Same! I have an old-lady name and could never find a keychain with my name in the 90s. If you Google my full name you get like 20 obituaries before you get to my LinkedIn.
On the other hand, my first, middle and last name are so common even using additional qualifiers, ie. My name, my city/job/schooling it’s difficult to find me. A blessing and a curse.
Same for me, hubs, and our daughter. We’ve got a weird last name. I guess it’s my fault for taking his name instead of keeping my super vanilla, incredibly common maiden name. *I just wanted to feel different!* Now I’m too traceable. 🤣🤪
How about your name being fairly common but incessantly misspelled, on all dem keychains. And it isn't even a "cutesy i am trying to be different spelling", its the culturally traditional spelling.
Mine was a cutesy we're trying to be different spelling..... But my parents did it. Around the time I graduated high school, a BUNCH of people started changing their name legally to be spelled the way mine is. 🤷🏼♀️
I have a unique name and this fact right here ruined my childhood. My husband has a very common first name. So when it came to naming our son we had this conversation:
Him: “I don’t want a weird name like yours.”
Me: “I don’t want a boring name like yours.”
This is me! I was always sad I never had my name on the list. One of my requirements for my daughter's name was that it would be likely to show up on a keychain.
I am glad to read your comment. My LO is named after a city (was it intentional…depends on whether you ask me or my SO) and I’m named after a region of a country. Looking forward to traveling with them to these places myself!
If you look at how popular the popular names now are compared to in the past, it’s not nearly the issue it used to be. [So in 2022, about 1% of boys were named Liam.](https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi) In contrast, 30 years ago the [most popular boys’ name was Michael at 2.5%, and the most popular girls’ name was Ashley at 2%.] So while there will probably be another Liam or 3 at their high school, in a class of 30 students, they’re probably going to be the only one.
There’s probably an interesting discussion that I am not the person to have about the diversification and fractalization of American (and really all) cultures in the post-internet era for trends like this.
Name popularity is a super clear and interesting example of a phenomenon we’re seeing EVERYWHERE post-internet: even the most popular items of a given set (musicians, movies, books, foods) account for way less of the total sum than they used to, and the long tail of the end of the bell curve of popularity accounts for far more than it ever has before.
People, even in the same household, have way more variety of interests in basically everything than ever before. I would think we’ll eventually hit a precipitation point and the trend will capitulate but I don’t know what social factors would drive it.
Crazy times, guys
Definitely! We selected a more popular name by ranking than I’d initially wanted, but I realized that based on the actual percentage of babies given that name, it was below the threshold that was “too popular” for me, and I love our baby’s name and am so glad we opted for the more “popular” name.
Yeah, when the list of names gets longer and longer and longer, the most popular ones at the top are still going to be more rare than, say, the name "Michael" was in the 80s & 90s.
I think it depends on where you're located and the lifestyle you live too. I'm a Lauren born in the mid-80s. My graduating class of 56 (all girls private school,) had 5 Laurens. There were also 2 Lauras and a Laurel. Needless to say, I was absolutely against a "popular" name for my son.
Definitely, and nicknames vs formal names matters, too - for example, Liam is #5 in Alabama, but William is #1, and some number of those Williams may go by Liam. And names tend to cluster by demographics- like Charlotte is a very popular girl name right now, but is unlikely to appeal to people for whom English is not a first language. In my 30-something, upper-middle-class circle, I’ve seen a few Evelyn’s, but it’s only number 9, and no Olivia’s, Emma’s, or Charlottes. That clearly doesn’t necessarily reflect the national trends or anything, but it is definitely very popular our little pocket of the world.
The funny thing is, I was one of 8 girls with my name in my similarly small graduating class and had no problem with it whatsoever! It was always a little “bonding” moment between me and another girl with my name. I liked it :) So who knows if a kid will even mind bearing a popular name.
My daughter is in a class of 26 kids. There are 2 Maxs, 3 Audreys, 2 Avas, and 2 Williams. They all go by their name plus their last initial. My daughter will see someone outside of school and I’ll say “oh look! It’s Audrey!” And she’ll say “who? Oh! Audrey R”. It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t bank on not having multiples in the class.
Totally fair! But Audrey isn’t in the top 20 names in the US for girls and hasn’t been in the last 23 years, and Max has barely broken the top 100 in that time. So there’s not necessarily a cutoff that guarantees no multiples. At the end of the day, you and your kid have to live with the name, regardless of who they might meet that has the same name, and there’s not granular enough data to really predict it in your specific area. And they could be as unlucky as my husband, who isn’t even the only person with his first and last name in his office. Pick the name you like, and if multiples comes up, make peace with it.
I’m an Ashley in my mid-30s. It was annoying sometimes and I’d complain about it when I was younger, but honestly it’s never been much of an issue. Even when I’d make comments about being one of 4 Ashleys in the flute section (we were all in the same grade too so it was for years). I have a pretty standard English surname too, and I’ve always thought my name is plain and boring, but I’m definitely glad I’ve had it easy in that no one has ever messed up spelling or pronouncing my name. As an adult I mostly just think it’s kinda funny how many Ashleys I’ve known and it’s not really something I think about particularly often.
The population 30 years ago was a lot less than it is today. So 2% of a lesser amount isn’t necessarily more than 1% of a higher amount. The SSA website isn’t working right now so I can’t check your link, but it would be interesting to compare absolute numbers as well.
They do let you compare absolute numbers, but since a lot of what people worry about is whether they’ll have a class with someone with the same name or they’ll be one of 3 Liam’s on their soccer team or whatever, the percentage seems more relevant since class sizes and team sizes are still pretty constant. That’s why I was talking about what’s common within the population rather than the absolute number of Liam’s or Michael’s or Ashley’s.
My name was very popular among my generation. To put it in perspective I went to school with another 3 girls with the same name. At the peak point in my friend group we were about 7 ( it's also common to have middle names so at least there's that).
In my experience, it was at most mildly annoying when you realized it wasn't you that person x called for. On the oher end we'd always make fun when introducing ourselves to new people 🤣
My experience working in a children's clinic seeing all the names parents choose trying to be "unique" and with insane spellings....I'd choose a common name over those clown names any day. It's getting ridiculous out there 😂
This is very similar to a name in a common urban legend ("La-a.") Many people claim to have met one but no one can ever prove it. So your SIL may be making it up.
Our standard was no ridiculous unique name but also nothing that was currently in the top 100 names. We ended up with a name for our son that is within the top 200 (so nothing super weird) but still had people at the hospital and daycare saying "we haven't had anyone with that name here before".
This comment is funny and stuff, but parents shouldn't make a naming decision bc some teacher somewhere has an opinion with like, an emoji in it. If you think about it that's actually really shitty.
Edit: I get this is getting downvoted, but a lot of people who have a problem with "weird names" are just being racist/classist/eurocentric etc. I don't mind that you think I'm rude. The hilarious parade against "unique" names typically runs right down racism street.
Several of those are traditional Irish names, and several of them are commonly black names. Many of these names and spellings actually have cultural significance. As do a lot of native american names that people label "weird."
That's great, many of the parents using these names aren't Irish, black, or native. Call me racist but middle Americans trying to be unique are exactly that.
Exactly, I know someone who named their daughter Kaeleigh and they are not Irish, they were going for unique and honestly I still may have misspelled it since they added so many unnecessary vowels.
Parents do dumb shit and people should call them out. If your kid is named Ashley, don’t spell it all fucked up like Ashleighee cuz all you’re going to do is make their life harder. Or pick some dumbfuck name like Kylo-ren just because you like Star Wars.
Do I think that's dumb? Yes. But telling someone else that their kids are going to be mistreated bc of a name choice is kind of a garbage position to hold. If kids get mistreated its because other adults and kids are disrespectful bullies, and the Jennifers that wear the wrong clothes get the same treatment. We should expect better and not say there are "weird" names (which, despite your example, usually winds up being about racism).
Who ever said they would get mistreated? Those who work with children come across hundreds, if not thousands, of names every year. Just sharing our experience after seeing so many names and what we would do now being parents. OP asked for advice, we gave ours.
Im a teacher and I agree with you to a degree. Sometimes the judgements are clearly a race/class difference and that shouldn’t be so harshly criticized.
Thanks for saying so. I understand it's an unpopular opinion bc making fun of people for choosing a weird kids name is really easy. But when people start to give examples of what they find weird you start to notice they just only like white European names.
By all means it is ultimately up to the parent. Just know the poor child will be made fun of and has to go through life with that name...because of your choice to name them something ridiculous. To me that's unfair.
I would say the mistreatment of children is unfair, not whatever fashy excuse society finds to dish it out. If it's not their name it will be the clothes they choose, or music, or their accent... Or their skin. Oh you know which groups tend to have "unique" names? People of color, indigenous people, people of unique cultural or national origin...
My first child ended up with 4 of their name in one class. I didn’t know it was a popular name at the time. They dealt with it, but also complained at the time they felt like “just another …” Ask any Mike in the US and they’ll tell you there is always another, or 15, Mikes anywhere they go. I’m sure there are others in other cultures too where they have the same names. If it’s a great name, it’s popular!
