Allyson sent me this letter, and I thought it was the sort of letter that might be VERY REASSURING, considering how VERY MANY letters we receive with parents worried that there will be “five in every class” of their favorite names:
Hi Swistle,
I’m not sure if this would be of interest to you, but I was given a copy of the class list at my kids’ daycare/preschool. So many of the emails you get have parents worried about using a certain name due to popularity. This list is pretty interesting- out of the 160 kids, there are only 13 names that are listed more than once, even considering alternate spellings. Of the repeats, 10 names are used twice, one name is used three times, and two names are used four times.
She went on to list WHICH names were the repeated ones, but she and I have agreed not to post those here because it seems as if it puts the focus on THOSE SPECIFIC NAMES. That is, it doesn’t matter which names were repeated; the point is that so few of them WERE repeated. I think in the anxious stage of baby-naming, if I’d seen that one of my favorites was used FOUR TIMES in one daycare/preschool, I’d think that name should be off the list; but actually it only means there is a coincidental pocket of that name in one school.
For example, the two names that were repeated four times each: you might expect those to be Top 10 names. But they were not! One is a Top 50 (but not Top 10) name, and the other is a Top 100 (but not Top 50) name. The name used three times is also a Top-50-but-not-Top-10 name. Two of the repeated names in the list are not even Top 100 names. Only ONE name on the list is a Top 10 name.
The point is that name statistics are national. No one can reassure anyone that there WON’T be a crazy classroom where there are five students with the same name. We can, however, offer statistic-unlikelihood comfort.
We can also offer the perhaps counter-intuitive comfort that there isn’t much that can be done about it: you can give your child the #993 name Cordelia, when you liked the #4 name Isabella better but didn’t want her to be “one of five in her class,” and then in her class there may be two Cordelias and no Isabellas. My brother has a name that was ranked well into the 200s for his birth year, and he was in school all the way through with another boy who had the same name with the same less-common spelling. My name was just barely out of the Top 50 for the year I was born, but there was only ONE classroom my entire school experience that had another Kristen/Kristin in it.
One reason I LOVE getting class lists is that they’re almost always surprising. Some years, there is no duplication at all. Other years, a class will have two Connors, two Williams, two Madisons and an Addison, and three Joeys—plus a Zoe, a Zoey, and a Chloe. Elizabeth had a class of the latter type last year, and she said that furthermore, both Connors had the same MIDDLE name, AND the same surname initial! (They solved it by having one go by Connor and the other go by his first and middle initials.)
I’m not sure exactly the kind of discussion I’m trying to start here, but I trust you to take it from here. I think it would be interesting to hear about Interesting Duplications (two Cordelias, for example), and about surprising NON-duplications (only one Emma, for example). Or we can talk generally about class lists. Or about the impossibility of avoiding duplication. Or about how different areas seem to have different concentrations of certain names, so that one school might not have ANYONE named Everly, while another school is simply BURSTING with them. Or if you have a class list nearby, you can count duplicates: not necessarily listing WHICH names are duplicates, but just how many ARE duplicated. Or you can discuss anything else the topic brings to mind.
I teach at a public middle school, and I have a total of 158 students. Last week, I suddenly realized that I have 3 students with the same name (all in different class periods). I so strongly associate the name with each of the kids that I didn’t realize there were three of them total! I did notice last year, however, when I had three kids with the same name in one class…
I find this topic to be SO interesting. My anecdotal evidence is that I have likewise found surprising duplication of less-popular names and less duplication of more-popular names within a school/grade.
For example, I know many Sophias, Ellas, and Olivias in my own social/family/acquaintance circles (upwards of three for each of those, though not all born in the same year), and these are all very popular names by the rankings. However, in my daughter’s preschool classes (during three years there), I knew only one Sophia, one Olivia, and no Ellas. There was duplication of names that were in the top 50, but one was only duplicated for a year when there were two girls with the name in the same class. In her current grade, there is 3-or-more duplication of one name that’s barely in the top 250 and one that’s only in the top 500 (with variant spellings only in the top 1000)! But for the top-ten names, there is almost no duplication. I tend to focus on the girl names, but reflecting on it, I would say the same is true for boy names in my experience.
In a way, this is frustrating because you’d want to see a neat distribution that follows the statistical popularity of a name, so that you could be relatively sure that choosing a name in the top 1000 would mean your child would be virtually guaranteed to be the only one in their grade or even school ever. But of course, you’d also have to control for all sorts of variables like geographic concentrations and the like.
This is my experience with the name Maya. I know a whole bunch of Mayas under 5. But they don’t live in the same cities or attend the same schools. And likely, each of them does not know many Mayas.
