A quick question.

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else besides me find it a little strange that we seem to be a community that's generally not into the top 20 popular SSA names, yet... those are always the names I see with mostly thumbs up votes in the polls that people post?

Just curious.

Comments

[anapology.livejournal.com]

I like all of these names, they're all in the top 20. I'd thumbs them up for anyone else, but personally they're too popular to use.


Jacob
Joshua
Ethan
Matthew
Daniel
Christopher
Joseph
Alexander
Noah
James
Logan

Emily
Isabella
Ava
Olivia
Sophia
Mia
Alexis
Chloe
Alyssa

[morphinae.livejournal.com]

Closeted trend lovers unite? :D

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

This occurred to me too, lol.

[super-bitch06.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if theres a handful of watchers out there that don't actively participate in conversations out of fear of having favorite (read:top 20) names shot down, but that do vote in all those polls. So even though the vocal opinion of the group is NOOOTOP20!, theres a quiet little subgroup, hiding in the wings, messin' our pollz.

[pythianlegume7.livejournal.com]

I like popular names. That does not mean I like trendy names. There is a huge difference to me between Madison and Catherine.

[poohbaby.livejournal.com]

a lot of the top 20 names are "favorites" of mine but i wouldn't use them just because they are in the top 20...

[widgetchick.livejournal.com]

I usually thumb up most of the boys names and thumbs down most of the girls names. lol

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

That's true for me too. I love names such as James, John, William, and Charles. But for a community that really seems to scorn trendy names, overused names, and boring names.. some people sure seem to vote for them a lot.

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

That was my theory as well. I remember posting a regular LJ poll with my favorite names a while back and when I looked at all the usernames who voted against my favorite names, I didn't remember ever seeing said usernames before...

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

It must be so!

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I also noticed boy names tend to get more positive votes than girl names in general. Why do you think you thumbs down a lot of the girl names and thumbs up a lot of the boy names?

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I have noticed that the votes on the polls don't seem to match up with the general mood of the community a lot of the time. It must be one of those mysteries of the universe.

Or maybe it's like, if somebody posted here and said, "I want to name my daughter Emma" we might warn her that it's a really popular name at the moment, but if we actually had to vote on whether it was a good name, we'd vote yes regardless of popularity. Or something.

[queen-mab.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Agreed. I generally vote for the names I don't mind as much. Like Grace, Emma, Ella, Lily, etc. They're all currently trendy/popular but not terrible names. The only ones I give a thumbs down to are the really odd ones that could cause embarrassment for the child or the ones I find really boring and am just sick and tired of seeing.

[widgetchick.livejournal.com]

I think because more girls' names tend to be "creative" or have bad association for me. I don't consider male names "trendy" like I do female names. So anything that's in the top 20 for females... it just gets on my nerves! LOL

[requiem-morrow.livejournal.com]

I have to admit throwing some ringers into my name list...names I thought the list would like based on past comments, polls, and such. Not there was anything wrong with the names. I think they're fine, just not my style. Of course, they are the names leading the polls:)

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

Me too. I love Elizabeth, Katherine, William and Matthew. I like to think of them as classic. Addison and Ashley, not as much.

Another thing about the top twenty names on polls - a lot of the top twenty names are nice names. That is probably why they are trendy/popular. I know that Olivia and Ava are super popular, but they are also beautiful, and it is hard to give a thumbs down to a nice name.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Interesting. But I sometimes vote 'thumbs up' for names I wouldn't choose myself, but flow very well or just sound good...maybe others do too?

[eleanorgrace.livejournal.com]

I think because on the community there is a lot of room for shades of gray, whereas the polls are just "yes" or "no". So in the community people say, "oh I'm so tired of hearing people name their kids Olivia!" but at the same time, they think Olivia is a kind of pretty name and probably a lot nicer than, say, Beula. So on a poll, where the options are just good or bad, people think, "well, I guess I'd prefer a less-popular name than Olivia, but I can't really say it's a bad name."
Know what I'm saying?

[bluekoala.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised either :/

[so-there.livejournal.com]

well, if someone says "I want to name my kid Hannah or Khrysteena, wdyt?" of course I'll vote for Hannah, even though it's too popular for me to use.

[so-there.livejournal.com]

plus the more popular names other people use, the more unpopular (but real!) names left for me to use. or something.

[laura-anne.livejournal.com]

I will often thumbs up those popular names, because (as others have said) a lot of them are genuinely decent names. It doesn't mean they're necessarily my favourite name of those posted, or sometimes they're the best of a horrific bunch (I'd always try and encourage people in the direction of Emma or Isabella rather than Briiyaliyyn or whatever).

I do often find myself wishing that there was a way to indicate degrees of enthusiasm (or just your overall favourite) on those polls - it bugs me a bit to see a name like Aidan (which I would most likely thumbs up, but am not madly keen on) getting lots of positive feedback, when a name that I absolutely *love* gets almost none. I want to be able to tell people that the name that lots of people like is, well, not terrible, but they have other choices which are so much better.