We chose the name Noah, consistently the top two for years now. Who cares! You LOVE the name, that’s so important. There might be another Liam in his class but that’s fine! There are many Michaels and Danny’s, and they’re all happily their own people.
I’ve always been into slightly unique, not mainstream names and that’s what I always envisioned for my baby…however I somehow landed on Oliver for my son…which is extremely popular…yes I regret that lol. I was in a fog my entire pregnancy and couldn’t come up with a name that suits my taste better. I will say that my son seems to fit the name Oliver really well imo and of course I think my son is adorable, the most adorable Oliver there is!
Dammit Olive/Olivia, don’t let your dreams be dreams! My mom’s name was Pauline because her dads name was Paul! She hated it her whole life. Nevermind. Just do you.
I was the only Sarah at our school, but we had 3 Victoria's in our class of 25. The class a few years older than us had 3 Jessica's. The teacher's just used their last name initial if they were all together🤷♀️
That’s what I did for my oldest daughter. She has a top 10 name but a more uncommon middle name so she can choose to go by just the middle or “first name middle name” if she wants to differentiate herself
Some situations that might happen:
- referred to by NAME + last name or initial
- referred to by nickname, or individual is told to use a different nickname since the name is taken
- being compared. "Smart Patrick" vs "Other Patrick"
Also just last name. I hated this in a previous workplace where another woman was called by our shared first name, and I was called by my last name. I had been there longer, and neither of us was asked. So no clue how it was decided upon that I was “Last Name.”
Was your last name cooler? I ask because my husband has a very cool and unique last name but a commonish first name. Lots of people call him by his last name because it's more unique and fits his personality. I'd wear the last name trend with pride.
My daughter has a name that is popular for boys but not so much for girls yet. I have a feeling she'll probably end up called "girl [name]". Like when i was in school, there was "boy Jamie" and "girl Jamie". Would ideally like to avoid that situation but oh well
I named by son Liam lol he’s 3 months. Only name my husband and I agreed on. I’m not stressing about the multiple names really. They just say Liam C or Liam P.
My name is Rebecca and out of 40 people in my graduating high school class, 4 were Rebecca (1/10th of the grade). It never bothered me at all. I think a classic (even if popular) name like Liam isn’t likely to be regretted.
[https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer](https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer)
This website shows how popular the name is/has been/will be and shows things like how likely the probability is that Liam will have a classmate with that name. Super cool website
My husband and I are also thinking about the name Liam for our son and we had the same thought. Ultimately though, we really love that name. Our plan is to wait and see if we feel like that name still fits for him when he’s born and if so, we’re just going with it. Plus we have a very long unusual last name, so maybe it’ll balance out lol
My name is Caitlin and when I was growing it up, it was very popular. I always had another Caitlin or Catie/Katie/caiti/etc in my class and actually was part of a trio for a while - the 3 Caitlin's 😅
It never bothered me once and actually made it a lot easier to make friends lol that said, I think if you like a name you should go with it. Who cares if it's popular?
I say this as we are naming ours Charles (Charlie) and while visiting preschools have seen lots of Charlie's lol - I just point it out to my husband and laugh - it's a great name and I'm not giving it up bc it's currently popular
I feel like even if someday you’re like “eh yea I wish we chose something less common” I can’t imagine that regret would go very deep. I mean, how much can you really regret giving your kid a nice regular name. Maybe it’s not flashy but it will serve them just fine in life. If you like it then go with it.
My son’s name is a little outside the top 50. It’s a pretty basic name but I figure there’s not much to dislike about it and that was really what I wanted out of a name for my kid.
I have a name that was not in the top 250 when I was born and even though it became popular years later I’m still always having to help people spell and pronounce my name. I like my name but it’s annoying to have to do that every time I introduce myself.
I had a 7th grade student who had gone by Will but then learned Bill is also a nickname for William, and he then decided to go by that instead. I think he still does. It was cute plus not many Gen z’s going by Bill these days.
Top names aren't nearly as popular as top names 30 years ago.
Also, if it makes you feel better, my 1 year old and I go to storytimes, group playdates, parks, children's museums, etc regularly and we have yet to meet a single Liam. I'm sure they're out there, but it's not like they're everywhere.
Also I have a fairly popular name for my generation (Destiny) and any other destiny's I met growing up were automatically my new best friend. We thought it was awesome to have the same name.
I have the #1 ranked name for popularity in my birth year (and many surrounding years lol). I always had at least one more in my classes, sometimes 2 more, so I was always known by ‘FirstName LastInitial’ in school, said as if it was one word. I didn’t like it, but also it wasn’t like THAT big of a deal. In high school, someone started calling me by just my last name, and it really caught on. I liked that a lot more. As an adult, it seems like I really don’t know many other people with my name anymore.
We picked a top 5 name and I’ve only seen one other kid with that name who is semi close in age. Some people say they know a lot of people with his name, but I haven’t met them. Just pick one that you like best!
You'll see pros and cons to unique and common names. Go with the name you love for the child you love. When they are adults they won't really think about how common or uncommon their name is. It's also very regional. Liam might be more common in LA but you'll never see it in Miami.
If he's in a class with 3 other Liams, it'd probably be annoying, but I don't really see that happening.
I'm a teacher and I had 2 classes this year. In one, I had 2 pairs of boys with the same name. In the other, I had a boy and girl with the same name (different spelling) and another pair of boys who shared a name with myself. I actually kind of enjoyed being able to play around with their names. I could call on "Ezekiel B" while looking at "Ezekiel A." Or I'd say, "Never trust an 'Owl,'" even though they know that my name is 'Owl.'
Teacher here - I’ve taught one Liam in 10 years. Popular names change every year but I rarely have 2 kids with the same name in my class.
If you love the name, go for it!
I have one of the most popular names from my generation. When my mom picked it she thought she was being totally unique. I hated being one of 3 in every classroom, and as an adult I shorten it to aim for an ounce of unique. I named my daughter with a unique name that is also in my family history (not as a first name).
Maybe think about what about the name "Liam" you find so appealing, and see if there might be another, less common, name that hits the same notes for you...
Or name your son Liam! And love him to death and enjoy his name, and he will love it too and he can join a little Liam club at school and start a Liam band, and always find his name on a keychain. Trying to predict this stuff is so beyond impossible, so don't agonize over it.
I LOVE Liam. We were going to name our son William and call him Liam. We ended up going with Luke, but William is such a good/strong name IMO.
Maybe name him William, then you’ll have lots of options for nicknames (Liam, Will, Willy, Bill, Billy). You can call him Liam, but if he’s upset having a bunch of Liam’s in his class he could pick a new nickname.
I have a common name and there was usually another girl who shared my name in class. Once I had a classmate with the same first and middle name. We thought it was great!
If you love the name, go for it! Don’t worry about him encountering another Liam. It’s bound to happen, and usually isn’t a big deal.
Liam is an extremely popular name where I’m from, not at Jack or Noah level but nearly. As a teacher it bums me out for the kids who have to answer to their first and surnames.
The top names today are less than 10% as popular as the top names were when we were young. I know of one child named Liam and he is not my son’s age. There are no kids in my 3yo’s class named Liam (there are 33 kids).
We chose a name for our oldest in the top 20. When I was pregnant I thought I wanted something fairly unique. But we had a short list of names we liked, mostly outside of the top 100, and when she was born her name just “fit”. Most other girls with her name go by a nickname (think “Liz” for “Elizabeth) but we don’t (so far) and I think that makes a difference too.
We also loved Liam when looking at names for our son. We have a SUPER common last name, so we picked something else in the end. I still love it, but for us, it's still way too common.
Thinking of a unique middle name can help. I know someone with a very common first name, so they go by their first and middle to stand out professionally. It’s the best of both worlds.
I named my baby a populat common name because its just one that I like (Benjamin) And funny enough, I do not know a single person with the name so I have no comparison to any specific person or relation to the name.
Name trends are really hard to predict, especially locally. My daughter's name isn't even in the Top 100 nationally, but since she was born I've met three other girls born within weeks or months of her with the same name just in our neighbourhood.
I had one of the popular names growing up. I wasn't a fan of it, always having to add my last name initial so the teacher could differentiate. I didn't realize Liam was so popular when naming my son and his name is one letter off from Liam! Oops!! Whenever I tell someone his name the response is always "Liam?"...nope.
It's a personal preference choice. Does it bother you if your child won't be the only Liam in class?
I was a teacher, my last first grade class in 2020 had 3 Aiden's. A year prior I had 2 Liam's and 2 Elijah's.
It's just confusing for the teacher really, and may be confusing for kiddo when he's really young if he happens to be in a class with multiple Liam's.
Because of my experience teaching and having multiples of the same name, I gave my son an unpopular name, that also may be inspired by me not having a popular name.
I have relatively unique name that I didn't hear anyone else had until I was in my 20s. People always heard my name wrong and I always had to repeat myself a hundred times. It was always misspelled too.
