Name Popularity

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that many people in this community are very anti-popular names, and I was wondering how true that is to the community as a whole.

I personally, have no problem with popular names. I grew up with a slightly unusual name (I've only known one other person to have it), and I always found myself wishing that my name were something more mainstream, like Jennifer or Lindsay or Meghan (though now I think I'd prefer a more timeless name like Elizabeth or Anna). Anyway, I was just wondering.

[Poll #754846]

Comments

[elemmennope.livejournal.com]

I grew up with the name Jennifer and know too well the problems that can come with a common name. Little things like the fact that I have to leave my first AND last name on phone messages for even my best friends. Because everyone my age knows several Jens. That really bugs me. I'm never just Jen.

When I was in college there were eight women with the same first name/last name combo as me. (My last name isn't rare, but not particularly common either. The university population was about 20,000 students.) One time my registration got all screwed up. One time I showed up at the university health clinic and the nurse had the wrong chart.

The best time was when my pay checks got deposited in a different bank account than mine, because we had the same name. Ugh. That was a huge pain to straighten out.

I don't want my kid to have these problems. I'm not strict about a name having to be lower than 500 or 1000 or something, but I definitely wouldn't use a top 25 girl name, or a top 10 boy name. Fortunately I tend to prefer less popular names anyway as my taste is a bit more unusual. Emma, Julia, and Chloe are the only names I like that I feel are off limits. But that's fine. I have many others I like too.