Not-so-popular name becomes quite popular

[sayga.livejournal.com]

My name is Sarah and my husband is Daniel, so we've always had our last name's initial stuck on the end of our first name: Daniel P and Sarah M (or P, now that I'm married, though the "Sarah P" format is a school thing more than a real-world thing). In 8th grade, there were 6 Sara(h)s in my science class. That was awful. We wanted to avoid that with our kids.

In 2004, when my husband and I picked the name Kira for our first daughter, it was #284 on the SSA.gov baby name site, and I'd only heard it once before on a real person. Now, my daughter is 8 and in 2nd grade. In her afterschool program, there is another Kira and also a Kyra (pronounced the same). And this week, I was doing catch up work with my Kira, and all the math homework sheets said, "Jason has 6 marbles. Kira gives him 10 more..." and that kind of thing. Over and over, "Kira this" and "Kira that."

It made me realize just how popular the name is now. I am disappointed! One person even guessed that 2004 was when Pirates of the Caribbean came out, starring Keira Knightingley. Yes, that's where we got it too (I felt the "e" was redundant so we chose a different spelling). We should've known better!

Kira would like to not be known as Kira P, and is thinking of going by Kiki next school year; it's similar to her self-given childhood nickname, Kiwi, but not as childish or embarrassing. What do you think? And, have you had a similar experience with not wanting to use a popular name, but you guessed wrong and named your child a name rapidly gaining popularity?

(As an aside on that, in high school, so 1995-1999, I was in LOVE with the name Aiden. We all know how that turned out as far as popularity!)

Comments

[bubblytoes28.livejournal.com]

I named my son Emmett and it's been creeping up in popularity. I scolded my stepdaughter for not informing me that Emmett is the name of a Twilight character :)

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, she should've told you. It can be hard to "tell" someone a fact about the name they love, though, but sometimes it's good to hear it. Even if you choose it anyway, at least you're informed! Good name, though. I like it. And at least it's not Edward or Bella...

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Or Renesme.

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

Ppl literally have said I'm an idiot and my names are stupid and i get so excited by that. Haha

[sayga.livejournal.com]

What? Unless you name your kid Crap Face or something, I don't think anyone should be calling anyone an idiot for name choices. :P At least you're not upset by it!

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

Haha my very old fashion zero filter grandmother said that. :) I'm.bb just like her so we but heads a lot. But they are a but out there so i expect it. Definitely not going to be.liked by.everyone...just like any name haha

[heathersmoo.livejournal.com]

I'm a Heather and was Heather S. in school. As a child, I wished my name was Chloe. I got it out of a baby book and no one in real life that I knew had it. I'm not ever planning to reproduce but if I had a girl, I would really have to do some soul searching as to whether that name was appropriate since it is so popular now. I feel like I would probably go for it since I still feel like I "had it first" so many years ago.

[fangirlism]

My mother did pretty good with our names (I was only Erika F or "Erika-with-a-k" a few times even with it being the #74 name for the year I was born), and I wanted to do the same thing with my kids. My top girls name for a long time was Adele, and at the time it wasn't even in the top 1000. Now it's in the 600's (probably thanks to the singer).

Now, my boyfriend and I really like the name Jeanette. It hasn't been in the top 1000 since 2002. *crosses fingers*

As for boys, we both really like Simon and that's hovered in the mid to high 200's since 1999.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Jeanette is great. It's one of the "Chipettes" from Alvin and the Chipmunks, but I think most people watching that are under 12 right now, so if you use the name soon, you'll be good to go! :D

Oh...Simon is also one of the chipmunks. You might want to rethink Simon and Jeanette as a sibset if it ever comes down to it.

[fangirlism]

Oh we know, that's actually intentional lol.

ETA: That is to say we picked Simon and Jeanette because of the Chipmunk/Chipette connection, and we're okay if people making it if there's a Simon/Jeanette sibset.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Cool. I'm all about being informed. If you're informed, I'm happy (not like my opinion matters to you anyway, but ya know!). :)

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Simon is on our list too. :)

[fangirlism]

It's an awesome name!

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

My great grandmother was Alice Adele but i can't use it now because i don't want ppl to think it was because of the singer lol

[sayga.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful. I don't know the singer by that name. Adele is lovely.

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

I love Adele...my cousin is Emily Adele and another cousin Faith Adele. My grandmother went by Adele but we southern folk pronounce it ae-dell haha. I ended up with my other grandmother...marie. I wish it was my first name though... :/

[so-there.livejournal.com]

Adele was also on our list.. we're saving it for later. maybe in a few years we'll see HOW popular it gets, and a future girl can have it.

