Popular Kid Names

I wouldn't worry about it. THe only names that are really going to date kids are the ones with the jacked up spellings, like 'Keightlynne' or 'Madysynne', junk like that. People will automatically know when those kids were born based on the 'keyoote yuneekness' of their names.

I think some people love their names and some people don't. I think when they are teenagers it all falls in what type of personality you have: whether you like sharing and having a name that is more common, or whether you prefer to be a standout and not so anonymous within the group. My name (S.) was pretty popular too and it never bothered me a bit. As long as you like them, feel confident you made a good choice--no regrets! :)

I wouldn't worry about that too much! I was named J. in a year/decade when it was the #1 girls name--at one point there were 5 of us in a class of 26. I sometimes wished I had a unique name but overall I am glad I don't have a name that people don't recognize or can't pronounce. I have an 18mo old and I named him Aiden, not knowing at the time that this would be a common name for boys in his age group. I'd only heard the name once before. Naming children isn't all about creativity; it's about giving them something that has meaning to you. It is a daunting task considering they have this name as a baby, a child, and an adult.

My boys are named Ryan and Jack. Jack seems to be a bit popular now...I named him after my dad and had no idea what popular name it has become over the last few years! Don't worry what people think about your children's name. I cannot tell you how many times people have actually commented on how they love my boy's names! They are classic :) The name is supposed to fit your kid, not command the publics attention :)

I ourposely picked names that were very feminine and both in the top 10 list in the years my girls were born. I have spent 44 years repeating Marjorie, no not Audrey, yes with a J. I actually had a teacher call me by my middle neme because he didn't think I really used my first name.
My boys were named after their grandfathers, both very popular names also.

Don't worry about it. My name is M. and it was number 2 in 1969 and number 10 for 1960 - 69. When I was in summer school when I was in 10th grade there were 8 M.'s in the class. It never bothered me at all. :)

i wouldn't worry, my name is L. and growing up there are no
L."s even to this day any L. i meet is 10-20 years older than me. i remember being young and wshing a friend had the same name.

I can completely relate! I am amazed how many kids at school have the same names as my kids. My kids names are Chandler, Hayden, Robert and Emma - all four names are extremely popular right now, but weren't when we picked them out.

So far it hasn't bothered my kids, but even if it did there's not much we can do about it now right? (ha! ha!)

My sister thought she was being creative with all her kids names, too (Zach, Gabi and Kyle) - there are SO many of them in all their classes.

I don't think your kids will mind so much. I liked having a different name growing up (and my kids names are different), but it was really hard to find novelty items with our names on them.

I wanted to name our first child after a girl I went to college with who's last name was "Braden". Love the name, but our son has 2 of them in his class (of 15 kids). They just call them by their first and last names, and no one seems to be bothered by it. There are also 2 Owens, 2 Calebs.

As long as you love the name as the parents and don't regret choosing them, I hope your kids will be fine!

While some parents like uncommon names, kids generally don't. Kids want to be like other kids. Most don't want to stand out because they have a strange name. I wouldn't giveit a second thought.

I hated my name because it was different... So you can't be sure they won't dislike it at some point. Sometimes people take creativity too far and have weird hard to pronounce/spell names for their kids. Its tough to be a kid who has to keep spelling their name for everyone, or help them learn to pronounce it. I had that problem and my name is easy to spell and pronounce phonetically - but since its different people just panic.

I picked Emily for my oldest because it was easy to spell and pronounce and not overused - or so I thought, this year is the first time in YEARS that Emily was not the #1 name, now its merely #2. Oops, my research wasn't too good. Oh well, I still like the name and so far we've run into more Emmas then Emilys so whatever right?! :)

Hi N.-

Don't worry about it. My name (K.) was one of the most popular when I was growing up. I don't think I was ever the only K. in my class. But I don't remember it ever bothering me. Right now I live in a neighborhood of about 75 houses and there are 5 K.'s here!! But I never see any young kids with my name. One time I was in a doctor's office and a mom called her daughter over and when I heard here call, "K." I got a huge grin on my face.

Anyway, your kids won't care. One problem I have is that my oldest have fairly common names (Tyler and Paige) but my third is a little more unique (Calvin). I can't buy any of those cute little personalized gifts for them because I can never find Calvin printed on anything. The other 2 I find everywhere!

Good luck,
K.

Hi,
My son is also a Jacob (9yrs old) and to be honest with you my step-dad picked out his name and he loves it. (We call him J-man, Snake-up, Jake... ) He thinks it's cool. Jayden is also a very nice name...

When your children get older the last thing they will be thinking about was were you creative when you gave them their name. They may ask why you named them Jacob & Jayden and you tell them the wonderful story of how mom & dad picked their name.

Take Care

A wise person once said that most of the things that we worry about never happen. That being said, you could use a nickname, but probably not a requirement for your child's happiness.

S.

.

I agree with everyone else. There were 6 Ericas in my graduating class in high school, and we actually all became friends because of that bond. My son LOVES hearing about athletes and others in the news, even just random people that we meet with his name. It can give an instant connection to others, makes it easy to strike up a conversation.
I'm sure being named N., you've run across a few others in your life and you seem to be fine. :-)

Two of my best friends in grade school were both named Amy Lynn and they were both red heads. :-) We have the same issue with our oldest son...we named him Braeden thinking it was the greatest name we had ever heard. So did 2 other parents in his grade alone. I still love his name though because we spelled it differently than most other parents (more common spelling is Braden or Brayden...but I was addicted to Braeburn apples while I was preggers hehe) and also we call him Brady half the time. The child makes the name, not the other way around. I think as your kids grow older, they'll just be thankful they have a name they can spell. I once saw a Dahnayvohn in the birth announcements of the paper. Eek. What's wrong with Donavon?

