popularity question

[ilovehounds.livejournal.com]

All of the online lists and books about the most popular names for babies lead me to wonder...
Do you think most people look at those lists to figure out what to name their babies or what NOT to name their babies?

For me, it would be a list of names to avoid!

Comments

[dancing-crazy.livejournal.com]

It is for me too. I think for most people it's probably a way to see HOW popular the name will be. Estimate the damage, if you will. So say we have two parents, and their list of names is Emily, Madison and Mackenzie for a girl and Caleb, Jacob and Michael for a boy, it probably wouldn't matter for them. But for me, names like Mollie, Kate, Lily, popular names but not ones that are used on every second kid in the grade, it's a good way to know where you stand. I was surprised to see Mollie less popular than I thought, and Lily more popular. A way to sort the list out, I think.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

The problem with this lies in not being able to predict how other people are thinking along the same lines - we looked at lists with a similar eye, and ultimately picked a boy's name that didn't appear on the Top 75 for the last few years. (The girl's name we had in mind is in the Top 75, but low, and short of it reaching Top 10 we were going to use it anyway.) We used it - and within the space of a year it was in the Top 75, the short form (which is how my son is actually known) is in the Top 50, and we've met quite a few his age or younger. Which is weird to me because when we named him everyone remarked on the rarity of it and how they'd never met one, or only ever met one in their lifetime etc - I had only met one myself, way back when I was at school. Go figure.