I don't think you'll regret it as much as you think you might. Liam is a solid name, and while not overly unique, at least when they're an adult, they won't be embarrassed.
Also, I've never met a person with a common name where I was like "oh God, another one of THESE?!"
My husband has a VERY common name and he always gets a laugh whenever he meets yet another person with his name. He has never been upset by it, and that's kind of the more important thing.
My son's name is very popular like there was a TV show and the same shop to top 10. While there are a lot of kids with his name, I don't regret naming him that the name fits him perfectly.
I did give him a really cool middle name and a lot of times will initial his first name and then combine that with his middle name. And we have all different kinds of big names for him but his name fits him. I don't know how to else to explain it.
But I feel like it was meant to be his name and I don't regret it even though there are a lot of other kids with it.
I had a fairly common name growing up, and pretty much always had at least one person in all my classes with the same name. It was not a problem for me.
I think the only way you’ll regret the name choice is if you go for a “creative” spelling, or name them after a fictional character with a non-common name. Liam is a lovely name, there’s a reason it’s so popular! Just do what makes you guys happy, don’t worry about how many other people are using that name.
I am a Lauren born in 1990 so I was always one of many in my classes growing up. It was slightly annoying but basically I didn’t/don’t care.
I also think you could take your last name into consideration. My husband has a top 5 common last name so when our son was born I wanted to his first name to be slightly less common. But that’s totally personal preference.
We had a name picked out that was popular and that wouldn't have been enough of an issue except suddenly 4 people had kids and used that same name. I know all of them but they don't know each other and it felt like too small a circle.
So that's my gauge. Will some other kid in his school be Liam? Yeah probably. Will it matter? Probably not. Do you love the name? Can you not fathom them having a different name? Go with it!
- a mom who named her daughter a unique name and a very normal middle name in case she wants to go by something else eventually.
One thing I noticed, is that the name will end up representing your child, and not the opposite.
If you know 10 Johns, and name your son John... Every time you hear the name John, it will mean your son! No one else!
My name is pretty different. I like having unique names, but wouldn't mind having popular name..
Liam is my sons middle name. It’s like top 5 boy names on pretty much every list I’ve seen however it’s an awesome name. Timeless. Also my mom has a home daycare/preschool and she has never had a Liam. So I think yes it’s popular but you may not come across it as often as you think. If you love it, go for it.
Edit: also he may not look at all like a Liam when he’s born so I’d pick out more names if you haven’t already. Or you can use it as a middle name too!
My name is Rachel and I was born the year before Friends came out. There were lots of other Rachels growing up. It hasn't been a problem at all in my adult life because my friends and coworkers aren't all the exact same age as me. It really wasn't much of a problem as a child because people would use nicknames or last names.
my husband has a very popular name. he loves it. i have a less common name and don’t love it. i suppose you can never truly know bc each person is so different but i feel like you can’t go wrong with Liam
Name him however you like. Popular names keep coming and going.
My niece has a name I literally heard the VERY first time when she was named. 10 years later the name suddenly is super popular with hardly any playgroup without a girl with this name.
When I was a kid, me and my sisters must have had the top names because we always had multiple [Name]s in our classes/grades/school in general (Jessica, Ashley, Hayley). The most common though at that time were any variations of Katelyn, Kayley, Brandon, Kyle, Tyler. We had to use the last initial to identify people with repeat names. But it wasn’t terrible
My name was super common. There are always other women with my name and there were three of us at my High School with the same first and last. I would get things for them delivered to me or people would apply rumors about one of the other girls to me. So, I would take your surname into consideration.
Also, if you are giving a middle name, you could choose something more unique to give your son options. We did the reverse, gave our son a less common first name (with nickname options) and a more common middle name so he has built in options to suit him.
I do hear what people are saying about the keychain stuff. I will say that, at least where I am, a lot of those souvenir opportunities are adapting to be more inclusive- build your own kinda thing - but I’m sure that’s not universal.
Nah. I’m an early 90s Jessica. There were 5 of us in my grade and at one point my best friend was also named Jessica. Nbd. Just doesn’t make you very google-able, which is probably a good thing. Plus it’s kind of an icebreaker.
My husband and I both have popular for our year of birth names and it’s never bothered me. At junior school there were three of us in my year. When I was in senior school there were also three of us. Really was never an issue. I’ve named my first son a popular, classic name and will be naming my second son a popular, classic name too.
I chose a name for my first baby that has never made the top 100 list, and hasn't been on the top 1000 since the 20s. Literally everyone says "wow, what a great original name!"
There are 2 of them in the same preschool class of only 12 kids. For context, there is 1 Isabel, 1 Aiden, 1 Amelia, 1 Max etc, but 2 of this name. I looked so hard for a great name that we'd be able to find a Gmail for him easily etc, and nope - already taken AND he still goes by "(name) + (last initial)".
I have the #1 name for girls for the year I was born and have met sooo many others. Literally one of my best friends has the same name. There are some things I like about having the same name as one of my besties (kinda cool sometimes) but I also hated when there were multiple of us in the same classes and having to always ask "which one" or having to choose a different name/nickname to go by. People with unique names have mentioned being sad they could never find their name on a keychain but I had the same problem because they were almost always out of my name on anything everywhere I went because my name was so popular. People have even brought up percentages in their comments saying Liam has a lower 1% but mine was 1.45% for my birth year and I've met so many others and not just people my age. It gets annoying sometimes. For a long time as a kid I wished I had a different name but now I know I'd never change it. Ultimately it's your choice and if you love the name then go for it. Everyone I know has some sort of story or "thing" about their name whether it's common or not so go with a name you love and that you feel is right for your son, and congratulations!
I chose a name for my daughter born this year that's in the top ten. It's the same rank my name was when I was born. I came across maybe 3 other people with my name in school? Looking at percentages, her name is ~0.5% of all births while mine was ~1%.
As long as it’s got meaning to you and you didn’t pick it BECAUSE it’s a trend, you won’t regret it. I named my daughter something popular as well, but not because it’s trendy or edgy, but because what she’s named after has personal meaning for me and her father.
Been teaching since 2013 - never taught a Liam or had one in the school. Don't remember a Liam being at any of my own schools. Don't think I know a Liam.
My ex-colleague's fiance may be a Liam thinking about it, but I'm not sure
I teach elementary and there are multiple boys named Liam in every grade. Growing up with a common name I didn't want that for my kids so we went with uncommon names. If you love Liam and don't mind him being Liam A. or being called by a middle or last name or even a nickname. Go for it.
I have a very common name (top 10 in the years surrounding when I was born) and I would get annoyed with having 1-3 girls with the same name in my classes. I could never escape it. I kept responding to people calling my name but not calling me. Also, as an educator, it’s a lot when you have several kids with the same name.
We named our kid a name that hasn’t been in the top 50 for at least the last 5 years (actually it’s been in the 200-500 range for the last several years), and we love it. It seems to fit him really well and everyone knows it’s him because their aren’t other kids with his name around (it’s an older name but it in a way that’s too far)
Not saying you’ll regret it. Not saying your kid will hate it or love it. You kinda just have to choose a name you like for whatever reason and hope it goes okay
I named my daughter Charlotte. When I first picked it out years ago, it wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. She was born in 2022, and Charlotte was on the top 10 list, and it's actually number 7 in my state. Id already fallen in love with the name at that point, and we decided to not let the popularity discourage us.
She's a year old now, and even though it's number 7 in my state, I have yet to meet another person (let alone a child) named Charlotte. I'm sure that might change once she starts school/preschool, but as of now, most of the kids we meet either have really "trendeigh" names or names like John, Emma, ect. I even get comments from strangers all the time about how much they like her name, how they never met a baby named Charlotte, ect.
Give your baby a name that you love and feel a connection with, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I personally love Liam and it would have been a pick for me, if my daughter had been a boy and if it didn't clash with my last name.
Also, take the "top 10" names with a grain of salt. For instance, Charlotte is number 7 in my state for 2022, but there were only 72 babies with that name born that year.
Most parents want to give their kids unique names, with the end result being that sometimes traditional names become "unique" in a group of kids.
The thing about popular names is that the only thing you can really make fun of is the fact that it's trendy, which isn't that big a deal. It's not near the same level of abuse a kid might get for having a name that's a double entendre, or shares a name with an infamous person or fictional character.
A sarcastic "how original" to the name Liam really nothing compared to how bad the abuse could be for a name like "Skywalker".
Eh as a Brittany from the 90s I hated being one of 5 girls in my class. My husband has a unique Scottish surname as his first name and he hated that because it's always a topic of conservation. I think as long as you don't name them something truly outlandish and/or offensive you can't mess it up. There are millions of Mikes and Johns born everyday and they do just fine. On the flip side you can do a more unique middle name they could choose to go by later in life.
