s/o baby names - popularity?

[Deleted]

The ssa list of the top baby names for 2011 came out today and it's floating around all over the Bump. It's interesting to me how people who have already chosen a name are rethinking because said name moved up a few spots.

Did the popularity of your child's potential name concern you? Would you have chosen a top ten name if you loved it? Is your lo's name high on the list?

[Deleted]

Just putting this up here so everyone can see it:

Top 10 Baby Names for 2011
Rank Male name Female name
1 Jacob Sophia
2 Mason Isabella
3 William Emma
4 Jayden Olivia
5 Noah Ava
6 Michael Emily
7 Ethan Abigail
8 Alexander Madison
9 Aiden Mia
10 Daniel Chloe

ETA: the formatting got screwy, see it here:

www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

[drloretta]

Did the popularity of your child's potential name concern you?
No

Would you have chosen a top ten name if you loved it?
Sure, if I loved it, it wouldn't have mattered.

Is your lo's name high on the list?
Oh heck no. Only in Ireland

[Deleted]

Our top names are Benjamin (19) and Molly (78). I like a lot of the names on the top ten and probably wouldn't let it influence my decision.

[Brie]

I don't know that I'd pick a top ten name, but most of the names we like are in the top 100-200.

We haven't picked a name yet, but of our favorites list, the highest one is in the 60s.

Sidenote: naming a kid is really freaking hard, especially when your H insists on reading the Wikipedia article about every name before discussing it.

[Deleted]

Our kids' names are fairly popular/common (Ryan, Ben, and Kate) but they're the only ones we could agree on. I like older, more classic sounding names and DH likes names that sound like they're straight out of the 1980s to me

Oh well, I don't think it will kill them if they have a classmate or two with the same name.

[h]

One of my kid's has a top 10 name--Alexander. I am not bothered by it. Most of my favorite classic boys' names are on the popular side.

[luvmagoldn]

We didn't want anything too trendy (DH refused to consider the -den names, Aiden, Braeden, Jayden, etc).

Ours fell somewhere in between popular and classic: Andrew, Nicholas & Ryan.

[bunch]

Yes, it was a concern for me. Dd's name is trending up, but is still in the low 200s

[Jem]

It mattered to us a little but it didn't really impact our decision. DS's name is not a top name but we would have chosen it even if it were.

Our top girl name was Abigail and we would have used it even though we knew it was in the top 10.

[justjen]

As a Jennifer born in the 70s, it's very important to me to avoid super-popular names.

Our top (girl--that's what we're having) name has also been trending up, which worries me a bit, but it's still not in the top 50, so I'm not *overly* concerned.

Our second choice is in the 600s how we'd spell it (what we consider the "authentic" spelling), but in the 200s with the more popular spelling...

[pugz]

I didn't want top 25. Dh liked Amelia but it climbing in popularity and I have a bad association with that name from the stupid character on Private Practice. So I nixed it.

The name we decided on (Gretchen) isn't even in the top 1000. Our top boys name, Calvin, is still in the 200s.

[whitterbugk]

I wouldn't have picked anything that was in the top 25 or so.

Our pick is somewhere between 200-300 and that suits me just fine.

[minzy]

Finding a name we could agree on was much more important to me than where it ranked in popularity. Picking a name two people agree on can be really hard (we were Team Green and were nowhere close to agreement on a boy's name the day I was induced).

That said, I admit I was a little pleased today to see my daughter's name is still pretty far down the list.

[ijack]

DD's name is Emma, obviously it wasn't a concern for me It was the only name we could agree on at the time and yes it is popular, but we really don't know too many other Emmas.

[Deleted]

May 14, 2012 16:12:15 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

It definitely mattered a little. I have loved the name Ava since I was like 8 years old, but I just didn't want to consider it when it became SO popular. I could do top 50 or so, probably even top 25, but top 5-10 I'd prefer to stay away from..

This exactly. I love Ava, but I just couldn't name DD Ava with it being one of the top 10 names.