This is exactly my experience. My 2 year old has attended 2 different daycares, both of which have about 50 kids. In her current daycare, there are 2 Noahs, but one is 4 and one is 2. I think there are only two or three other top 20 boys name and no duplicates. Among the girls, I think about 5 or 6 top 20 names are represented, but none of them are duplicates. On the other hand, there happen to be 3 Stellas right now.
My daughter’s name is more popular in our state than nationally (currently 22 in our state) and has been rising since we named her. About the time she was born, I was super aware of the name and felt like it was everywhere, but since then it doesn’t seem as popular. Her first daycare had a preschool aged kid with the same name, but at her current daycare she’s the only one.
I have always been more worried about this with my daughter than my son. She has a top 50 name where as my son’s name has consistently ranked between 700 – 1000. I know it’s probably a silly thing to worry about, but I never had to worry about anyone having my name in school growing up. There was only one other person in the whole school, and that was not until high school. I always like the uniqueness of my name, and I guess I want the same for my daughter. Since her name is one syllable, and doesn’t really have a nickname per say, my solution was to nickname her first and middle initials. I’ve always like when initial nicknames especially repeating initials as her’s are. She know she can use it, but she does prefer to go by her full name at school, so I leave it up to her. So far though, it hasn’t been an issue, I did not receive a class list but I have only noticed one other girl in her grade with a variant name. I have noticed that she has a lot of older and timeless classic names in her class, especially on the boy’s side.
I went to elementary school with 3 – 4 Davids (one transferred out) in a grade of 30 kids. It was the 5th-ish (we’re in Canada) most popular name in my birth year, but that seems a little excessive.
My husband is a David and in our group of about 10 friends in college, three were Daves. I am now in a running group and although many of the participants are a decade or two older than my husband, the name Dave seems to be had by about 20% of the male runners.
As far as I know, they only names that are repeated in my son’s preschool are both classic names.
There are 2 boys with the same biblical classic name that is trending down, and really surprised me to hear on a baby.
There are 3 girls with a “royal” name. This name is top-50-but-not-top-10 category and is one I’m consider for a future girl (it is also my mom’s full name, but she goes by a shortened version, though not the currently popular shortened form).
I’m more surprised by the lack of 10-top names. Most are represented somewhere across the ages (6 weeks to 5 year-olds) but none are duplicated and a surprising number of them are missing completely!
Weird duplication- my little guy is two now, and when we went to library group, we ran into 3 boys named Angus. Not all in the same day, but for a while there would often be 2 of them, and the group was usually only 6-10 kids
My son has been in the same grade as two Camilles since he started kindergarten; of course, they’re the only two Camilles in the entire school, but they happen to be in the same grade and friendship circle. I always felt a little bad for those Camille moms, picking out a lovely, underused name and then having it reappear so close to home. For my other kids’ grades, the repeats have been more expected: Henry, Charlie, Lily, and lots of Isabella/Izzy/Bellas. I was a little surprised at two Graces. Yet for all these classic names, I don’t think we’ve ever met an Emily.
My younger daughter is Olivia. She was born in 2006. She has only ever encountered one other Olivia in all of her years of schooling/after school activities and that was at a gymnastics class. She’s never had an Olivia in her school classes. I knew how popular Olivia was when I named her and decided that I loved the name enough for her to be Olivia L. or Liv or Livie all the way through school if she encountered another Olivia, but she hasn’t.
My daughter’s name was 99 (with the most common spelling, which we didn’t use) on the SSA list the year she was born. She had not had another girl with the same name in class with her until this school year (7th grade) and she is only in choir with her and was on the cross country team. She has had another one with the same name, 1 year older, on the same soccer team, but that is it.
My son’s name was 256 on the SSA list the year he was born. We did not choose it because of that, but I honestly did not think he would ever run into another child with the same name in his class. Surprise! Last year he was one of 2. There were also 2 Alex’s and 2 Alexis’ in that class. The other interesting thing for that class was that there were 5 or 6 additional children, besides those previous 4, whose names also started with A. That poor teacher had name confusion, all the time!
When my daughter was in preschool in the class one year younger than hers there were either 3 Lucys and 2 Declans or maybe it was the other way around. That meant in a class of 18, almost a third of the kids were named either Lucy or Declan. A few years later there was a class with 3 Finns. Her class had 2 Theos and that name wasn’t even on the charts yet during their birth year (assuming it wasn’t a nickname for Theodore– I never asked). In her elementary school classrooms there have been a surprising number of Lilas and Leilas. That and Mayas.
I worried about this with my son, because I got out voted on his name. And while it totally fits him, I still have regrets. My girls names, while in the top 100, aren’t close enough to the top of the list. However my son is Alexander. He has yet to be in a class with another Alex. Now, he’s only in 2nd grade, but he’s been in daycare since 15 months old. My girls have had Alex’s in their classes, but he never has. It’s made me think that just because something is in the top ten doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll know a zillion of them. Unless you kid is Aiden. Ha.