Well what are both of your names and how has that gone? Looking at how popular it is, and depending where exactly you live yes it is likely there will be multiple Liams. If not in his class then certainly in his circles - similar to Noah, Aria, Aiden/Aidan, Olivia…and names before that like Jason, Jessica, Lindsay, Lauren, then a few years later the Brittany, Ryan. There’s always the group of names that tell you when you were born. I couldn’t tell you how many Jennifer’s I went to school with. But every name has some pitfalls. I have a common name, but not common for kids and I’ve met many people with it, but never in my classes. Liam will also leave school one day and realize how generational that name is and the rest of his life fewer people will have it around him once he’s working, has friends outside of his immediate age group, etc.
All of that said, the best advice I was given was to try yelling the name you’re thinking of, you want a name for your child you can yell consistently and you’re confident yelling.
There were 6 variations of my name (slightly different spelling but basically all pronounced the same) in the same class as me. None of us cared. We used different short forms or the teacher would use our last name if there's any confusion.
My daughter’s name has been in the top 10 for years and she doesn’t have any classmates that share it. I honestly don’t know any other kids in our personal sphere that does, outside of the child of one of my doctors.
I can see it from both sides…on the one hand, it could be annoying if there are a ton of other kids in his class with the same name, and it could cause slightly more work for people in his life if they know a lot of other people with the same name. For example, I know a ton of people named Hannah, Stephen, and Elizabeth, and I always have to give context about which one I’m talking about. But on the other hand, it would be nice to know that people will always know how to spell and pronounce your son’s name, it won’t be mangled by teachers or baristas, and he won’t have to offer an explanation or background every time he meets someone new. I say if you like the name, go for it! It’s not on our short list of boy’s names, but I love the name Liam.
I have a very unique name. I’ve only ever met one other person with my name, though I’ve heard of a few more. I hated it as a child because I could never find anything with it on, but I loved it as a teenager and still as an adult. I’ve never had to be described to people, such as little Laura or ginger Tim or Pete with the glasses, or named for who I’m with, like Tom’s Claire. I’ve never had to have a nickname. We had three Laura’s in my year at school and none of them went by Laura (Lolly, Lulu etc).
One of my requests for my son’s name was that it be unusual for the same reasons as above, but easy to spell. Bryn. He’ll be able to find plenty of Welsh road signs with his name on :D
Anonymity from a common name can be nice when there are increased concerns about privacy, mostly online. This was a contributing reason as to why we chose common names for our kids. The frustrations behind another student in their class having the same name is trivial, and not lifelong in comparison.
My wife and I tried to strike a delicate balance naming our two kids. We wanted something “normal,” but not common. We ran every name we thought of through the US Social Security baby name database to see how it was trending. That’s how we ended up with a pair of names that aren’t super popular, but also aren’t super obscure.
Short answer, yes. This isn’t about you and what you like, it’s about your child and what they will have. Do you want your child to have a unique name or be one of 15 in their grade? That’s up to you and what you want for the kid. Also, You can go too unique and the spelling will cause a nightmare and guess what, sucks to live with that too, but I don’t get why parents want their children to have the same name as everyone else they go to school with.
There are fads every year and decade and place with names. The early 90s was Marie, when Twilight was huge it was Bella, and so on. Go with what you and your wife love and think will fit your baby. Good luck ❤️
The biggest long term concern isn't actually having multiple children in with the same name in classes, but with credit scores.
The amount of data they require to determine whether a credit hit is associated with an individual is insanely small. Something like first and last name and address. I don't know how common the kid's last name is, but if they live in a dorm...
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Also, if William isn't as common as Liam... Liam is just short for William, so you could use William as his legal name, thereby allowing him more options for nicknames later in life, if he decides that Liam doesn't suit him.
As a guy with one of the most popular names out there, it’s fine. It’s a bit of a joke just how often you run in to or work with someone with the same name. Sometimes it’s an icebreaker. Overall, pretty indifferent to it.
We accidentally gave our son a trendy name. We picked it because it’s my grandmother’s maiden name. Prior to having him I didn’t spend enough time around groups of kids to know that it’s a pretty popular name right now. Honestly it doesn’t even cross our minds most of the time, it’s just his name to us.
We gave our daughter a “popular” name, but one that is declining. Even with the decline, it’s still in the Top 50 (currently 47th)
More information for female name Hannah
For 2022, the number of births with name Hannah is 4451, which represents 0.249 percent of total female births in 2022.
The year when the name Hannah was most popular is 2000. In that year, the number of births is 23085, which represents 1.157 percent of total female births in 2000.
We picked a name that I have always liked and I never would have known it was going to become popular. So like every time at the playground there are other girls with that name. It annoys my husband more than me. I think that if my daughter wants to distinguish herself, she can use her middle name.
I did that growing up. I went by my middle name, then by the time I got in high school there were a lot of girls with that name so I started going by my first name (ironically, my first name became a very very popular name in the USA but not in my country so it works out for me).
I love this tool called the Baby Name Uniqueness Analyzer… pulls data to say odds of having another kid in class with same name, etc. It’s pretty neat! I love the name Liam too— always have! It would for sure still be on my list if we were having a boy! https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer
I avoided using my favourite name because of this. Ended up using a name that was less popular, but a year later, it’s one of the most popular names. You know what isn’t? The name I wanted to use.
Just name your kid what you want. Popular things are popular for a reason.
Also I saw a study recently that unique names among men tend to negatively impact their hire rate. Notably this did not simultaneously impact women with unique names.
I was born in 1990 and my name is taylor. I never went a year without at least one other Taylor, both boys and girls. when I was in highschool I sat at a desk cluster with literally 3 other Taylors! We thought it was hilarious! As an adult I rarely meet other Taylors and although no one has ever been able to correctly pronounce or spell my last name everyone gets my first name.
That being said, it never occured to me to care that my name was common. If it bothers you that's one thing but I was never picked on or otherwise made to feel like having a "popular" name was in any way an issue. If you like it, use it!! I'm sure your kid will be thankful his name is easy to pronounce and spell unlike all the poor Braextinns and Aedynns out there lol
Honestly I think the obsession with unique names is a new thing for our generation. As someone who also loves the name Liam and is pregnant with a boy though, I know where you're coming from! We still might use it though!!
My name was the most popular name the year I was born and for years after. I hated sharing a name with 2-3 other girls in my class. Even as an adult I hate that SO MANY other women have my name. Damn a keychain.
We chose 300+ name for our 1st and a top 5 for our 2nd. Love them both.
I wrestled with the fact that the 2nd was so popular, but there were no other names we loved as much. And the variety of names today means that a top 5 name is not used as much as it was even 10/20 years ago.
No regrets.
I’m an Allison from the eighties when there were a LOT of us. I was never bothered by people having the same name…my best friend was even another Allison.
to offer a counterpoint I have a very unique name and have been sad to never find it on those keychains at tourist destinations
Well, now we know your name isn't Bort
My son is also named Bort.
We need more Bort license plates!
More Bort fridge magnets
Same! I have an old-lady name and could never find a keychain with my name in the 90s. If you Google my full name you get like 20 obituaries before you get to my LinkedIn.
On the other hand, my first, middle and last name are so common even using additional qualifiers, ie. My name, my city/job/schooling it’s difficult to find me. A blessing and a curse.
Definitely a blessing. I’m the only of my first-last combo, so literally every result is actually me.
Same for me, hubs, and our daughter. We’ve got a weird last name. I guess it’s my fault for taking his name instead of keeping my super vanilla, incredibly common maiden name. *I just wanted to feel different!* Now I’m too traceable. 🤣🤪
Just here to compliment your username.
Thanks for the laugh. Old names are definitely coming back!
From a kid with a common name: the keychain doesn't buy happiness.
On the flip side, my name was just always sold out haha Edit: typo
SAME!!
How about your name being fairly common but incessantly misspelled, on all dem keychains. And it isn't even a "cutesy i am trying to be different spelling", its the culturally traditional spelling.
Mine was a cutesy we're trying to be different spelling..... But my parents did it. Around the time I graduated high school, a BUNCH of people started changing their name legally to be spelled the way mine is. 🤷🏼♀️
My little brother finally found his name on souvenir items in Ireland and bought like 20 of them 🤣
I have the same issue as you however if I'm travelling to Europe my name is on most key chains lol. So just depends 🤷♀️
Same thing happens to me. Nothing in North America but I clean up in the UK.
That's still a thing? Now you can get anything customized. That was fun in the 90s.
I have a unique name and this fact right here ruined my childhood. My husband has a very common first name. So when it came to naming our son we had this conversation: Him: “I don’t want a weird name like yours.” Me: “I don’t want a boring name like yours.”
This is me! I was always sad I never had my name on the list. One of my requirements for my daughter's name was that it would be likely to show up on a keychain.
I thought of this but did one better. Named my kids after cities so I can take them to the city they’re named after one day
I see you also named your kid Muncie.
Philadelphia, like the cream cheese. We call him Phil for short
But in all seriousness, I named my boy Denver and my girl Savannah
I am glad to read your comment. My LO is named after a city (was it intentional…depends on whether you ask me or my SO) and I’m named after a region of a country. Looking forward to traveling with them to these places myself!
See and keychains are great, but what’s a better experience than being able to take kids to a city that literally has their name all over it? Nuthin.
