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Baby Names: How Popular is Yours?
December 16, 2008 at 10:13 AM by Cafe Suzanne - Comments (61)
photo by IamaBeloved
I was standing in line to see Santa the other day and asked the woman in front of me what her baby's name was. "Valentina," she said. "I wanted to name her Sophia, but I overheard a conversation outside a nursery school and someone asked, 'Sophia D. or Sophia M.?' And I didn't want my baby to have to use a last initial her whole life."
I didn't have the heart to tell her that Salma Hayek also named her baby Valentina (which probably means there are one or two more Valentina's on the way).
And a few months ago I did a poll on baby names, asking if you named your baby something that was popular, unique, or in your family. A huge majority (70 percent!) of you said you had given your baby a unique name. So did I! But the sad truth is that we spend months coming up with the perfect, one-of-a-kind name, and then one day the inevitable happens: We meet a baby who has the same name as our baby! The same name!
I just a read a funny blog post in the San Francisco Gate "Meeting other kids with the same baby name," where that very thing, but even worse, happened to the writer. He named his sons Theo and Milo. Not only did he meet one child with one of those names, he met two sets of brothers who were also named Theo and Milo.
He writes, "As I resigned myself to the fact that Milo is the new Jake, and there will be 17 other Theos in my kid's first grade classroom, I realized that my worst baby name nightmare coming true bothers me a lot less than I thought it would. I mean, my kids are completely healthy, the older one is potty trained and the baby occasionally sleeps through the night."
How about you? Have you met anyone with your baby's name yet? Would it make you consider giving him or her a nickname? Is your baby's name more or less popular than you thought it would be?
FILED UNDER: baby names
Comments:
I wanted my youngest to have a unique name. I grew up a Shannon with a billion others in a 3 foot radius. So i searched through tons of books looking for just the right name, and settled on Xander. I had never heard of it before...once he was born and people asked his name I was asked if I watched Buffy: The Vampire Slayer or General Hospital (Apparently both have a Xander on them) and thus the name was now becoming popular. I probably should have watched a little tv when planning out names.... Im more of a reader than a watcher...Grrrrr
The only other Edwina's I've met are all old women (and I've only met two of them) so I doubt we'll have much issue with her grade school being over run with Edwinas (though I wanted to name her Emma at first until I found out how many of those are around right now... and I did think that was a unique name at the time.) We do call her Winnie though. I'm not sure how popular that nickname is.
My son's name is Forest Christopher. We've met a few Forests; one was six years old and the others were older gentlemen. I like old fashioned names that are now unique. Forest fit the bill perfectly.
Katie's full name is Kaitlynn... only thing kinda different about it is, the spelling Kaitlynn....... I loved the name katie from the time I was a little girl, and wanted my name to be katie........ so, next best thing.... named my baby girl Katie........
My daughters name is Kiara (pronounced Key R uh) and I know there are others out there..unless you make a name up off the top of your head there will be others with that name but I don't personally know anyone else that named their child that so I don't think it will be an issue for her in school. There may be Ciaras (see air ah) but probably not Kiaras.
TZEITEL ~(ZY-TEL) ~ It's an old Yiddish name ~ Used as a character name in the play "West Side Story" and have heard it one other time on *Amazing Famlies* my Fd (who becomes my DD tomorrow) heard the name and said "Mommy I want that name for me" Ever since that day she has called herself that. She was 4 when she heard it, and when anyone called her C....... , she immediately corrected them. So with her adoption she will have a legal name change. She really wanted Ponygirl for her middle name!
When we picked out our son's name (Hayden) it was because I had a great Uncle who's middle name was Hayden and it was the only name that DH and I could both agree on. We had no idea that it was so similar to so many other names like Aiden, brayden, jayden, caiden, etc. that we are now hearing all the time. I have two new friends who also have boys named Hayden. I always hated that there were so many Christies when I was growing up and now my son will probably have to go through the same thing. :(
I still haven't met any other Stella's. But the name is not so uncommon that I don't think I will someday. Surprisingly I have met several Kai's!
My daughters name is Gweneth Annette and the baby we are expecting will be Alayna Marie. Not too weird but not too common either... just right
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I have met others on here with my daughter's name but never in person. I think my sister picked a very different name for her daughter and I LOVE it! It is Neysa (prounounced....knee--sa). I think it is very pretty but she does get called Lisa a lot if someone just goes by what they think others are saying.
Just_Clowning Dec. 16, 2008 at 10:39 AM