Ha! My grandson is Aiden and in kindergarten and so far has been the only Aiden in his preschool classes and in his kindergarten class. And has not yet been on a T Ball team or soccer team with another Aiden! They knew it was popular but loved the name enough to use it anyway. And so far, no problems.
I have to LOL at your Aiden comment. My daughter (age 3) has 10 kids in her preschool class. One is named Aiden, one is named Kaiden (rhymes with Aiden), and two are named Owen. In such a tiny class, I wouldn’t expect there to be so much duplication!
I facilitate support groups for new parents and it’s always an interesting view into name pockets. My city tends towards antique classics or very very unusual names- not a lot of modern inventions. In one group I had three babies with the same classic Biblical boy name and another group had three babies with the same Royal English classic boys name. I think those parents just rolled with it, it’s clear that those are names that work well in our culture.
My son had two kids named Marion in his preschool so he came home telling me that Marion must be a very popular name.
Let me tell you my anecdote. :)
My name is BreeAnn and I was born in 1984. BreeAnn as I spell it is not in the top 1000 names. Brianne was the more popular spelling coming in at #293, and the other alternate spelling Breanne ranked #514. Between my grade, and the grade ahead of me there were 5 of us. 2 Briannes, 2 BreeAnns, and 1 Breanne. (Brianna/Breanna were also in the top 100 names, but I actually didn’t know any of those.)
On the other hand, my husband Andrew, also born in 1984, the #14 most popular name that year, was the only one in his class throughout elementary school.
This is a nice reminder that the name we’ve chosen for our daughter, Julia which ranked #86 last year doesn’t really mean one way or another that she’ll be unique in her school or that she’ll be one of many!
Do counties release baby name statistics? I think they should!
Oh, wouldn’t that be fun to get COUNTY name statistics?? I would love that!
My son’s name is just outside of the top 100 and I met another baby just a few weeks younger than him with the same name in my very small local baby wearing group. However, my son gets called his full name and this other baby gets called the nn form. I was surprised by the lack of repeats in his daycare.
I find this SO interesting, as well. But I think it comes back to the fact that a “popular” name is not what it once was. (See this post: http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2013/5/jacob-the-amazing-true-story-of-a-number-one-name) So although a name may be in the top 10, 50, etc. there is so much name diversification that it is less likely to find duplicates as much as we did in the past.
I think this is an especially important point when someone really loves a name and rules it out solely based on popularity.
I agree! As others have noted, sometimes it’s the less popular names that are duplicated in a class/school/group — and with so many parents looking for a more “unique” name, that’s not surprising. If you REALLY LOVE a certain name, even if it’s in the top 10, I’d advise going with it rather than using a second choice name for popularity concerns alone. I was one of SEVERAL Patricias — most called Pat or Patty — in my class. It never bothered me at all. On the other hand, my friend Rosalie didn’t think her name fit in and preferred the name she was called at home: Patty! (Her parents apparently had name regret.)
My youngest Felicity her home daycare consist of 9 kids…and two of them are named (with 2 different spellings) Hailey (4yrs old) /Hailie (1 year) but there you also have Kinley (4), Taylie(4)….
My olderst daughter Piper…she goes to school and there is 50kids max in the entire school…and Léa seems to be most popular there’s about one Léa (Leah) in almost every grade.
This is fascinating. In my son’s preschool of about 50 kids there’s one duplication of a top 10 girl name and one duplication of a top 100 boy name. And that’s it. My son has a classic name in the top 20 and even though it’s a popular name, it’s being given to fewer boys now than it was a decade ago when it was at a lower ranking.
I have experienced the varying geographic distributions first hand. My name (Heather) was really popular nationally in my birth year (1982), but even more popular in my region of Indiana. I was one of 3 Heathers in my girl scout troupe for example. As an adult working in this same community, I was recently on a 3 way call with 2 other Heathers at work.
However, when I lived in Texas after graduation, everyone treated my name like a novelty. One Mexican-American coworker thought it was so beautiful he wanted to give it to his daughter. Another coworker said, “Oh, like the movie Heathers!” I never met another Heather during the entire time I lived there.
Anyway, tastes and trends can be really local. Just because your Emma is one of 4 in her class now, doesn’t mean it will be that way her whole life.
Even within states, I think there will be weird little name pockets. My oldest has a name that was in the top 10 (ranked #10) in our state for the year he was born. He is now almost 13 and we have met exactly 3 boys with his name. 2 used a nickname (but not the same nickname) and only 1 used the full name like my son. None of these boys have been in class with my son (2 didn’t even attend the same school district). It’s really been a non-issue.