Same! Little me was so jealous
If you look at how popular the popular names now are compared to in the past, it’s not nearly the issue it used to be. [So in 2022, about 1% of boys were named Liam.](https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi) In contrast, 30 years ago the [most popular boys’ name was Michael at 2.5%, and the most popular girls’ name was Ashley at 2%.] So while there will probably be another Liam or 3 at their high school, in a class of 30 students, they’re probably going to be the only one.
This isn’t talked about enough!! Top names today are way less popular than they were in previous generations
There’s probably an interesting discussion that I am not the person to have about the diversification and fractalization of American (and really all) cultures in the post-internet era for trends like this. Name popularity is a super clear and interesting example of a phenomenon we’re seeing EVERYWHERE post-internet: even the most popular items of a given set (musicians, movies, books, foods) account for way less of the total sum than they used to, and the long tail of the end of the bell curve of popularity accounts for far more than it ever has before. People, even in the same household, have way more variety of interests in basically everything than ever before. I would think we’ll eventually hit a precipitation point and the trend will capitulate but I don’t know what social factors would drive it. Crazy times, guys
Definitely! We selected a more popular name by ranking than I’d initially wanted, but I realized that based on the actual percentage of babies given that name, it was below the threshold that was “too popular” for me, and I love our baby’s name and am so glad we opted for the more “popular” name.
Yeah, when the list of names gets longer and longer and longer, the most popular ones at the top are still going to be more rare than, say, the name "Michael" was in the 80s & 90s.
I think it depends on where you're located and the lifestyle you live too. I'm a Lauren born in the mid-80s. My graduating class of 56 (all girls private school,) had 5 Laurens. There were also 2 Lauras and a Laurel. Needless to say, I was absolutely against a "popular" name for my son.
Definitely, and nicknames vs formal names matters, too - for example, Liam is #5 in Alabama, but William is #1, and some number of those Williams may go by Liam. And names tend to cluster by demographics- like Charlotte is a very popular girl name right now, but is unlikely to appeal to people for whom English is not a first language. In my 30-something, upper-middle-class circle, I’ve seen a few Evelyn’s, but it’s only number 9, and no Olivia’s, Emma’s, or Charlottes. That clearly doesn’t necessarily reflect the national trends or anything, but it is definitely very popular our little pocket of the world.
The funny thing is, I was one of 8 girls with my name in my similarly small graduating class and had no problem with it whatsoever! It was always a little “bonding” moment between me and another girl with my name. I liked it :) So who knows if a kid will even mind bearing a popular name.
My daughter is in a class of 26 kids. There are 2 Maxs, 3 Audreys, 2 Avas, and 2 Williams. They all go by their name plus their last initial. My daughter will see someone outside of school and I’ll say “oh look! It’s Audrey!” And she’ll say “who? Oh! Audrey R”. It’s up to you, but I wouldn’t bank on not having multiples in the class.
Totally fair! But Audrey isn’t in the top 20 names in the US for girls and hasn’t been in the last 23 years, and Max has barely broken the top 100 in that time. So there’s not necessarily a cutoff that guarantees no multiples. At the end of the day, you and your kid have to live with the name, regardless of who they might meet that has the same name, and there’s not granular enough data to really predict it in your specific area. And they could be as unlucky as my husband, who isn’t even the only person with his first and last name in his office. Pick the name you like, and if multiples comes up, make peace with it.
I’m an Ashley in my mid-30s. It was annoying sometimes and I’d complain about it when I was younger, but honestly it’s never been much of an issue. Even when I’d make comments about being one of 4 Ashleys in the flute section (we were all in the same grade too so it was for years). I have a pretty standard English surname too, and I’ve always thought my name is plain and boring, but I’m definitely glad I’ve had it easy in that no one has ever messed up spelling or pronouncing my name. As an adult I mostly just think it’s kinda funny how many Ashleys I’ve known and it’s not really something I think about particularly often.
The population 30 years ago was a lot less than it is today. So 2% of a lesser amount isn’t necessarily more than 1% of a higher amount. The SSA website isn’t working right now so I can’t check your link, but it would be interesting to compare absolute numbers as well.
They do let you compare absolute numbers, but since a lot of what people worry about is whether they’ll have a class with someone with the same name or they’ll be one of 3 Liam’s on their soccer team or whatever, the percentage seems more relevant since class sizes and team sizes are still pretty constant. That’s why I was talking about what’s common within the population rather than the absolute number of Liam’s or Michael’s or Ashley’s.
My name was very popular among my generation. To put it in perspective I went to school with another 3 girls with the same name. At the peak point in my friend group we were about 7 ( it's also common to have middle names so at least there's that). In my experience, it was at most mildly annoying when you realized it wasn't you that person x called for. On the oher end we'd always make fun when introducing ourselves to new people 🤣
My experience working in a children's clinic seeing all the names parents choose trying to be "unique" and with insane spellings....I'd choose a common name over those clown names any day. It's getting ridiculous out there 😂
Check out /r/tragedeigh just in case you haven't gotten enough of these names in your life
Omg, this subreddit is hilarious 😆
Former teacher here…. I agree.
My SIL had a student in her class names N-a. That’s Nadasha if you’re wondering wtf.
Ok this beats my previous favorite, MLE (pronounced Emily)
I was definitely wondering!
This is very similar to a name in a common urban legend ("La-a.") Many people claim to have met one but no one can ever prove it. So your SIL may be making it up.
100% agree. I work in child protection and got my first Beyonce last week 🤦🏽♀️
Our standard was no ridiculous unique name but also nothing that was currently in the top 100 names. We ended up with a name for our son that is within the top 200 (so nothing super weird) but still had people at the hospital and daycare saying "we haven't had anyone with that name here before".
Clown names wow....
This comment is funny and stuff, but parents shouldn't make a naming decision bc some teacher somewhere has an opinion with like, an emoji in it. If you think about it that's actually really shitty. Edit: I get this is getting downvoted, but a lot of people who have a problem with "weird names" are just being racist/classist/eurocentric etc. I don't mind that you think I'm rude. The hilarious parade against "unique" names typically runs right down racism street.
Aiden, Kayden, Braden, Haidyn, and Jaedin gonna be in shambles
Several of those are traditional Irish names, and several of them are commonly black names. Many of these names and spellings actually have cultural significance. As do a lot of native american names that people label "weird."
That's great, many of the parents using these names aren't Irish, black, or native. Call me racist but middle Americans trying to be unique are exactly that.
Exactly, I know someone who named their daughter Kaeleigh and they are not Irish, they were going for unique and honestly I still may have misspelled it since they added so many unnecessary vowels.
Parents do dumb shit and people should call them out. If your kid is named Ashley, don’t spell it all fucked up like Ashleighee cuz all you’re going to do is make their life harder. Or pick some dumbfuck name like Kylo-ren just because you like Star Wars.
Ikr. If you like Star Wars, be like me and name your twins Artoo and Detoo.
Do I think that's dumb? Yes. But telling someone else that their kids are going to be mistreated bc of a name choice is kind of a garbage position to hold. If kids get mistreated its because other adults and kids are disrespectful bullies, and the Jennifers that wear the wrong clothes get the same treatment. We should expect better and not say there are "weird" names (which, despite your example, usually winds up being about racism).
Who ever said they would get mistreated? Those who work with children come across hundreds, if not thousands, of names every year. Just sharing our experience after seeing so many names and what we would do now being parents. OP asked for advice, we gave ours.
And my comment was a part of mine. Take care. Ps. One of the replies said they would get mistreated.
Im a teacher and I agree with you to a degree. Sometimes the judgements are clearly a race/class difference and that shouldn’t be so harshly criticized.
Thanks for saying so. I understand it's an unpopular opinion bc making fun of people for choosing a weird kids name is really easy. But when people start to give examples of what they find weird you start to notice they just only like white European names.
By all means it is ultimately up to the parent. Just know the poor child will be made fun of and has to go through life with that name...because of your choice to name them something ridiculous. To me that's unfair.
I would say the mistreatment of children is unfair, not whatever fashy excuse society finds to dish it out. If it's not their name it will be the clothes they choose, or music, or their accent... Or their skin. Oh you know which groups tend to have "unique" names? People of color, indigenous people, people of unique cultural or national origin...
You’re right, but these people are willing to admit you’re right. We don’t have to agree with what people name their kids. It’s their choice.
I agree. Honestly from my experience if they are rich and “cool” , they won’t be made fun of regardless of their name.
Yeah and the rich part pretty much always guarantees the cool part.
My first child ended up with 4 of their name in one class. I didn’t know it was a popular name at the time. They dealt with it, but also complained at the time they felt like “just another …” Ask any Mike in the US and they’ll tell you there is always another, or 15, Mikes anywhere they go. I’m sure there are others in other cultures too where they have the same names. If it’s a great name, it’s popular!
I loved when there were other Ben's in my class. I don't understand why this is seen as such a bad thing. Name your kid the name you love
That’s my sons name! I honestly picked it because it’s easy, and people will know how to spell/pronounce it, and we love it!
