Name popularity

Lucy · Senior Member

Name popularity

Lucy · Senior Member

For us Joseph was number 9 on the list of '05 and we have yet to come across another one. Quite often we get a situation where we say his name and people will say that that is what their grown son is called or their grandpa's name but he has never been in a class with another Joseph or had a personal encounter with one.

For Isabel, her spelling was #87 for '07, and we have yet to come across another one. Isabella was #2, for the year she was born and she does have one of those in her class.

supergrover · Guru

Koda doesn't even appear on a list I don't think, lol. BUT, we have run into one before! While I know people thought it was an odd choice at first (or maybe even still), it really suits him and I have never had a regret. And I adore his middle name Jude. I was unbelievably stubborn on that one. The moment I conceived I told Travis if it was a boy, his middle name was Jude.

Tristen, I think was low on the popularity list, but still made the list at least. Koda has a Tristan in his class, but it isn't super common around here. His middle name is not everyones cup of tea at all (Rain), but I still love it.

For us, it is more a battle between me wanting it to not be WAY out there, and Travis who has the most ridiculous taste in names ever. Spelling- we go with what looks right to us. Tristen can be spelled -in, -an-, -en with -an being the most popular spelling. For us, -an sort of implied a slightly different pronunciation than -en (Travis wanted -in, the final decision we agreed on was in the hospital. If the kiddo had red hair, his name would be Tristin, if it was another color it would be -en. I won.).

I don't like CRAZY off the wall spellings where you can barely tell what the name is. Obviously, I'm pretty open to unique names. My personal preference if I didn't have a compromise would be more mainstream (Noah, Cooper, Jonah), but Travis vetoes those in the same passion I veto Granite, and Gangus.

Oh, baby names.

Robin · Guru

I have pretty much the same story with Henry as you do with Joseph (except I'm pretty sure that Henry wasn't in the top anything in 2000). Many people have grandparents or uncles with the name Henry.

Henry hasn't ever had another Henry in his grade or his class but there is a younger Henry at church. He is 4.

Same with Mark. The only other Marks we come across are adults.

I think my choices worked out well. I still love their names. I like their traditional, easy to pronounce spellings, and the fact that they're very "boy" names. I also like that they haven't had others in their class so they haven't had to be Henry R. or Mark R.

CoffeeQueen · Guru

I still love my girls names.

Oddly enough, there is not one other Mia or Allison in the entire school where they go.

I am not sure where their names fell on the list.

I have hardly run into any kids Allies age at all. Not in any dance class, soccer, etc. I have run into other mia's, but not her age.

apies · Guru

emily and jake were in the top 3 most popular when they were born.

emily hasn't had another emily in her class yet.

jake had another jake at his previous school (in another class) but not at his current school.

i've been surprised!!!

CoffeeQueen · Guru

April- funny thing is we have No Emily's at our school either. I think we have one Jake in the preschool. Pretty crazy considering how popular the name is suppose to be.

LucsMama · Senior Member

What an intresting question.

Originally I did not want to name my child ANYTHING on the top 100 baby names but then DH and I couldn't agree on ANYTHING! We would get in HUGE fights over baby names. I started to think he would disagree with a name just because I suggested it. I didn't want anything too unusal and he wanted names that were more our there. I don't remember a ton of his suggestions but I know one was Vladimer.I finally got desperate and before we knew the sex of the baby I printed out two copies of the top 100 most popular names and in private we each circled names we liked and we actually agreed on some!! I actually still have them saved.....

Boys Names (in no particular order)
Zachary
Caleb
Luke
Gavin
Brayden
Lucas
Owen
Cole
Chase
Landon
Riley
Bryce

Girls Names : We only agreed on 6 but our top 3 were the same. (we both REALLY loved Isabelle but took it out of the running because that's my sister's MIL's name and I knew if they had a girl they would want to name her that since they are very into family names)
Top 3
Riley
Chloe
Sophia
Other choices
Emma
Hailey
Gabriella

Anyway, after we found out we were having a boy I was a little bummed and told DH he could name the boy and if we ever had a girl I got dibs. He ended up talking about it with a coworker one day and he decided to name him Lucas Owen. I was fine with that. Now I loooove his first name. It suits him. The only thing I hate is all the stupid starwars jokes we got when he was a baby "Luke I am your father" We do call him Luc a lot and it bothers me for some reason when people shorten it on birthday cards or presents as Luke. I know that sounds a little crazy but it drives me batty.

Back to the oringal question. He has never had another Lucas in his class and from different grade level field trips and programs I don't think there is one in his grade level either and I've never heard it from another grade level. I think once or twice we've been out in public and another kid has had his name. Oh I totally forgot when Lucas was a baby we were in a playgroup and one of the other kids his age was named Lukas and the other Mom would call the boys K-man and C-man but they moved away right after Lucas' 2nd birthday.

Oh and if anyone asks DH where we got Lucas' name from he always tells them I loved the actors Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson and that I loved the show "One Tree Hill," (the main character was Lucas) but that is NOT TRUE at all!