When my youngest was in daycare, there was a total of 4 boys names Miles in the infant and 2-year old rooms. Miles does not even rank in the top 100 in our state for the years these boys were born. It was just a weird coincidence. My youngest left that daycare shortly before he turned 4. He is now in 2nd grade and we have not encountered any other boys named Miles. None of the boys he was in daycare with have turned up again either (though we continue to live in the same city).
FWIW, my youngest has a name that ranked around 50 nationwide and in our state for the year he was born. We’ve never met another boy with his name.
So funny! My oldest son is named Miles. It was in the top 100 for our state when he was born. We’ve met one other boy named Miles at his elementary school and he played soccer with another Miles, but never quite that high of a frequency :)
My son’s name, Conrad,has consistently been in the 600-800 range in the SSA lists for decades. I thought we would never meet another one, but there’s a little boy with the same name in our neighborhood who is just a couple of months older and will be in the same grade at the local elementary school when they start Kindergarten. Is it bad that I’ve considerd moving?
I’m a late 80’s baby, and I went to a small school kindergarten through eighth grade, with each grade having roughly 50 kids. I thought it was crazy the number of repeats we had in such a small group:
– 3 Ryans
– 2 Michaels (one went by Mike)
– 3 Jennifers (one Jen, one Jenny, and one Jennie)
– 1 Johnny and 1 Jonathan
– 1 Samuel and 1 Samantha (both went by Sam)
I agree with previous posters that I know of lots of younger kids with the same name (James, Samuel, Isaac, Mason, Olivia, Lillian, and Madeline come to mind right away) but none of them live near each other and/or don’t travel in the same circles. I think social media makes the problem seem worse as well; there is no way that I’d know about most of these kids if it weren’t for Facebook.
I know we aren’t focusing on specific names in this post, but this reminds me so much of when we encountered a second Callum at swimming, same age as ours: https://twitter.com/duwaxloolu/status/576783899633700864. There were only 250 Callums born in the entire U.S. in 2011 (it was number 845 that year, and is currently number 729), and two of them were in the same tiny (eight-kid) swim class.
That is unexpected!
This all makes perfect sense to me. As an Emily born in the 80s, you’d think I’d have met dozens and dozens of Emilys, but I actually never had another Emily in any class of mine until college.
Meanwhile, in my sons daycare room of 18 kids (I know, small sample size) the ONLY repeating name is a girl name between #100-150! Not a single top 10 name from his birth year is in there, on either male or female side.
I’m also a 1980’s Emily and have always marveled at its popularity, despite me knowing very few (of my own age…and especially younger ones when it was ranked no. 1). In grade school (1-8), there was only one other, who happened to be my good friend. However, out of 90 kids in each grade, there were 4 Amy’s and 3 Sara(h)’s. For boys, there were 3 Jacob’s and 4 Matt’s.
Someone mentioned only knowing names because of Facebook…I must admit the name nerd in me keeps a running list of birth announcements on fb simply to track popularity…lots of Lily’s/Ellie’s and Lucas’ for my peers.
I’m an ’80s Emily and man, they were everywhere. There was only one other in my grade, but various girls in younger grades. I was once in a choir of twelve girls with three other Emilys, an Emilie and an Amelie.
This is why I love statistics! My name was outside the top 100 the year I was born and trended up following that. However there were 5(!) of us in my high school graduating class and none in any other class. I now work at the school I attended and although Brooke peaked way later, there is currently only 1 in the entire school when it should be more popular. I shy away from names in the top 100 on my personal list but I know how popularity is so regional it may not even matter. Pick a name you love.
The comments section of this post might be the perfect place for me to air a question that’s been bothering me this week–since we’re just babbling generally, and this question probably wouldn’t be worthy of its own letter to Swistle. Excited to hear anyone’s thoughts!!
I’m not married, no kids yet (and probably not for about 2 years at earliest), but I have had one solitary boy’s name on my list for about the past 15 years. This name really feels like My Son’s Name. It’s a reference to something that’s meaningful to me, I love the way it sounds, it’s pleasingly uncommon but of a style that isn’t likely to offend anyone, and has just been the ONLY name on my boy list since I was in high school. For this reason, I have never shared it with anyone but boyfriends–and what do you know, my current boyfriend (likely future husband) likes it enough to go along with it (it’s the name we currently use to refer to our hypothetical future son).