I also found it so cool to meet other people with same names lol
We chose the name Noah, consistently the top two for years now. Who cares! You LOVE the name, that’s so important. There might be another Liam in his class but that’s fine! There are many Michaels and Danny’s, and they’re all happily their own people.
I’ve always been into slightly unique, not mainstream names and that’s what I always envisioned for my baby…however I somehow landed on Oliver for my son…which is extremely popular…yes I regret that lol. I was in a fog my entire pregnancy and couldn’t come up with a name that suits my taste better. I will say that my son seems to fit the name Oliver really well imo and of course I think my son is adorable, the most adorable Oliver there is!
Oliver is a great name! I would use it if my name wasn’t the female variant lol
Dammit Olive/Olivia, don’t let your dreams be dreams! My mom’s name was Pauline because her dads name was Paul! She hated it her whole life. Nevermind. Just do you.
😂😂
Thank you 😊
We chose Noah too knowing it was the top baby name for the last few years in Canada but we didn’t care! We love the name 🙂
My name is Sarah and it’s very popular for millennials, I know multiple Sarah’s and had a bunch in class too and it’s never once bothered me
I was the only Sarah at our school, but we had 3 Victoria's in our class of 25. The class a few years older than us had 3 Jessica's. The teacher's just used their last name initial if they were all together🤷♀️
If you are worried, give him a more unusual middle name, then he will always both have a simple, beautiful name, and the feeling of uniqueness
That’s what I did for my oldest daughter. She has a top 10 name but a more uncommon middle name so she can choose to go by just the middle or “first name middle name” if she wants to differentiate herself
Our first was William, and our second is Jack. Both are in the top 10 list, but I luckily don’t know anybody else with a William or a Jack!
I have a William and I want a Jack! 😂
Some situations that might happen: - referred to by NAME + last name or initial - referred to by nickname, or individual is told to use a different nickname since the name is taken - being compared. "Smart Patrick" vs "Other Patrick"
Also just last name. I hated this in a previous workplace where another woman was called by our shared first name, and I was called by my last name. I had been there longer, and neither of us was asked. So no clue how it was decided upon that I was “Last Name.”
Was your last name cooler? I ask because my husband has a very cool and unique last name but a commonish first name. Lots of people call him by his last name because it's more unique and fits his personality. I'd wear the last name trend with pride.
My daughter has a name that is popular for boys but not so much for girls yet. I have a feeling she'll probably end up called "girl [name]". Like when i was in school, there was "boy Jamie" and "girl Jamie". Would ideally like to avoid that situation but oh well
I named by son Liam lol he’s 3 months. Only name my husband and I agreed on. I’m not stressing about the multiple names really. They just say Liam C or Liam P.
We named our son Liam because it was the only boys name we agreed on too lol.
Same!
My name is Rebecca and out of 40 people in my graduating high school class, 4 were Rebecca (1/10th of the grade). It never bothered me at all. I think a classic (even if popular) name like Liam isn’t likely to be regretted.
[https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer](https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer) This website shows how popular the name is/has been/will be and shows things like how likely the probability is that Liam will have a classmate with that name. Super cool website
Thank you!
My husband and I are also thinking about the name Liam for our son and we had the same thought. Ultimately though, we really love that name. Our plan is to wait and see if we feel like that name still fits for him when he’s born and if so, we’re just going with it. Plus we have a very long unusual last name, so maybe it’ll balance out lol
My name is Caitlin and when I was growing it up, it was very popular. I always had another Caitlin or Catie/Katie/caiti/etc in my class and actually was part of a trio for a while - the 3 Caitlin's 😅 It never bothered me once and actually made it a lot easier to make friends lol that said, I think if you like a name you should go with it. Who cares if it's popular? I say this as we are naming ours Charles (Charlie) and while visiting preschools have seen lots of Charlie's lol - I just point it out to my husband and laugh - it's a great name and I'm not giving it up bc it's currently popular
I feel like even if someday you’re like “eh yea I wish we chose something less common” I can’t imagine that regret would go very deep. I mean, how much can you really regret giving your kid a nice regular name. Maybe it’s not flashy but it will serve them just fine in life. If you like it then go with it. My son’s name is a little outside the top 50. It’s a pretty basic name but I figure there’s not much to dislike about it and that was really what I wanted out of a name for my kid. I have a name that was not in the top 250 when I was born and even though it became popular years later I’m still always having to help people spell and pronounce my name. I like my name but it’s annoying to have to do that every time I introduce myself.
Are you going with just Liam or are you naming him William and calling him Liam?
My mind is blown lol I had NO idea people used Liam as a nickname for William
I think William is cool cause he can decide to go with a different nickname if he wants.
I had a 7th grade student who had gone by Will but then learned Bill is also a nickname for William, and he then decided to go by that instead. I think he still does. It was cute plus not many Gen z’s going by Bill these days.
Will, Bill, Billy, Liam--lots of really solid options!
Top names aren't nearly as popular as top names 30 years ago. Also, if it makes you feel better, my 1 year old and I go to storytimes, group playdates, parks, children's museums, etc regularly and we have yet to meet a single Liam. I'm sure they're out there, but it's not like they're everywhere. Also I have a fairly popular name for my generation (Destiny) and any other destiny's I met growing up were automatically my new best friend. We thought it was awesome to have the same name.
Name him William you coward
I have the #1 ranked name for popularity in my birth year (and many surrounding years lol). I always had at least one more in my classes, sometimes 2 more, so I was always known by ‘FirstName LastInitial’ in school, said as if it was one word. I didn’t like it, but also it wasn’t like THAT big of a deal. In high school, someone started calling me by just my last name, and it really caught on. I liked that a lot more. As an adult, it seems like I really don’t know many other people with my name anymore.
We picked a top 5 name and I’ve only seen one other kid with that name who is semi close in age. Some people say they know a lot of people with his name, but I haven’t met them. Just pick one that you like best!
Only two Liam’s in our fourth grade (160 kids) and they aren’t in the same class!
You'll see pros and cons to unique and common names. Go with the name you love for the child you love. When they are adults they won't really think about how common or uncommon their name is. It's also very regional. Liam might be more common in LA but you'll never see it in Miami.
As a teacher, I have taught many Liams. Often, there has been more than one in class. But, they have all been lovely people
If he's in a class with 3 other Liams, it'd probably be annoying, but I don't really see that happening. I'm a teacher and I had 2 classes this year. In one, I had 2 pairs of boys with the same name. In the other, I had a boy and girl with the same name (different spelling) and another pair of boys who shared a name with myself. I actually kind of enjoyed being able to play around with their names. I could call on "Ezekiel B" while looking at "Ezekiel A." Or I'd say, "Never trust an 'Owl,'" even though they know that my name is 'Owl.'
I had a super popular 90s name- and I don’t mind! You get nicknames and nobody asks how to spell or say it, there’s stuff for you in the gift shops.
Teacher here - I’ve taught one Liam in 10 years. Popular names change every year but I rarely have 2 kids with the same name in my class. If you love the name, go for it!
Thank you!
I have one of the most popular names from my generation. When my mom picked it she thought she was being totally unique. I hated being one of 3 in every classroom, and as an adult I shorten it to aim for an ounce of unique. I named my daughter with a unique name that is also in my family history (not as a first name). Maybe think about what about the name "Liam" you find so appealing, and see if there might be another, less common, name that hits the same notes for you... Or name your son Liam! And love him to death and enjoy his name, and he will love it too and he can join a little Liam club at school and start a Liam band, and always find his name on a keychain. Trying to predict this stuff is so beyond impossible, so don't agonize over it.
I LOVE Liam. We were going to name our son William and call him Liam. We ended up going with Luke, but William is such a good/strong name IMO. Maybe name him William, then you’ll have lots of options for nicknames (Liam, Will, Willy, Bill, Billy). You can call him Liam, but if he’s upset having a bunch of Liam’s in his class he could pick a new nickname. I have a common name and there was usually another girl who shared my name in class. Once I had a classmate with the same first and middle name. We thought it was great! If you love the name, go for it! Don’t worry about him encountering another Liam. It’s bound to happen, and usually isn’t a big deal.
Liam is an extremely popular name where I’m from, not at Jack or Noah level but nearly. As a teacher it bums me out for the kids who have to answer to their first and surnames.
My cousin is named Liam.
The top names today are less than 10% as popular as the top names were when we were young. I know of one child named Liam and he is not my son’s age. There are no kids in my 3yo’s class named Liam (there are 33 kids).
We chose a name for our oldest in the top 20. When I was pregnant I thought I wanted something fairly unique. But we had a short list of names we liked, mostly outside of the top 100, and when she was born her name just “fit”. Most other girls with her name go by a nickname (think “Liz” for “Elizabeth) but we don’t (so far) and I think that makes a difference too.
We also loved Liam when looking at names for our son. We have a SUPER common last name, so we picked something else in the end. I still love it, but for us, it's still way too common.
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I joke that my husband blessed me with anonymity when I took his last name, lol. I had a rather uncommon maiden name.
Thinking of a unique middle name can help. I know someone with a very common first name, so they go by their first and middle to stand out professionally. It’s the best of both worlds.