Sorry for the novel

Corey · Guru

i didn't want anything at the top of the popularity lists, but i wanted names we could atleast find on stickers, etc... does that make sense? when i was a kid i hated i could never find a "Corey's room" sign, etc (although it is more popular now --atleast for boys).

Connor has one other Connor in his grade.

Grace has met one other Grace at a birthday party. It seems way more popular as a middle name. Jamison who we thought was really off the wall has actually met THREE other JamEson boys! one of whom is a distant cousin on my husband's side that we didn't know had a Jameson until a family reunion last summer.

Lucy · Senior Member

Robin wrote:
I have pretty much the same story with Henry as you do with Joseph (except I'm pretty sure that Henry wasn't in the top anything in 2000). Many people have grandparents or uncles with the name Henry.

Henry hasn't ever had another Henry in his grade or his class but there is a younger Henry at church. He is 4.

Same with Mark. The only other Marks we come across are adults.

I think my choices worked out well. I still love their names. I like their traditional, easy to pronounce spellings, and the fact that they're very "boy" names. I also like that they haven't had others in their class so they haven't had to be Henry R. or Mark R.

Isabel had a boy in her class last year called Henry, and we've never met a young Mark (her friends lil bro is Markussen - which I bet requires explanation every time his mother says it).

Lucy · Senior Member

apies wrote:
emily and jake were in the top 3 most popular when they were born.

emily hasn't had another emily in her class yet.

jake had another jake at his previous school (in another class) but not at his current school.

i've been surprised!!!

I'm surprised Emily hasn't had another Emily yet, hasn't that been #1 for the last few years? Though we don't know any Emilys either. And I think we only know one Jake.

I know names are a regional thing but its crazy that you just don't even come across the ones that are supposed to be the most popular. I guess it means that somewhere out there there must be a place where every other kid is called it.

Lucy · Senior Member

LucsMama wrote:
What an intresting question.

Originally I did not want to name my child ANYTHING on the top 100 baby names but then DH and I couldn't agree on ANYTHING! We would get in HUGE fights over baby names. I started to think he would disagree with a name just because I suggested it. I didn't want anything too unusal and he wanted names that were more our there. I don't remember a ton of his suggestions but I know one was Vladimer.I finally got desperate and before we knew the sex of the baby I printed out two copies of the top 100 most popular names and in private we each circled names we liked and we actually agreed on some!! I actually still have them saved.....

Boys Names (in no particular order)
Zachary
Caleb
Luke
Gavin
Brayden
Lucas
Owen
Cole
Chase
Landon
Riley
Bryce

Girls Names : We only agreed on 6 but our top 3 were the same. (we both REALLY loved Isabelle but took it out of the running because that's my sister's MIL's name and I knew if they had a girl they would want to name her that since they are very into family names)
Top 3
Riley
Chloe
Sophia
Other choices
Emma
Hailey
Gabriella

Anyway, after we found out we were having a boy I was a little bummed and told DH he could name the boy and if we ever had a girl I got dibs. He ended up talking about it with a coworker one day and he decided to name him Lucas Owen. I was fine with that. Now I loooove his first name. It suits him. The only thing I hate is all the stupid starwars jokes we got when he was a baby "Luke I am your father" We do call him Luc a lot and it bothers me for some reason when people shorten it on birthday cards or presents as Luke. I know that sounds a little crazy but it drives me batty.

Back to the oringal question. He has never had another Lucas in his class and from different grade level field trips and programs I don't think there is one in his grade level either and I've never heard it from another grade level. I think once or twice we've been out in public and another kid has had his name. Oh I totally forgot when Lucas was a baby we were in a playgroup and one of the other kids his age was named Lukas and the other Mom would call the boys K-man and C-man but they moved away right after Lucas' 2nd birthday.

Oh and if anyone asks DH where we got Lucas' name from he always tells them I loved the actors Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson and that I loved the show "One Tree Hill," (the main character was Lucas) but that is NOT TRUE at all!

Sorry for the novel

Kari, I like all the names on your list.

Re your dh saying where he got the name from that is so funny, I wonder why he does that? My dh tells people he named Joseph after Stalin (totally not true), I think he just does that to see what their reaction is though.

Lucy · Senior Member

Corey wrote:
i didn't want anything at the top of the popularity lists, but i wanted names we could atleast find on stickers, etc... does that make sense? when i was a kid i hated i could never find a "Corey's room" sign, etc (although it is more popular now --atleast for boys).
Connor has one other Connor in his grade.
Grace has met one other Grace at a birthday party. It seems way more popular as a middle name. Jamison who we thought was really off the wall has actually met THREE other JamEson boys! one of whom is a distant cousin on my husband's side that we didn't know had a Jameson until a family reunion last summer.

I wonder how important the sticker thing is going to be in our house sometimes too. Joseph I can find everywhere, but Isabel nowhere. Though my aunts send things over from England with her name on, spelled correctly. Isabel is very adamant with everyone that her name is NOT Isabella or Isabelle.

That is a lot of Jamesons!

Lucy · Senior Member

CoffeeQueen wrote:
I still love my girls names.

Oddly enough, there is not one other Mia or Allison in the entire school where they go.