One of my best friends (we grew up together, are neighbors, and are basically like family to each other) learned last week that the baby she’s expecting is a boy (I will be the godmother!), and it looks like she and her husband are going to use a name that overlaps SIGNIFICANTLY with my one-and-only boy name in sound, style, and general feeling. Even though, in my opinion, the two names are very different–one is an extremely familiar noun and often a surname but not often a first name, so it feels somewhat timeless; the other is more edgy and sounds like it’s supposed to seem that way–I think most people, encountering the two boys as a pair, would assume that the one born second had been intentionally named in the style of the other. Though none of these are the names, think along the lines of the following pairs:
Stetson/Stanton
Flynn/Quinn
Stone/Sterling
Milo/Arlo
See what I mean? If my friend uses the first name in any of those pairs, then even though “my” name is really different in lots of ways, people are likely to always react to it as though it intentionally copies.
Okay, okay, I KNOW it doesn’t matter even if I DO intentionally copy; and I know I would know I HADN’T copied–and I also know the boys (if I even have a boy) are not likely to spend their entire lives (or really much time beyond babyhood) bound together, but I’m still pretty devastated here. When she told me they’d hit on their new frontrunner name, I told her (after years of keeping it secret) the name I like, because I didn’t want them to edge even closer to actually using it. She laughed it off and said that’s great because the boys can just be best friends with nearly matching names. I thought, Easy for you to say! You’re the one who gets to use the name first, and I’m the one who will appear to have stolen or been influenced by your choice.
I just need a pep talk to not feel disappointed by this news. I’m otherwise very excited for her, and realize I have no guarantee of ever having occasion to use the name anyway.
@Shannon, If your friend doesn’t think anything of it, the only real issue here is what other people would think. As Swistle always reminds us, most people don’t really care what you name your kid, for more than a moment or two. I think the people who think anything of it, would just be like “Oh yeah, best friends with similar taste!” And based on your examples, I think they’re different enough. If you were asking about naming twins Flynn and Quinn this would be a different conversation, but for friends/neighbors I think it’s totally fine. Even if they were cousins, I think it’d be fine! And kids love that kind of stuff. I know (adult) cousins Chloe & Zoe and they always loved it.
For the other part of this discussion — I’m an 80s Molly (ranking 99 that year, I think) and I never had another one in school with me until college, when there was one other. When I moved to Maine of course, the Mollys all came out of the woodwork — and they were nearly all farmer’s daughters! It does seem like a good farmer’s daughter name, haha! (I am not a farmer’s daughter. Not even close).
Hey Shannon!
Sorry to hear you are disappointed! If you haven’t bought the 3rd edition of the Baby Name Wizard, get a copy and read Laura Wattenberg’s explanation “Personal Taste isn’t so Personal” on page 3. Or look at the book on amazon.com and search for “Keaton,” the name that illustrates her story. I think her explanation of tastes in names as a community experience is right on the money :)
Lol, good suggestion! I read it and it was bumblingly relevant. Though it doesn’t make me feel better at the moment, I’m sure it will eventually–and it’ll definitely be good to keep in mind if they stick with the name they’re planning! I can always demote the name to middle-name position, I suppose. (Disappointing, but at least then I’d be able to hold onto it without ever having to experience embarrassment over it.)
And your ideal name is still an important symbol of how you envision your life! You don’the have to give up the feeling it gives you!
I would still use the name you love. I see no reason to be embarrassed about the similarity and I expect it will be a non-issue in the long run. Most likely your kids aren’t going to be best friends as they will be at least two years apart and they won’t be in the same grade,.
Ilook at your examples and I the only one I might even think about the similarity is Stetson/Stanton. While Flynn and Quinn rhyme, they have a completely different feel to me. Quinn seems mor timeless while Flynn seems more trendy. The only thing I see in common with Stone and Sterling is the beginning sound and the only similarity with Arlo and Milo is the end sound. Among friends I know, there are children (different families) with the following pairs of names and the issue of “copying” has never come up.
Ella/Emma
Molly/Maya
Ava/Olivia
Jack/Jackson
Cora/Nora
I guess you have to decide what you would regret more in the long run – giving up the name you love or te embarrassment that a few people might think you copied the name.
Yes! Totally agree with the comment above. Sounds in names are so similar these days that I’d never think you copied, I’d just think ‘oh the ‘s’ sound is really popular right now’ (or whatever sound/feeling the pair of names give me.
I think you absolutely should still use the name if, when the time comes, you also have a boy and still love the name. Although the name pairs you gave are similar, I wouldn’t bat an eye if two best friends had sons with similar names like those. Even if they were the EXACT same name, I think it would be cute, passingly notable, and not at all embarrassing, because each of your sons would be unique individuals even with the same name, and you’d each have different stories about how you arrived at your sons’ names. People would think about it for one second and then move on. It’s important to note that they would also obviously be born in different years — potentially quite a few years apart — so by then any similarity will seem even less significant.
