Baby naming Bandwagon
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Baby naming Bandwagon
| Thu, 05-10-2007 - 12:50am |
Just want to know everyone's naming style. Do you jump on the bandwagon (ex. laila, paige, laine, madison, isabella, cameron, aiden, madelyn etc) or do you stray? I know personally I keep an eye out here to help me decide what name NOT to name my children. I see what names are becoming popular and "x" them right off my list. 10 yrs from now there will be 15 layla paige's per graduating class. It was awful when someone would talk about "jen" in school...well, which jen? Jen B., Jen C., Jen L., or Jenn W. I would have hated to be a Jen in my school. There were only 2 Tiffany's in the jr. high and high school and I was one:) Any suggestions/comments pleast post:) Thanks all!!

I have pretty much the same method as you do; I want to choose a name that is not popular, maybe even that I don't know anyone with that name. I don't like names that are that crazy, but I don't want multiples in my child's class. As an Elizabeth, I didn't really like others with my name at my school- part of the reason was that their nn's were Lizzie and Izzy, and sometimes people would call me that and I just hated it!
My husband doesn't understand this at all! He thinks popularity is no big deal. Of course, there was another student with his exact first AND last name at his high school and he said it didn't bother him!
I generally prefer old-fashioned names or ones that just aren't very popular for whatever reason. For example: Gwyneth, Helena, and Genevieve are some of my top girl names.
Liz
Thanks belle_petite for the siggy!
I try & stay away from REALLY popular names (Olivia, Jacob, Emily etc), but sometimes when you name a baby you don't know what is up & coming. I named my Emma before the "Friends" baby really blew the name up & I added a Lynne to my Ava's first name & Elizabeth has NEVER dropped out of the top 15 over the past 100 years. I mean there COULD be another Millicent in school with my Millicent.
michele
^emma^ 8-31-00
patrick 12-10-01
m/c 6-7-02
alexandra 8-26-03
ava-lynne 4-20-06
millicent & elizabeth 3-29-07
If it's on the top 100 list, I wouldn't even look at it.
I don't really know what my style is. Nothing too traditional, but nothing popular. Some are possibly out there I guess. Here are some of my favs (maybe you can tell me what you think my style is. LOL)
Girls:
Aarti
Allie
Belinda
Blanche
Daphne
Ella
Emma
Fallon
Georgie
Gillian
Klare
Marlee
Maxie
Odette
Olive
Poppy
Raine
Reese
Sophie
(maybe I just like short nicknames)
Boys:
Alfie
Arlo
Becker
Casper
Efram
Elijah
Emerich
Grey
Hayden
Heath
Hollis
Jack
Jasper
Liam
Lincoln
Oliver
Ollie
Otis
Percy
Pippin
Rafferty
Rowan
Sebastian
Sully
Waverly
Style-wise, I like a little bit of everything, from the popular to the rare, old-fashioned to modern, traditional English lit names to foreign "exotics," and so on. I try to judge every name on it's own, so my naming criteria are probably
1) sound of name
2) images and cultural references it brings to mind
3) how it sounds with ds's name
4) how well it will age with the child
5) trends and popularity
6) the opinions of others
If I loved two names equally, I would probably choose the less popular option. If I loved only one name, however, I would use it regardless of popularity, because having a popular name is not that big a deal. After all, all those Jens and Mikes grew up fine, and many of them are now choosing popular choices like Braden and Madison or James and Elizabeth for their children. I think it has less to do with mindlessly hopping on a bandwagon and more to do with choosing names they love.
I also think it's important to consider that weighing today's megapopular name choices against yesterday's isn't really fair. Yes, both Emily and Jennifer enjoyed decade(+) long stretches as the most popular girls' name, but the most popular names are not as popular as they used to be. For example, at its height of poplarity in 1999, there were around 26,500 Emilys. That's a lot, but compare it to the 63,589 Jennifers born in 1972.
Especially with girls' names, I'm pretty far off the general bandwagon (though I fit in a bit more around the naming boards, in the general population...not so much.) But I definitely do what you do...if a name on my list starts hitting the top, oh, 100 or so, it's off the list. We have a reaaaaaally common last name and both my husband and my BIL have relatively common first names and are forever getting calls for other guys with their names (including the occasional collection agency call, which can be a royal pain in the neck to get rid of,) so it's as much for practical reasons as my own personal vanity in my creativity (not that THAT doesn't figure in, too.)
But I've never managed to be trendy...I guess I don't see any reason to start now.
Just want to know everyone's naming style. Do you jump on the bandwagon (ex. laila, paige, laine, madison, isabella, cameron, aiden, madelyn etc) or do you stray?
*********
Neither. LOL While all three of my girls have one common/popular/known name (Kaitlyn, Rose, Abigail), they also have a relatively uncommon/obscure one as well (Abrielle, Devanie, Fiora). Despite the fact that some of these are popular at the moment, we chose them IN SPITE of that, not because of it (not jumping on any bandwagons here ... trust me, I'm more than aware of the numbers, and it was definitely not a flippant or even easy choice). ;)
My personal style actually leans more toward established, but underused names (Talulla, Gwyneth, Moira, Alice, Millicent, Ewan, Hugh, Harvey, etc.), but naming generally is a coming together of both parents' styles.
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I can't stand trendy names. I prefer classy but not TOO popular. Some of my faves are Matilda, Delilah, Tabitha, Felicity, Adeline, Simon, Holden, Asher, and Anders.
-Nikki
http://destastory.blogspot.com/
I wouldn't jump on the bandwagon in the sense of choosing a name *because* it's popular, but I also wouldn't reject a name (if I truly loved it for its own sake) merely because of popularity. I mean, I don't particularly care for the name Madison, but if I had loved it for years and had dreamed of naming a daughter Madison, then the fact of its popularity wouldn't stop me from using it, especially because even the most popular names aren't all that common. I was looking at names by state recently, and I noticed, for example, that in New York State in 2005 (the most recent year listed at the time by the SSA), there were only 1,429 baby Emilys; and Emily was the #1 name that year in NYS. As someone pointed out in another message on the board, the top names just don't represent such large percentages as they once did.
In terms of style, I tend to like older names. Pearl is a huge favorite of mine, for example. I also like Slavic and other eastern European names quite a bit. On the flip side, I am pretty tired of the surname/unisex name trends - not that I don't think someone should use one of those names if s/he likes them, of course, but whereas I once might have considered names like Kennedy or Emerson, I wouldn't any more because I've kind of maxed out on the whole trend - it's really big where I live, lots and lots of Parkers, for example, and Taylors.
My favorite names fit into some very common/popular categories (I love old-fashioned names like Abigail and Samantha, Celtic names, biblical names), and that's okay with me. I will probably avoid the most common names (probably top 10 or 20) and/or choose a less common name to pair it with, but I'm not intent on being unique--just on being sure that my kid is going to have an option to establish their individuality.
BUT, I think I agree with you about just being _tired_ of some things. I used to like surname names and boy names for girls, and now, well, I've just heard them over and over, and somehow, where I never really get tired of hearing Abigail or Emma, Noah or Owen, Madison and Taylor bore me. I'm not avoiding them because they're trendy. I'm just over them.
So, I don't hop on the bandwagon for new names, but where the bandwagon is just rediscovering beautiful, sweet, strong, spunky classics, I never hopped off.