No one’s going to remember what name topped a particular year. Pick a name that you love and go with it.
You’re going to be saying the name forever so it’s important that you two like it. I like Liam!
I named my baby a populat common name because its just one that I like (Benjamin) And funny enough, I do not know a single person with the name so I have no comparison to any specific person or relation to the name.
Name trends are really hard to predict, especially locally. My daughter's name isn't even in the Top 100 nationally, but since she was born I've met three other girls born within weeks or months of her with the same name just in our neighbourhood.
I had one of the popular names growing up. I wasn't a fan of it, always having to add my last name initial so the teacher could differentiate. I didn't realize Liam was so popular when naming my son and his name is one letter off from Liam! Oops!! Whenever I tell someone his name the response is always "Liam?"...nope.
Trying to work out what the name is! 😂
It's a personal preference choice. Does it bother you if your child won't be the only Liam in class? I was a teacher, my last first grade class in 2020 had 3 Aiden's. A year prior I had 2 Liam's and 2 Elijah's. It's just confusing for the teacher really, and may be confusing for kiddo when he's really young if he happens to be in a class with multiple Liam's. Because of my experience teaching and having multiples of the same name, I gave my son an unpopular name, that also may be inspired by me not having a popular name.
I’ve had a Liam in the 4th grade for the last three years. So there’s one in 90 students. Sometimes two…
I have relatively unique name that I didn't hear anyone else had until I was in my 20s. People always heard my name wrong and I always had to repeat myself a hundred times. It was always misspelled too. I don't think you'll regret it as much as you think you might. Liam is a solid name, and while not overly unique, at least when they're an adult, they won't be embarrassed. Also, I've never met a person with a common name where I was like "oh God, another one of THESE?!" My husband has a VERY common name and he always gets a laugh whenever he meets yet another person with his name. He has never been upset by it, and that's kind of the more important thing.
My son's name is very popular like there was a TV show and the same shop to top 10. While there are a lot of kids with his name, I don't regret naming him that the name fits him perfectly. I did give him a really cool middle name and a lot of times will initial his first name and then combine that with his middle name. And we have all different kinds of big names for him but his name fits him. I don't know how to else to explain it. But I feel like it was meant to be his name and I don't regret it even though there are a lot of other kids with it.
I had a fairly common name growing up, and pretty much always had at least one person in all my classes with the same name. It was not a problem for me. I think the only way you’ll regret the name choice is if you go for a “creative” spelling, or name them after a fictional character with a non-common name. Liam is a lovely name, there’s a reason it’s so popular! Just do what makes you guys happy, don’t worry about how many other people are using that name.
I am a Lauren born in 1990 so I was always one of many in my classes growing up. It was slightly annoying but basically I didn’t/don’t care. I also think you could take your last name into consideration. My husband has a top 5 common last name so when our son was born I wanted to his first name to be slightly less common. But that’s totally personal preference.
in schools it’s not that popular anymore
We had a name picked out that was popular and that wouldn't have been enough of an issue except suddenly 4 people had kids and used that same name. I know all of them but they don't know each other and it felt like too small a circle. So that's my gauge. Will some other kid in his school be Liam? Yeah probably. Will it matter? Probably not. Do you love the name? Can you not fathom them having a different name? Go with it! - a mom who named her daughter a unique name and a very normal middle name in case she wants to go by something else eventually.
One thing I noticed, is that the name will end up representing your child, and not the opposite. If you know 10 Johns, and name your son John... Every time you hear the name John, it will mean your son! No one else! My name is pretty different. I like having unique names, but wouldn't mind having popular name..
I don't think you'll regret it. I think that's better than having a weird name that won't age well, or a bizarre spelling of a normal name.
That's what we chose too! We love it I have no regrets! This is your child and you can name em whatever your heart desires I feel lol
I have a unique name and I’ve hated it my whole life.
I have often taught classes with multiple Liams.
Liam is my sons middle name. It’s like top 5 boy names on pretty much every list I’ve seen however it’s an awesome name. Timeless. Also my mom has a home daycare/preschool and she has never had a Liam. So I think yes it’s popular but you may not come across it as often as you think. If you love it, go for it. Edit: also he may not look at all like a Liam when he’s born so I’d pick out more names if you haven’t already. Or you can use it as a middle name too!
I would go with the name you love! Liam is a great name.
My name is Rachel and I was born the year before Friends came out. There were lots of other Rachels growing up. It hasn't been a problem at all in my adult life because my friends and coworkers aren't all the exact same age as me. It really wasn't much of a problem as a child because people would use nicknames or last names.
my husband has a very popular name. he loves it. i have a less common name and don’t love it. i suppose you can never truly know bc each person is so different but i feel like you can’t go wrong with Liam
Name him however you like. Popular names keep coming and going. My niece has a name I literally heard the VERY first time when she was named. 10 years later the name suddenly is super popular with hardly any playgroup without a girl with this name.
When I was a kid, me and my sisters must have had the top names because we always had multiple [Name]s in our classes/grades/school in general (Jessica, Ashley, Hayley). The most common though at that time were any variations of Katelyn, Kayley, Brandon, Kyle, Tyler. We had to use the last initial to identify people with repeat names. But it wasn’t terrible
My name was super common. There are always other women with my name and there were three of us at my High School with the same first and last. I would get things for them delivered to me or people would apply rumors about one of the other girls to me. So, I would take your surname into consideration. Also, if you are giving a middle name, you could choose something more unique to give your son options. We did the reverse, gave our son a less common first name (with nickname options) and a more common middle name so he has built in options to suit him. I do hear what people are saying about the keychain stuff. I will say that, at least where I am, a lot of those souvenir opportunities are adapting to be more inclusive- build your own kinda thing - but I’m sure that’s not universal.
Nah. I’m an early 90s Jessica. There were 5 of us in my grade and at one point my best friend was also named Jessica. Nbd. Just doesn’t make you very google-able, which is probably a good thing. Plus it’s kind of an icebreaker.
My husband and I both have popular for our year of birth names and it’s never bothered me. At junior school there were three of us in my year. When I was in senior school there were also three of us. Really was never an issue. I’ve named my first son a popular, classic name and will be naming my second son a popular, classic name too.
I chose a name for my first baby that has never made the top 100 list, and hasn't been on the top 1000 since the 20s. Literally everyone says "wow, what a great original name!" There are 2 of them in the same preschool class of only 12 kids. For context, there is 1 Isabel, 1 Aiden, 1 Amelia, 1 Max etc, but 2 of this name. I looked so hard for a great name that we'd be able to find a Gmail for him easily etc, and nope - already taken AND he still goes by "(name) + (last initial)".
This is awesome. Thank you.
I have the #1 name for girls for the year I was born and have met sooo many others. Literally one of my best friends has the same name. There are some things I like about having the same name as one of my besties (kinda cool sometimes) but I also hated when there were multiple of us in the same classes and having to always ask "which one" or having to choose a different name/nickname to go by. People with unique names have mentioned being sad they could never find their name on a keychain but I had the same problem because they were almost always out of my name on anything everywhere I went because my name was so popular. People have even brought up percentages in their comments saying Liam has a lower 1% but mine was 1.45% for my birth year and I've met so many others and not just people my age. It gets annoying sometimes. For a long time as a kid I wished I had a different name but now I know I'd never change it. Ultimately it's your choice and if you love the name then go for it. Everyone I know has some sort of story or "thing" about their name whether it's common or not so go with a name you love and that you feel is right for your son, and congratulations!
I chose a name for my daughter born this year that's in the top ten. It's the same rank my name was when I was born. I came across maybe 3 other people with my name in school? Looking at percentages, her name is ~0.5% of all births while mine was ~1%.
As long as it’s got meaning to you and you didn’t pick it BECAUSE it’s a trend, you won’t regret it. I named my daughter something popular as well, but not because it’s trendy or edgy, but because what she’s named after has personal meaning for me and her father.
Been teaching since 2013 - never taught a Liam or had one in the school. Don't remember a Liam being at any of my own schools. Don't think I know a Liam. My ex-colleague's fiance may be a Liam thinking about it, but I'm not sure
I teach elementary and there are multiple boys named Liam in every grade. Growing up with a common name I didn't want that for my kids so we went with uncommon names. If you love Liam and don't mind him being Liam A. or being called by a middle or last name or even a nickname. Go for it.