[smallandneedy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of my boy names are insanely common here in Norway. I just don't like any of the less common ones. I want it to work in both English and Norwegian and I want it to be pretty. :( But I guess I'll take that when it comes. I'll never ever change my girl name but so far it's not in the top 40 or anything so I think I'll be fine. I've watched it closely. It's pretty "dated" in America and such though :P

[rekkless.livejournal.com]

I'm Ashley, a new girl moved into our neighborhood when i was 5, her name is Ashley, we became Big Ashley (me) and Little Ashley (her) I'm 25 years old now and am still refered to as Big Ashley, because even though I moved out of that neighborhood, to a new one when I was 12, her family moved to the same new neighborhood. It won't go away :(

So because of that, I refuse to name my child anything popular enough to that they might encounter that kind of thing..

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

I was supposed to be Ashley until my moms friend pulled a Rachel and stole it! Now I'm Lisa...i personally hate my name with a, passion but i also don't want to be an Ashley :/

[rekkless.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it, yuck. I introduce myself as Ash, mostly. I hate that all my co workers call me Ashley, even if I tell them 100 times "JUST ASH!" lol

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

We're in the same boat. I really like Olive, and while I know Olivia is super popular I see them as totally different names. It still seems like Olive is becoming really trendy among certain groups. Ditto for our top boy name, Henry.

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

I love olive or liv for short! :)

[ohhowlovely.livejournal.com]

When my daughter was in the NICU, there was a tiny baby in there named Olive, I loved it and had never heard it as a name before

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

My kids names are so specific to our essence i dont think they'll even blip the ssn website. We've had three full names picked out for five years and only one first name shows up but only like 5 ppl have it. :) it wonder though...it might start showing up!

[madeyemads.livejournal.com]

I was born at the beginning of 1992 and my name is Madeleine, when I got to school there were four other Madeleines in my year! Middle class, white, Australian people must have been using Madeleine a LOT in 91/91 we've never been able to work out why.

Kira is very pretty Keira reminds me horribly of a mean girl I knew when I was 11 LOL it's one of the only names that someone has *ruined* for me.

I feel sorry for anyone who called their kid Ava or Isabella before 10 years ago ...

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

My best friend was going to name her daughter Isabella but her cousin stole it after she mentioned it on fb and she was a few weeks ahead if her. Then she went with Sophia Isabella...which were the top 2 names the past few years. I think because of twilight? That's the main character?

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

My husband is Benjamin which has always been popular so he was Ben S. but I don't think he cared.
I am the only Aubrey I've ever met although I know it's getting popular now.
My kids are Eleanor and Miles, both of their names have been climbing in popularity since they've been born but oh well, they aren't Emma or Jacob (though they have cousins with those names!). My daughter has a Manuella who goes by Ella in her class and her French teacher is Madame Ellie but that's the closest it comes so far.
I am surprised that Kira is so popular, just because I have never met someone with that name.

[so-there.livejournal.com]

I think she's old enough to pick her own nickname if it's what she wants to be called, why not? it's similar enough to her name that I can see a teacher using it (not like "call me supergirl" or whatever)

284 is still pretty high on the list, and more importantly than place is where it was on the previous years.. if it was 400 the year before, and 600 the year before that, then you know it's going up, up, up. but if it was 250 the year before and 290 the year before that, then it's not going anywhere.. unless some big boom comes along, like an actress or movie/tv character.

[so-there.livejournal.com]

oh and as for the last question, my kids names are all pretty uncommon.. the last two (Ingrid and Esther) are the most common, but we haven't come across too many. I checked the trend, not just the rank :)

my mom however thought she was going original and failed miserably on everyone but me :) I hardly knew any other Adrienne's, but my siblings are Emily, Matthew, Andrew, and David. I'll kind of give her Emily, I don't really know any older than or as old as my sister (36 this year).

[brittmarie.livejournal.com]

I had the curse of Brittany. In my high school Spanish class, there were 5 of us and 3 of us had "S" last names. I spent the majority of my childhood as Bri, just to distinguish myself.

While I disliked being with so many kids who had my name, it probably won't factor into why I do or do not choose a name for my children. Any name we choose will be one we both love and agree on, popular or not.

[being-lola-star.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to name my children with damn clicks in their names or something. I work in child care as as such can either tell when my favourite names are getting super popular or find an uncommon name I really like... only to have it appear on a child I associate negative things with. Right now my top "gee thanks for taking that" names are: Grace, Mason, Poppy, Quinn, Scott, Henry, Luca, Ethan.

