(no subject)

[babyjess8.livejournal.com]

Is anyone else finding that names you loved that generally weren't popular when you first added them to your list are now becoming more common??

 

My top names that have been on my list for over five years:
Asher - my longest and most loved name, found in a book
Evan - after my grandmother, Evelyn
Ari
Thomas
Ryan
Noah
Ruben
Gabriel
Isabel - my only really loved girls name
Grace - sooo overused. I'd only MAYBE consider using it for a middle name now
Alexis
Ava - not liking so much now, there's too many of them around!

 The two that are bolded I think I will use despite the popularity

 

I think being a teacher doesn't help my cause. I hate names that remind me of a bad kid that I have taught, so many names disappear immediately. I also hate the idea that my kid would be one of five in their class with the same name, which is why I like slighly less common names. I am always stuck whether or not to remove them from my list when there is a sudden surge of babies born with that name.
 

What is your reaction? What do you do? What names are you so attached to that have become popular?

Comments

[samaside.livejournal.com]

I don't actually care about popularity. It'd never seemed like a big deal to me. And that's coming from a Samantha who was born in the 1980s. I have three Samantha's in one of my theatre classes and two of us went by Sam. The other went by Sammy. In the theatre class that I helped teach the next year there were three Samantha's and then me. But it's never mattered to me. I'm used to never being the only one. I mean, even in my really tiny university classes there was a Samantha in one of them. It worked, though, because she hated being called by Sam and that's all I go by.

But, I mean, you can assume a name will be popular but you don't know if it'll be popular in your area. In my tour guide group we had THREE CHARLESES at the same time. And only one of them went by Charlie. I mean, Charles was not a name that, at the time I was born, was popular. So it's really a crap shoot with any name you choose.

[aqualectra.livejournal.com]

I agree, when we named Ceilidh (kaylee) its not even a name, its a gaelic word meaning party. then we moved to a town of 300 people and met another Ceilidh, who was in her late 30's. so really it is pot luck. sometimes going looking for a more unique name can be at the expense of taste too. *shrugs*

i wondering if Finn is becoming more popular, but i dont think it will stop me using it. I really dont have any other boys names i like much. i might post about it. lol. xx

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Ceilidh might be the gaelic way of spelling it, but going with an unusual spelling doesn't take away the fact there ae countless Kayleigh/Kailee/Kailey's around.

[aqualectra.livejournal.com]

absolutely.. but we didnt go with an usual spelling.. we went with a significant word. it never occured to us that "kaylee" was a name at the time. *shrugs*

[taraemily.livejournal.com]

I also agree with this, I named my son Asher. It's REALLY popular on the internet but I don't hear it all that often in my area.

[anapology.livejournal.com]

Amelia, but it's just come in at number 10 in England so unless it dramaticaly disappears then It's a no go.
Ava, too.

[sloane-hd.livejournal.com]

I've never really cared about popularity much. If I like a name I like it, despite of how many other kids run around with that same name.

[klutzy-girl.livejournal.com]

I actually love the name Vivienne, but took it off my list because Brad and Angelina named their daughter that. If I used the name, people would mention them.

[girlsteve.livejournal.com]

ditto

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

What always amuses and irritates me (which, thankfully, you don't seem to be doing): when people present this sort of dilemma with a tone of separation from the trend, as if somehow they are immune to the cultural clouds of name popularity. "I liked Jacob and Isabella and Ava when I was 10, and it's freakish that they're popular now but I LIKED THEM FIRST!"

Don't they realize that they ARE the reason these names are popular? There are patterns to name rises and falls, and it blows my mind that people still think it's a total coincidence that the names they like happen to be popular — as if you, Person X, were somehow completely bubbled off from the world and its subconscious influences. Independent people coming to the same name conclusions are the REASONS they become popular: a generation of people growing up with the same ideas and cultural exposure, all coming together to name the new batch of children.

There's nothing wrong with being a part of a cultural movement (and to imagine that we can just detach is unhelpful and unrealistic), but it really does my head in that people think they're set apart somehow.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Yes... I totally agree. When I was about 11 or 12, I liked names like Aidan, Hannah, Emily, Emma, Madison, Grace, Ryan, Elijah, Savannah, Avery... I didn't know they were, or were going to be, popular or trendy, but I don't go around saying, "I liked it BEFORE it was trendy!" Just because you don't realize something is popular, doesn't mean you're not in the trend, so to speak.

[bandnerd88.livejournal.com]

My mom uses that excuse all the time. My name is Megan, and I was born in the 80s, right in the middle of the Megan boom. Whenever I gripe about my popular name my mom always says, "But I'd never met any Megans growing up! I thought it was so original." Yeah, you and everyone else who named their daughter Megan at the same time!

[arbus.livejournal.com]

hannah, asher, elijah, grace and maddox were a few absolute favorites of mine for years, and none of them are no longer on my list due to popularity and the jolie-pitt connection.

i adore some ultra popular names like lily, isabel, oliver, noah, sophie, henry and plenty of others that have not reached epic proportions, imo, and are still high on my list.

[joybelleblossom.livejournal.com]

When I was little I adored the name Spencer. It was seldom heard at the time, and I only met a couple. When I did have my son, Spencer had had a huge surge in popularity, but I still went with it. It was hard to give it up, so I didn't. :) I hear tons of Spencers, and it's always a little sad to me that it became so popular, but it's still a good name to me.

I LOVE the name Asher and would have named my second son that, but it sounds too "sneezy" with our last name which starts with "SH". Asher SH..... Bless you. :) I really, really wanted to, and kept it on the list until we chose Grant two days after his birth. His name just wasn't Asher, I guess. I wanted to use Asher for the reason it means the same thing my name (Joy) does, but it wasn't obvious.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

I still love despite popularity:
Olivia
Oliver
Cameron
Connor

But now I can't stand:
Bailey (b/g)
Rylie (b/g)
Siena
Ashton
Cooper

Oh well!

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

I know the reason that I love Isabelle is because it has Belle as a nickname, my favorite Disney princess. I think that definitely helps contribute to that particular trend.

With Asher, I think that now that the Ashleys of the 80s are getting older, they/their friends are having children and use Asher, etc. as tribute names.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

I liked Aidan because it was the name of my church. I didn't realize it was so popular until a few years later.

I loved the name Grace, and it has gone up in popularity a lot. Norah seems to be rising, too.

[aaww-my-bees.livejournal.com]

I love Asher too. I got it from a book also.

[hockeychick57.livejournal.com]

Noah & Ava were two of my favs. I think I'd still use Noah, but not Ava.

[jesus--suburbia.livejournal.com]

My aunt had this problem naming her first son, so she went with Craig Franklin Jr, and then her second kid she had basically 3 choices, and named him Colton Dean.