[mie]

Did the popularity of your child's potential name concern you?
Yes, I didn't want a name that was too trendy/popular.

Would you have chosen a top ten name if you loved it?
No.

Is your lo's name high on the list?
No.

[karinothing]

Our son's name is in the top ten. However, we call him by his initials so it doesn't really matter much. Regardless, I could care less if it was popular. Even if another kid has his name, the kid isn't going to be the same as him or anything.

[Mushe]

Yes, popularity mattered to us. We both liked Alex/Alexander, but didn't want to go with a Top 10 name. We ended up with something that's Top 50.

[jenny1223]

We didn't want something super trendy or popular. (I grew up in the 80s as a Jennifer!) But we had a really hard time agreeing on a name so if a name we both like was in the top ten, we probably still would've used it.

DS's name is Carson and a couple months after he was born another baby was born with the same name (girl). They'll be in the same class at school (small town). There's only so much you can do to have a unique name (without being ridiculous).

[zeewifeandmama]

The only *real* concern for us was a favorable meaning and for it to be easily pronounced in both families ( American and Pakistani)....that said, I am a "sara" born in the 80's( my BFF and I share the same first and middle name) so some of the more popular Arabic names were nixed right away.

[MadamePresident]

I won't use a super popular name. My name isn't popular, although its common enough that people have heard of it. I want to find that same balance for my kid. Although my husband's name is somewhat popular and we will probably use that as a boy middle name.

[Deleted]

We didn't care about the popularity of a name, just whether we loved it or not.

[Deleted]

DD's name is in the 100s. So not super popular but not you-neek either. We just went with a name we liked.

[DarcyLongfellow]

The popularity did concern me, but it didn't make me change my mind.

DD's name is Abigail, which is a top 10 name. But she's named after my mom, so I wasn't going to change it.

I didn't read through all the replies, so this may have already been said, but according to the author of The Baby Name Wizard, there are a lot more names given to babies overall than there were 30 years ago. So, for example, if the #1 name now represents 5% of all babies born, back in the 1970's the #1 name was more like 10% of all babies born.

I also grew up with one of the most common names for girls my age. I survived :-)

[Ashley&Scott]

I prefer not to use a top 10 name, even better if it's not in the top 50.

My name was very popular, there were 2 other Ashleys in my class. This meant I had to use my last initial, on everything... that gets annoying, very annoying.

[hilwithonelary]

I was somewhat concerned with popularity. I don't mind popular names that have been that way forever, but I wanted to avoid trendy names that skyrocketed out of nowhere.

DS has an old man name that is in the top 100 name, but is trending downward (Robert).

DD has a name that has been rising up the list, but is still below 500 (Elsa).

[EllieArroway]

I'm not all that concerned with name popularity. I think my son's name was in the top 50 when he was born, and both of the names we are considering this time are in the top 30. My name was #1 the year I was born, and I'm sure DH's was in the top 10.

Our last name, however, is very unique, so maybe that's why I don't care so much about the popularity of the first name.

[slug*bug]

Just saw the list.

No, it didn't concern me...which is good considering that DS's name wasn't in the top 25 (top 50?) when he was born, but now it's apparently in the top 10? Lol. Well, shows you how much attention I pay the SSA list.

I really thought DD's was more popular than it actually is: she's got a good middle ground name...there won't be too many, but it's common enough not to mispronounced/misspelled, etc.

ETA: Just looked up DS name for his birth year: it wasn't even in the Top 50 in 2009. It is now in the top 5. Wowza.

[jenjen]

I'm pretty sure both DH & I had top 10 names at the time we were born. I've never been in a class that didn't have multiple Jen/Jenny/Jenni/Jennifer's.

Baby's name is in the top 10 for the boys and will be born in a few weeks. It's a name that both DH & I have agreed on for a few years (and I had no idea it was so popular for such a long time) but we have a very unusual last name so it will be fine.