I think, as Swistle often notes in her responses to readers, that names in the abstract are often entirely different than names associated with actual children. In the abstract, it’s easy to focus on the name itself, its origins, the way it sounds, and our emotional attachment to it. With an actual child, it becomes representative of who that child is and what they mean to us. So much of the other stuff, while it’s still in the background, fades away at that point.
Hi Shannon,
I agree with what the others have said – especially Lawyerish. The pairs you gave don’t seem that similar to me – I don’t think your favourite name is ruled out at all (and because you spoke up to your friend, you know she is cool with it and she’ll never think she influenced you). I know you are disappointed NOW but I suspect when it comes time to name a real baby, things will have changed in your circumstances and mindset, to the point where you can either joyfully give your baby the name you’ve always loved OR you will have found something you love even more. No denying it is HARD right now but I strongly suspect it will all be okay in the end. And…you may end up with girls!
I know you all are right–I’m sure I’ll feel differently about things by the time this is even relevant. Still, what a bummer!
I guess what I didn’t articulate properly above is that even though the names really are very different (as in the examples above), their superficial similarities made me realize that many people are going to regard mine as being in a category that includes the other one, which I hadn’t thought of before. I just wish I could go back to the carefree days before this happened! :)
We’ll see how it goes. They might not use the name, I might never have a kid, I might never have a son, my future husband might veto the name I like at the last minute anyway, etc.
This is really a “right now” thing. Your friend may change her mind, and not use the name. Her son will be born, and the baby in front of you will inhabit both his name and your heart, and by the time you actually have a son – which is a big if right now, you may be destined for daughters- friend’s baby will be distinctly different than your baby.
I always, always, had a picture in my head of 2 kids, one of each. That was my family, right there. I ended up needing help to get my first, and although we didn’t find out the sex, I was distinctly surprised to find she was a girl. When I miraculously got pregnant with my second, I steeled myself to not be disappointed by the news she was a girl, and honestly, what I felt was relief. She was healthy, I knew how to “do” baby girls, and I had all these handled owns. Plus, sisters! Hurray! I still get a pang when I think of my boy’s name, but that’s why I com here.
So be gentle . Things will be just fine. Even dandy.
my son went to a grade school with 50 kids in his grade. 24 girls and 26 boys. There were 5 girls named Emily out of 24! They had their own basketball team! Emily B, Emily J, Emily Z, Emily D and Emily O.
I’m an Elizabeth born in the late 70s. Top ten name. Never shared a classroom with any other Elizabeth’s or variations of it all through school. Then went to college, joined a sorority and 10 out of 100 of us were Elizabeth or Liz.
A few good ones: My older daughter had 16 kids in her 2010-1 pre-K class with a Coby (#828 for his birth year) and a Kobi (not ranked). My younger daughter had 5 girls in her 2014-5 pre-K class – she was one of two Zoes. I worked in the office of a tutoring company for a few years. Two of three of us in the office were named Robin but out of our 300+ tutors, not a single Robin. Names are crazy!
I wrote here for help naming my daughter in 2010. I loved the name Chloe, but feared it was becoming too popular to use (I used it anyway). We named our firstborn son Kellen, and loved that it was so unique and wanted a similarly unique name for her. Shortly after she was born I started sending both her and Kellen to an in home daycare with 3 other children. One of whom was a boy named Kellen. This year in Chloe’s preschool class there is another Chloe, and, another Kellen.
My name is Gretchen and my sister’s name is Emily, and we were 70s/80s kids. As kids, I was often jealous that she had such a popular name because she could easily buy personalized stickers and such. However, I don’t think she actually encountered other Emilys in her classes/social circles until high school and college. As different as my name seemed, I had a good friend named Gretchen who was one year ahead of me in school, and we were in many activities together, so ironically I ended up being the Gretchen LastInitial. But we knew no other Gretchens. We used to get in arguments with people who insisted they knew one of us; we realized they were thinking of the other Gretchen, etc. I mean, WHAT WERE THE ODDS?! :)
My husband has a very common name and is a Jr, so with two sons there was a lot of discussion about having a “Husband III.” I ultimately left the decision to him but STRONGLY preferred different names for this generation, and that’s what we went with (older son’s middle name is husband’s first; younger son’s middle name is husband’s middle name). Then we had a girl, who ended up being hardest of all to name. We went with an old-timey first name which I loved but had to talk husband into (and which, frankly, I know a lot of our friends and family probably thought was odd or at least old-fashioned), a quirky middle name which had been my husband’s girl suggestion every time, and a nickname that wasn’t the most intuitive but of course is now so completely her.
Each of my sons goes to school with someone who has his brother’s name, which makes for some funny dinnertime stories as we try to figure out if they’re talking about siblings or classmates. The kicker was learning that one of my younger son’s classmates ALSO has a baby sister with our daughter’s name – so they are likely to be in the same class if we all stay at the same school. So…full circle: my daughter with the least statistically popular name of the bunch will end up using her last initial.
