have a somewhat unusual and harder to pronounce last name, so I don't want to burden my child with 2 names people can't say. 

[EricaRN]

I'm de-lurking to post here... been TOTALLY MIA since end of August- sorry mamas!! back now though. :-)

Anyway, just wanted to say my nephew's name is Finn. Finnian actually but nn Finn. He is the only one I know of personally but I have heard several others talking about the name as well recently. I think Glee has a big thing to do with it. My DS (19 months) is named Deklan and I had only ever heard one other child named that so we picked it because it was soooo original. Well there've been like 3 movies and a few tv series in the last year all with main characters named Deklan. Now I've heard 3 more moms who've chosen Deklan for their child's name.... and it's not even CLOSE to making any sort of list.. I think when it comes down to it, you just have to try and figure out how popular you think a name is going to be and then be ok with it either way. If a name is perfect enough, it usually won't stop you from using it. If it does stop you, then it's probably not a name you'll be happy saying for the rest of your life.

Oh and someone else mentioned that they wont ever use a popular name even if they really like it. I'm KIND OF similar to that... popularity is a huge deal breaker for me (as much as it possibly can be) because my husband's name is John and he HATED being one of 100 John's in his class. Also, I have a "trendy" name (Erica) and have hardly ever met many other Erica's throughout my life, EXCEPT in school... there were 3 of us in my grade and it was really frustrating to have a name like that, especially now when it kind of dates me more... Our solution: pick a unique first name and whatever middle name we want. With my daughter we LOVED the name Morgan but I knew sooo many little girls named Morgan so we didn't want to use it for a first name. Her name is Melanie Morgan. I've yet to hear of another Melanie. and I couldn't be happier with her name. Deklan is Deklan Graham. Not that Graham was super popular, but definitely moreso than Deklan. For this baby (I dont want to share the names for fear that all of you love it and use it! haha!) for a boy the middle name will be Joseph ( a name we both love and is also in the family) and for a girl the middle name will be after my Grandma.

Ok one more thing then I'll quit. haha. I've found that the best source for finding out if a name is going to be popular or not is to go to pregnancy forums like this and do a search. I LOVVVEEE the name Harper for a girl, but it was immediately nixed when I saw like 5 other moms on here within the same thread that were all thinking of using Harper. I think that's a good indication of popularity because that's how it starts and then grows from there. Anyway, not sure if any of this was helpful to anyone or not, but just wanted to share my 2cents. I'm hoping I can start posting here alot more now. Life has been crazy (and will continue to be I'm sure) but I'm finally into a routine now that we've moved and settled a bit so that I can have a LITTLE bit of freetime to post. :-) Hope everyone's having a great day!!!

[Oregonicmama]

Quote: my dd name is Keira too...I had no idea it was common.  Before we named her I had never heard the name and it wasn't until after that people started saying "Oh I know so so and with a daughter named Keira."  Oh well... you never know.  I think it's a beautiful name.

The same thing happened to me with DD1.  I named her Lily after my favorite flower.  I never knew anyone named Lily, but of course after she was born I met several little Lilys.  She was Lily B. in preschool since there was another Lily in her class, but now she's back to being the only one.  There are a few in her school, but not in her grade. 

I also wanted to point out that I looked on the SS website and found that in Oregon the number one name only had 300 something kids given that name in 2009, while in NJ the number one name had almost 1000 kids with that name!  If you live in a state that's not super populated, your odds of meeting one of those other 300 kids with the same name are pretty slim. 

[liangel]

I could care less how popular a name is.  if I like it, I am going to use it.   I have loved the name Ava for as long as I can remember.  It is currently #5 (or #6-not sure which) on the SS website.  Doesn't matter to me.    So new baby girl will be named Ava. 

[donutmolly]

I'm one who will avoid using a name based on its popularity -- maybe it's because I narrowly avoided being a Jennifer in the early 80's and was always on soccer teams with 4 Jen/Jenny etcs....  Dh and I both have names that are unusual for our birth year but not "trendy" or "weird", and we've both enjoyed our names so that is why I think we're drawn to less popular names.  On the other hand, my cousins, who have very common names for their birth years, have named all their kids within the top 20 or so, and are totally fine with it... I think it's just a matter of personal taste. 

I love the name Sophia, but when I found out that it's so popular, it was dropped from consideration!  I was sad, but there are lots of names and it was more important to me that my child feel unique!  And we've managed to find 3 other girls names that we love, so obviously it's not a tragedy.  I do personally know 3 or 4 young Finn's -- which would make me believe that the name is growing in popularity -- my area seems to be on the cutting edge of naming trends (my funny, tiny, hippy town... but there you go!)  I'm personally battling with the boy name we chose moving up into the top 100... so you can see how important the "uniqueness" factor is to me.

[Mama Metis]

DDCC! It's important to remember that the social security rankings only tell you how popoular each variation is. In other words, if you add together Finnian, Finnegan, Phineas, Phinneas, Finn, Phinn, etc., the name is a lot more popular than it seems at first glance. It's also rising rather quickly, which is another factor. Maybe that's how the the TV show ended up ranking it in the top ten.  If you like it, I say go for it. It's popular because lots of folks agree with you that it's a great name! That said, it is one that I consider to be "trendy." I agree with a previous poster that, personally, I prefer to avoid trendy although common/traditional doesn't bother me. For my LO due in July, though I'm looking at names in the 400s and 500s that haven't had any sharp trends in the past 5 years.

[kawa kamuri]

Two of my sons have what turned out to be names that gained popularity rather quickly. I didn't have internet access when naming them so searching this stuff wasn't even an option. I still don't often hear of children where we live with the names but certainly sometimes I do! At this point popularity weighs heavily on my decision making but it's not the only factor. If you love the name and feel it's the one that belongs to your baby then go ahead and use it!  

[Cutie Patootie]

I have an Eleanor, but is called Ella a lot.  I would have chosen something else had I thought about "Ella" and it being everybody and their sisters name. LOL

My boys are Truman and Linus, so no worries there.  Truman though, was supposed to be Aidan all the way up until my water broke and it didn't feel right anymore.  Linus was going to be Finnian(Finn), but my kids wouldn't back down from Linus, which was another one of our choices.   I *love* Finn names.  I would go with Finnegan.  It really is lovely.

[Kahlan]

DDCC to say - check out this:

http://www.babynamewizard.com/name-mapper

It shows you top 100 by state!  So you can see how popular a name is over time and by state...I found it very interesting!

Side note to say - my daughters name has never been in the top 100, and yet my cousin due a month before me picked THE SAME NAME without either of us knowing.  Sometimes it just happens!