I'm lucky enough that my first name is uncommon (Laurel) but it's still gets mixed up with Laura/Laurie/Lauren. My middle name is Amanda and I knew DOZENS of them in high school and most were bitchy. That said, I've always been really attached to the name Mandy. I've always wanted a name I could easily shorten as my mom was determined that I would always be called Laurel and never any short form. My nickname is Lola thanks to a wonderful friend in high school who came up with a version of my name that didn't make me want to strangle myself and I use it all over the place, especially online but never in my professional life.

[speakunique.livejournal.com]

I also work in child care and agree it is the WORST for ruining names! On the flip side, I have found children that I love and have adorable names I wish I could use but can't because it would be like naming the kid after them. For example: Sloane, Lila, Amara. Luckily my husband is Greek and we will use Greek names for our future children as we have for our daughter. The funny thing is though, our daughter's name is Eleni which is pretty unique and different in North America but it is the Greek equivalent of Jennifer in the 80's.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Eleni is so pretty! How is that pronounced?

[speakunique.livejournal.com]

I think the best way to describe it is El-N-E.

[jessicamariek.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* Jessica. Spent too many years as "Jessica K", from about 2nd grade straight through to graduating high school. At least I got along with Jessica L and Jessica B, not so much with Jessica S and Jessica M.

I hope my favorites won't be popular when I have kids - but I don't think Genevieve or Vanessa are *that* popular. Jacquelline gives me some worries about her someday being "Jackie D.", but not much.

Unfortunately for my future sons, all my favorite boy names are super bland/common - Christopher and Michael are my tops, Jordan and Robert are second choices. :P

[gf-girlie.livejournal.com]

I was Amanda M. Till 4th grade. Then I was Mandy M. because there were two of us. Then I became Mandie with an IE, and then finally just Mandi with an I.

My son is Austin. The only one in his class so far..It was #48 the year he was born, but he was named after his daddy (James Austin).

[sarahmarie.livejournal.com]

I have two friends with this name, but they spell their's Kera and Kyra. Kera has gone by Kizzy, Kizza, Kiz, and Kia sometimes when Kyra is around. lol That way, it doesn't get too complicated. Kiki is a good one though!

My name, Sarah was popular growing up. Since there always seemed to be another Sarah S. I would end up going by Summer... my last name without the S at the end or even Sassy/Sass. It wasn't too much of a hassle and I was never bothered by it unless it was a Sara, without the H that I ended up having to go by Summer/Sassy/Sass.

When my fiancé and I start having children, the popularity of a name we like isn't going to bother us. Our favorites list has names that have plenty of good nicknames, as well as middle names that are pretty usable if that situation were to arise.

[liselaime.livejournal.com]

I don't think Kira is any more popular than it was when you named her. It's only #333 nationally, according to Babycenter. I don't know any Kiras or any parents naming their child that. It's an unfortunate coincidence that there are other Kiras in her program., but I wouldn't assume that she's going to meet lots of Kiras in her lifetime. But if she wants to go by Kiki, then why not? She can always change her mind later.

[earn-my-wings.livejournal.com]

Aww I think Kiwi is cute a s quirky! Having said that, it's totally an unfortunate coincidence that you're seeing other Kiras because it's such a pretty name and I've never personally met anyone with the name. If it bothers your daughter that much, then why not go by Kiki? She can always change it as she enters different phases in life. I personally don't like Kiki at all, but it's up to her.

Oh and I LOVED Aidan when I was younger, too!! I'd never ever heard it anywhere and was super sad when it took off in popularity :(

[ahavah]

I'm an 80s-born Amanda (who married a Josh), so we were in the same boat. My oldest two are named Eden & Ivy, and I've been seriously surprised by how many Edens & Ivys we've run across in the ensuing years. We don't meet as many Edens since moving from a hippie-town to a really rural area, but I'm peeved at the pageant girl & Beyonce who made them much more popular. Still not Sarah or Amanda popular, but enough over the years that I'm very surprised.

3rd baby is Maya, which isn't overly popular, although I knew a few online who have different spellings.

[owlzen.livejournal.com]

Kiki is an awesome nickname! I remember reading that it was a nickname for names starting with a K and I mentally kicked myself. My name is Krystal (born in the 80's, never the only "Crystal" in class or jobs) and chose the nick name "Kay"...as in Krystal With A..K. Kiki is so much cooler! I should have chosen Kiki!