The biggest surprise is that now, seven years into this baby-naming gig, learning about the second baby girl M. just made me laugh. I know I would have been pretty bummed about it back before my oldest was born!
Oh, This reminds me that I went to elementary school with one other girl with my name. Her older sister has the same name as my younger sister! (The sisters name was ranked about 50-100 and falling in popularity. Our name was 144 our year, and later rose to the top 20)
I’m very interested in the other Emilys here, as I’ve always been curious about the “Emily phenomenon”. The name was #1 for over ten years? and has been top ten since 1989. And yet… I know very few who share the name. There was 1 other in my high school graduating class of 750, and I’ve come to meet a handful in my twenties.
The others here are 80’s babies, and I’m 1990, so obviously we were born just before the big peak in popularity, but I don’t think it is entirely explained away by that, since the name was already climbing at that point. Perhaps it is because we don’t meet many people 6-10 years younger than us?
Love this topic and all the comments!
I know so many Emilys! I can think of six who were born in the 80s and one who was born in 1979. And, off the top of my head, two in the preschool age range. It’s interesting, though, that I have worked with hundreds of kids born in the 90s and can’t think of any who are in that age range…
We have a boy with a classic name and classic nickname (Ricky) and while we know several men named Richard he tends to be the only Ricky in his grade or school and he goes to a fairly large school. He’s in the 6th grade. His sister has a more unusual name (Shay) but not unheard of and the only other Shay’s we have met have been adults so she is the only one in her school too. On the other hand they have a cousin specifically named to be unusual and unique and there are at least two in every class and team (Kaden) They were among the millions who picked it in the year or two before it hit the top 10.
Although I’m referred to as Kim, 99 percent of the time, my first name is Kimberley.
Throughout primary (elementary) school I was the only Kimberley, not only in my class of 30, but in the entire school of about 300.
In high school, of about 800, there were only two of us! We were never in the same class, and didn’t hang out in the same social circles, so there was never any confusion.
Since leaving school in the late 80’s, MANY years ago I know, I have only ever known one other.
I do prefer being called Kim, much to my Mother’s disgust, and funnily enough I haven’t run into many of those either!
Hey there, fellow Kimberley-goes-by-Kim! I’ve known lots of Kimberelys, but I think you’re the second, maybe third, with the extra e at end. It’s so much more elegant, is it not?
Forgot to mention my children! Ha!
My Son and Daughter, both now young adults, never encountered another with their name throughout their entire school years.
My Son has a name in the 400’s and my Daughter’s name isn’t even in the too 1,000, not here in Australia anyway! Her name is much more common in the US!
Since leaving school and entering the workforce my Son has met at least four or five others with his name whereas my Daughter has still not run into another with her’s. She loves being the only one around and jokes that she only needs to go by her first name like Madonna, Beyoncé or Adele!
Oh, missed that you were in Oz. I’m guessing the -ey spelling is more common there, like a place name?
One of the preschool classes at the school my children attend has ten students- four of them are named Evelyn, and all four are called Evie. I knew Evelyn was popular (I have several friends with Evelyns), but I was dumbfounded by four out of ten with the same name and same nickname.
Wow, that is crazy! I would be upset if that happened to our family!
In my sons preschool class of twenty there are two Jacks and two Bellas (and one Ella). Not sure how surprising that is or not.
Interestingly enough, we’ve come across more boys named the same as my top 400 named son vs my top 50 named son.
My son is in Kindergarten and has a Brayden, Zayden & Kaden in his class. My daughter is in preschool and has an Aiden & Jayden in her class. Also, both my son & daughter have a lot of K names in both their classes, and quite a few C names.
I graduated about 10 years ago. My freshman year of high school I transferred schools & in my ‘new’ school (class of 100 kids) we had 5 Nick/Nicholas’. My former school (class of 50) we didn’t have one. I thought that was crazy. The schools were also only 20 miles apart.
*forgot to add. Both my son & daughter only have 20 kids in their class.
I teach kindergarten and making our class lists this past year involved a lot of “how many rhyming names can there be here?!”. It was definitely the year of the -aiden/-ayden names starting kinder!!!
My son’s name is ranked in the 100’s. He was one of four children with that name in his preschool of 80, and one of three in his 15 ish child gym class. Regional popularity is so different from national – or even state – statistics!
Yep, you can’t really tell. I have friends who kept a complete lid on their unique baby name, and it was unusual. But I know 3 boys under 6 with the name now. And while I do know multiple Jacksons and Ava’s and Emma’s and Charlotte’s and Aidens ( oh, and look at the autocorrect, how weird) they are all different ages/locations.