People chose the names for their kids for a variety of reasons - names they like best, family names, popular names, unique names, family naming patterns, etc. Don't feel bad if you think you weren't creative - that is not a requirement for naming your child. You liked the names and that is all that matters. I know some people with creative names who aren't so thrilled about them.

It's not like they are John and Tom. Those names you chose have personality no matter how many of them are out there. I wouldn't let it bother you.

They will be fine. I was named M. back in 1970 and it was a hugely popular name. I always had at least one other M. in my class. It was never a problem at all. Now, hardly anyone names their girls M., so people have forgotten how popular it was. I honestly would have been more upset if my parents went with some of the hippie/strange names that were also out there at the time. I wouldn't worry ... your kids will be fine. :)

I wouldn't worry about this.

I have a son born in '87, during the "Jason and Jennifer era". I had no idea about that "era" until after he was born and heard about it on TV and started reading parenting magazines and saw articles. Didn't bother me at all. My son's name, no matter how popular in the coutnry, was still unique to my son, to me. We called him Jay or Jay-Jay for short sometimes which made it more unique to him.

I had my second son in '95. He was born Alexander Joseph, AJ for short. When he started school there were (and still are) plenty of boys named Alex and girls with some variation of Alexa, and even an AJ or two through the years. His name to us is still unique because it fit him to a T. (I picked the name Alexander from the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, as there was a cute Klingon child named Alexander. Imagine AJ trying to explain that to his friends, lol)

We then had our triplets in '04. Imagine our dilema trying to pick out names for three!

1) Well, we knew for sure we wanted our one girl to be named Emma Sarah, after my grandmother who was deceased and was full German. (my husband is Spanish, lol) We wanted that name for years. At the time, the name Emma had made a big come back and there are Emmas everywhere! (Rachel on Friends had an Emma) We didn't change our mind because to us, there is only one "Emma". We liked the name and was from my grandmother. Emma thinks it's neat that there are Emmas everywhere. There's an Emma next door to us. An Emma in her ballet calls so the teacher calls her "Emma Sarah" to tell them apart, which she likes. There's an Emma in her preschool class and they just use last initials when needed, and neither minds. If things get mixed up they just laugh and switch papers.
2) Jamison Mitchell was chosen from a friend that my husband worked with years ago. He just loved the name and planned on naming one of his son's this. AJ did't fit the name when he was in the womb, so it went to one of the triplets that seemed to fit it. It's not as popular but we also get people mispronouncing "Jamison" often, for some strange reason, and misspelling it. We call him Jamie or James for short.
3) Then we have our Jacob. Yup, only about a hundred of them everywhere you go! But we picked it just because we liked it, and liked the short version of Jake as well. It seemed to fit him in the womb. We call him Jake or Jakey for short. It is unique to him because to us, there's only one Jake, lol. He has another Jacob in his speech group he goes to. The other goes by Jacob, ours goes by Jake. Both were happy with that and think it's neat that they share the same name.

I suggest embracing that those names are unique to your children. If they do say something down the road, remind them that there's is only one true Jacob or Jayden, and that it must be a GREAT name if someone else is sharing it too. At the end of the day, people aren't looking at the names, they're looking at the people and their personality.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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my son's name is popular too it has 2 kids with the same name in his class ,my daughter name is yaretzi itzel i still not heard another girl with that name and my little one is sergio i think is popular too

I know where you're coming from. I have an Emily. I think it was #2 in 2006 the year she was born.

I would not worry about it. My oldest daughter is Emily. It was rated #1 the year she was born (2005) and my youngest is Kaylee... Both common but we loved the names and that is all that matters!

Hi,
I have also had that problem with my son. I've had 5 kids Emilio, Jaykob, Avian, Andreus and Sariah. Jaykob is the only one that his name is so commonly used. He was born in 2001 and the name was popular but as you can see I changed the spelling and he loves it. He loves it when he meets kids with the same name as him, and I really don't think it will bother them!

All the guys on my husband side of the family are still on the most popular list:)

Michael David-hubby
Jacob David-oldest step son (born in '91...we call him Jake)
Matthew James-youngest step son
Daniel Christopher-BIL

I have a very unique name and love it! But I am a girl...so when it came time to name my own boys I wanted something nice and in the middle...not to popular, not to weird?

Just so you know...I have yet to hear anything from either of my step sons about how popular their names are....You cant really get any more popular than Jake and Matt...don't worry about it...the onlt thing that matters is that you like them! Also, it seems no matter how much thought you put into your kids name, you will always hear another child called it!:)

I don't think they'll care. Those are nice names. We have a Jayden also. I'm pregnant with #5 and we can't think of a name. My hubby wants a common name and i don't... =) You chose a special name for your children when you were pregnant and it doesn't matter that everyone else seemed to have the same idea. =) It may not seem as popular when they are older because my older children are Justin and Jessica which seemed so common when they were little but not so much now that they are teens...

Love,
Jaimee

Personally, I never cared if their names were on the popluar list. I gave them their names for specific reasons and what everyone else was doing didn't matter to me. Do you know how many Samantha's are in my daughter's grade? Know how many times I was asked if Tristan was because of the Bachelorette Trista? Doesn't matter, because their names have a special meaning to us and that's all that matters - at least as far as we're concerned. My husband, Matt, had 5 other Matt's in his grade growing up and it didn't bother him or make him hate his name when he got older - it just confused the teachers!