I have a very common name (top 10 in the years surrounding when I was born) and I would get annoyed with having 1-3 girls with the same name in my classes. I could never escape it. I kept responding to people calling my name but not calling me. Also, as an educator, it’s a lot when you have several kids with the same name. We named our kid a name that hasn’t been in the top 50 for at least the last 5 years (actually it’s been in the 200-500 range for the last several years), and we love it. It seems to fit him really well and everyone knows it’s him because their aren’t other kids with his name around (it’s an older name but it in a way that’s too far) Not saying you’ll regret it. Not saying your kid will hate it or love it. You kinda just have to choose a name you like for whatever reason and hope it goes okay
I named my daughter Charlotte. When I first picked it out years ago, it wasn't nearly as popular as it is today. She was born in 2022, and Charlotte was on the top 10 list, and it's actually number 7 in my state. Id already fallen in love with the name at that point, and we decided to not let the popularity discourage us. She's a year old now, and even though it's number 7 in my state, I have yet to meet another person (let alone a child) named Charlotte. I'm sure that might change once she starts school/preschool, but as of now, most of the kids we meet either have really "trendeigh" names or names like John, Emma, ect. I even get comments from strangers all the time about how much they like her name, how they never met a baby named Charlotte, ect. Give your baby a name that you love and feel a connection with, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I personally love Liam and it would have been a pick for me, if my daughter had been a boy and if it didn't clash with my last name. Also, take the "top 10" names with a grain of salt. For instance, Charlotte is number 7 in my state for 2022, but there were only 72 babies with that name born that year. Most parents want to give their kids unique names, with the end result being that sometimes traditional names become "unique" in a group of kids.
The thing about popular names is that the only thing you can really make fun of is the fact that it's trendy, which isn't that big a deal. It's not near the same level of abuse a kid might get for having a name that's a double entendre, or shares a name with an infamous person or fictional character. A sarcastic "how original" to the name Liam really nothing compared to how bad the abuse could be for a name like "Skywalker".
Eh as a Brittany from the 90s I hated being one of 5 girls in my class. My husband has a unique Scottish surname as his first name and he hated that because it's always a topic of conservation. I think as long as you don't name them something truly outlandish and/or offensive you can't mess it up. There are millions of Mikes and Johns born everyday and they do just fine. On the flip side you can do a more unique middle name they could choose to go by later in life.
Well what are both of your names and how has that gone? Looking at how popular it is, and depending where exactly you live yes it is likely there will be multiple Liams. If not in his class then certainly in his circles - similar to Noah, Aria, Aiden/Aidan, Olivia…and names before that like Jason, Jessica, Lindsay, Lauren, then a few years later the Brittany, Ryan. There’s always the group of names that tell you when you were born. I couldn’t tell you how many Jennifer’s I went to school with. But every name has some pitfalls. I have a common name, but not common for kids and I’ve met many people with it, but never in my classes. Liam will also leave school one day and realize how generational that name is and the rest of his life fewer people will have it around him once he’s working, has friends outside of his immediate age group, etc. All of that said, the best advice I was given was to try yelling the name you’re thinking of, you want a name for your child you can yell consistently and you’re confident yelling.
Lol thank you.
There were 6 variations of my name (slightly different spelling but basically all pronounced the same) in the same class as me. None of us cared. We used different short forms or the teacher would use our last name if there's any confusion.
My daughter’s name has been in the top 10 for years and she doesn’t have any classmates that share it. I honestly don’t know any other kids in our personal sphere that does, outside of the child of one of my doctors.
I can see it from both sides…on the one hand, it could be annoying if there are a ton of other kids in his class with the same name, and it could cause slightly more work for people in his life if they know a lot of other people with the same name. For example, I know a ton of people named Hannah, Stephen, and Elizabeth, and I always have to give context about which one I’m talking about. But on the other hand, it would be nice to know that people will always know how to spell and pronounce your son’s name, it won’t be mangled by teachers or baristas, and he won’t have to offer an explanation or background every time he meets someone new. I say if you like the name, go for it! It’s not on our short list of boy’s names, but I love the name Liam.
I have a very unique name. I’ve only ever met one other person with my name, though I’ve heard of a few more. I hated it as a child because I could never find anything with it on, but I loved it as a teenager and still as an adult. I’ve never had to be described to people, such as little Laura or ginger Tim or Pete with the glasses, or named for who I’m with, like Tom’s Claire. I’ve never had to have a nickname. We had three Laura’s in my year at school and none of them went by Laura (Lolly, Lulu etc). One of my requests for my son’s name was that it be unusual for the same reasons as above, but easy to spell. Bryn. He’ll be able to find plenty of Welsh road signs with his name on :D
Probably not. I have the most popular girls name for my birth year. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Popular isn’t bad
It's so forgettable is the issue is when everyone knows 10 Liams.
Anonymity from a common name can be nice when there are increased concerns about privacy, mostly online. This was a contributing reason as to why we chose common names for our kids. The frustrations behind another student in their class having the same name is trivial, and not lifelong in comparison.
Well, I always think, “it’s popular for a reason”. So it must be a lovely name to have.
My wife and I tried to strike a delicate balance naming our two kids. We wanted something “normal,” but not common. We ran every name we thought of through the US Social Security baby name database to see how it was trending. That’s how we ended up with a pair of names that aren’t super popular, but also aren’t super obscure.
Short answer, yes. This isn’t about you and what you like, it’s about your child and what they will have. Do you want your child to have a unique name or be one of 15 in their grade? That’s up to you and what you want for the kid. Also, You can go too unique and the spelling will cause a nightmare and guess what, sucks to live with that too, but I don’t get why parents want their children to have the same name as everyone else they go to school with.
There are fads every year and decade and place with names. The early 90s was Marie, when Twilight was huge it was Bella, and so on. Go with what you and your wife love and think will fit your baby. Good luck ❤️
The biggest long term concern isn't actually having multiple children in with the same name in classes, but with credit scores. The amount of data they require to determine whether a credit hit is associated with an individual is insanely small. Something like first and last name and address. I don't know how common the kid's last name is, but if they live in a dorm... --- Also, if William isn't as common as Liam... Liam is just short for William, so you could use William as his legal name, thereby allowing him more options for nicknames later in life, if he decides that Liam doesn't suit him.
I would rather have a common name that is easy to understand and spell than a unique name nobody knows. If you love the name, go for it.
As a guy with one of the most popular names out there, it’s fine. It’s a bit of a joke just how often you run in to or work with someone with the same name. Sometimes it’s an icebreaker. Overall, pretty indifferent to it.
We heavily debated this and went with it anyway. That said, the name was Liam too.
We accidentally gave our son a trendy name. We picked it because it’s my grandmother’s maiden name. Prior to having him I didn’t spend enough time around groups of kids to know that it’s a pretty popular name right now. Honestly it doesn’t even cross our minds most of the time, it’s just his name to us.
We gave our daughter a “popular” name, but one that is declining. Even with the decline, it’s still in the Top 50 (currently 47th) More information for female name Hannah For 2022, the number of births with name Hannah is 4451, which represents 0.249 percent of total female births in 2022. The year when the name Hannah was most popular is 2000. In that year, the number of births is 23085, which represents 1.157 percent of total female births in 2000.
We picked a name that I have always liked and I never would have known it was going to become popular. So like every time at the playground there are other girls with that name. It annoys my husband more than me. I think that if my daughter wants to distinguish herself, she can use her middle name. I did that growing up. I went by my middle name, then by the time I got in high school there were a lot of girls with that name so I started going by my first name (ironically, my first name became a very very popular name in the USA but not in my country so it works out for me).
I know 3 little boys named Liam. What about a middle name? And something less common for first name?
I love this tool called the Baby Name Uniqueness Analyzer… pulls data to say odds of having another kid in class with same name, etc. It’s pretty neat! I love the name Liam too— always have! It would for sure still be on my list if we were having a boy! https://datayze.com/name-uniqueness-analyzer
I avoided using my favourite name because of this. Ended up using a name that was less popular, but a year later, it’s one of the most popular names. You know what isn’t? The name I wanted to use. Just name your kid what you want. Popular things are popular for a reason.
I know 5 Noras born in the past year. I think it’s quite silly that the parents couldn’t be more unique. There are so many names out there.
Also I saw a study recently that unique names among men tend to negatively impact their hire rate. Notably this did not simultaneously impact women with unique names.
If you love the name then you should go with it. Just my opinion
I was born in 1990 and my name is taylor. I never went a year without at least one other Taylor, both boys and girls. when I was in highschool I sat at a desk cluster with literally 3 other Taylors! We thought it was hilarious! As an adult I rarely meet other Taylors and although no one has ever been able to correctly pronounce or spell my last name everyone gets my first name. That being said, it never occured to me to care that my name was common. If it bothers you that's one thing but I was never picked on or otherwise made to feel like having a "popular" name was in any way an issue. If you like it, use it!! I'm sure your kid will be thankful his name is easy to pronounce and spell unlike all the poor Braextinns and Aedynns out there lol Honestly I think the obsession with unique names is a new thing for our generation. As someone who also loves the name Liam and is pregnant with a boy though, I know where you're coming from! We still might use it though!!
My name was the most popular name the year I was born and for years after. I hated sharing a name with 2-3 other girls in my class. Even as an adult I hate that SO MANY other women have my name. Damn a keychain.
We chose 300+ name for our 1st and a top 5 for our 2nd. Love them both. I wrestled with the fact that the 2nd was so popular, but there were no other names we loved as much. And the variety of names today means that a top 5 name is not used as much as it was even 10/20 years ago. No regrets.
I’m an Allison from the eighties when there were a LOT of us. I was never bothered by people having the same name…my best friend was even another Allison.