I am not sure where their names fell on the list.

I have hardly run into any kids Allies age at all. Not in any dance class, soccer, etc. I have run into other mia's, but not her age.

We've never met a young Allison either. Isabel's best friend is a Mia, though she is the only one we've met of that name too.

Interestingly though considering how much you think you would come across certain names complared to others, Joe has two Skylars in his grade at school, a name I'd never heard of before.

Alison · Guru

Corey wrote:
i didn't want anything at the top of the popularity lists, but i wanted names we could atleast find on stickers, etc... does that make sense?

This is how I felt too. Our last name is so hard to spell that we definitely wanted familiar names but not too common.

They both seemed to become more popular after our kids were born, LOL. But I'm very satisfied with their names and wouldn't change them if I could.

There was another Mason in his preschool, but not in the same class. He doesn't know of any other Masons in kindergarten at his school. I don't hear Evelyn often at all, but Evie sporadically (pronounced Eevie and Ehvie).

No Peepers though. ;)

Juni · Guru

When we chose Gavin we hadn't heard it at all. Besides the few random famous people named Gavin. I was working in a preschool and we hadn't had a Gavin at all in the previous years I'd been there. Now that we've named him I've heard it a bit more but I don't think it's overly popular. He hasn't had a Gavin in any of his classes and I can think of at least one at the school I work and he is in 2nd grade.

As soon as we had Gavin I knew I wanted another boy to be named Owen. I thought they were such a good pair of boy names. I think Owen is a bit more popular but we still don't see it all that often. He has been the only Owen in his classes so far.

A funny thing though - on two different occasions in the last few years we've met different sets of brothers named Gavin and Owen! One randomly at the water park and then some brothers at a play place. So funny.

3s_a_crowd · Guru

I have met a couple Kaylens but never spelled the same as I spell it. Of course Stacey on this board has a Kaylin as well.

Raymond I have one other in my church. Its not super popular so Im a little surprissed but we didnt take popularity into account at all since hes a III

Ive only ran into adult scotts not any other little kids.

Daphne shes the only one I know.

All of our kids names were in the 300-600 range I think for popularity. Although Kaylens went up to about 120 I think if you changed the spelling for the year she was born.

Alison · Guru

Juni wrote:
When we chose Gavin we hadn't heard it at all. Besides the few random famous people named Gavin. I was working in a preschool and we hadn't had a Gavin at all in the previous years I'd been there. Now that we've named him I've heard it a bit more but I don't think it's overly popular. He hasn't had a Gavin in any of his classes and I can think of at least one at the school I work and he is in 2nd grade.

As soon as we had Gavin I knew I wanted another boy to be named Owen. I thought they were such a good pair of boy names. I think Owen is a bit more popular but we still don't see it all that often. He has been the only Owen in his classes so far.

A funny thing though - on two different occasions in the last few years we've met different sets of brothers named Gavin and Owen! One randomly at the water park and then some brothers at a play place. So funny.

Mason had 2 Gavins in his class last year! I've been hearing it more often lately than when your Gavin was born.

That's so cute about the Gavin-Owen pairs!

Erin · Guru

I wanted different, but not strange names. Keira Knightly was pretty popular about the time Kiera was born. I think Jonathan Rhys Myers is hawt, aside from his role as the later King Henry VIII ... Neither were the reason we chose those names, but, I think it makes them so people arent totally unfamiliar with them. Both names are more popular across the pond. We have met one other Rhys (randomly - he was about 12 yrs old) spelled the same way, and they said ours was the only other one they had ever met. We have met a couple of Reeces (girls). We have met a few Kieras, or had the "oh, we have another friend name Kiera" response, but none who have spelled it like our Kiera. I still love their names and am happy with our picks.

Supafly · Guru

We really didn't take name popularity into account when naming our kids. We may have ruled out a name if it were one of the very top names, just to keep it from being a Jennifer situation like when I was a kid, but otherwise, we didn't pay attention to that. IHNI where their names were on the popularity list.

Anna was a name we both loved and had loved for a long time. It is also a family name, as is her mn, Marie.

We both liked Kate, but didn't want to name her Kate without a longer form. IDK why, we just didn't. So we went with Kathryn. We preferred that spelling, but it wasn't an out there spelling. I am not a fan of really out there spellings. Her mn, Virginia, is a family name.

Same with Megan-we just liked it. And Elizabeth flowed well with it.

I don't know many Anna's that are children. Anna hasn't encountered any. Kate has met one or two Kate's but never had one in her class. (more often though, it is a Katie, but she figures that is close enough) Megan is a more popular name. We have met a number of adult and older children named Meg or Megan, and there is a Meg at the preschool. (they call her Meggie)

Of course with Superczynski, we feel like short, easy names are the way to go, lol. But I am with Corey and ABH-I wanted things I could find on mugs and such. Oddly though, I can never find Kate. Once in a blue moon, but it is rare. Katie or Kaitlyn, but not Kate.

I'm happy with our choices. Our boy names were typical names too. Except Ivan. Bill had that on the list for every pregnancy, lol. I would never allow that.