Use your favorite name, it will all be ok.
My son is one of three Mateos (Mateo was 109 in his birth year) in his 70 child preschool, and one of two in his 18 child class. Mateo is the only name that is repeated three times in the school. It is also surprising because it is a Jewish preschool and our Mateo is the only one with a hispanic heritage. All three Mateos also go almost exclusively by the nickname Teo, so he has taken to introducing himself as “Teo LASTNAME” all of the time (which I think is pretty cute for a two-year old).
Also, I was one of four Alisons/Allisons (2 spelled Alison (98 on SSA and 2 spelled Allison (47 on SSA)) on my softball team growing up, and we all went by Ali. We often all played in the infield so we had an all “Ali” infield!
Another brief anecdote about duplicates…my grandmother was named Margaret Joan (though she went by Jo-Ann). I’ve always considered naming a future daughter Margaret Celeste nn Maggie (a combo of both my grandmothers…the other Mary Celestine, who goes by Sally). In 25 years, I had only met one person my age named Margret. Then I went to grad school…and all the Maggie’s converged there. They were all originally from completely different areas…MN, KY, and even Poland (short for Malgorzata). But now I can’t imagine naming my daughter Maggie because it represents these other people’s names. The name now has a face, lol!
This really interests me too.
A couple of years ago my son was in Kindergarten and one of the few names (it might have been the only name, at least for the boys) that repeated was Howard! I never would have guessed that. One went by Howie, so it wasn’t such a big deal and then one of them moved away. But very unexpected. Last year there were two Caydens in his class. The teacher called them “Kaeden with a K and Cayden with a C”.
In my daughter’s grade there is a boy Peyton and a girl Peyton, although I think one of them is Payton, but I don’t know which. One of the other few names that duplicates is Jacqueline, but they both have different spellings. I think another one was Brandon. There was one year that there were 3 Ethans in the grade and they were all in the same class, rather than being split amongst the 3 classes.
In my son’s 4K preschool class there are only 10 kids and no duplicates, but it’s the same sounds that do duplicate. There is Kinley, Kenny & Kendra! Also unexpected. My name-nerd-worry for Kindergarten next year is that my George will be in with a Georgia.
My daughter’s name was the mid 300s when we picked it. She’s never had to share her name until this year in 5th grade. She’s in a split class with some 6th graders too and one of them has a longer name than hers but it shortens to Rosie and my daughter is Rose. So the teacher was calling her “Rose B”, but that sounded so much like “Rosie” that it didn’t help. Somehow Rosie wasn’t being called “Rosie A”. It’s also slightly unfortunate when it’s “A” and “B” for the initials, as it sounds like my daughter is the second, lesser version. Although I think it’s just me that thinks of that, probably not her.
There’s one particular name that’s extremely common among the daughters of my friends, to an absurd degree. Every other Facebook post on my feed is about some Eleanor or another (but with many, many different spellings!) But these families live all over the US, the kids range in age from teenagers to babies, and none of them know each other.
I also know a baby with the same micro-regionally-popular name as an adult woman from the same city. These two happen to have the same first and last names (the adult by marriage). These two families don’t know each other either. I never met anyone else with this name after I moved out of that city, but in the city the name was common enough that there was at least one in every school I attended.
My sister’s name was in the 600s the year of her birth, and there was a second [Hername] in her preschool. No one in our family ever met a third girl with that name until last year when one of my students had it (I teach adults – the girl in question was about 5 years younger than my sister. Different state.)
At a summer program I attended during highschool, there were 75 kids (all in the same grade) and no duplications except for 2 girls #677 and 2 girls #162. The whole Jessica/ Sarah/ Mike category was represented in the group, but no duplicates of the more popular names. I was surprised that there weren’t any boy duplications. It was like every boy name I’d ever heard was represented, to cover so many boys.
One kids preschool class of 25 kids has 7 girls (28% girls is weird in itself). There are two Elianas, last name initials B and D, and an Arianna. Very hard to tell which one the kids are talking about with their toddler lisps.
10% of the girls in my graduating high school class was a Jennifer. Despite decades of Jennifer being a top 5 name I have never worked with one.
My name is Michelle (#11 in the year I was born) and my brother’s name is Gary (#76 in the year he was born). My mom had a first cousin who she lost touch with for over 20 years, and when they reconnected, she found out that he also named his kids Michelle and Gary. We jokingly refer to them as “the other Michelle and Gary.” I brought my mom to a work event as my guest for a summer job I had in college, and we ran into the other Michelle. It turns out that her husband was my boss. Small world!
I asked my son about his first grade class, and he said there are two boys named Davis. It was not in the top 100 for our state in either year they would have been born. My most interesting experience with this, though, was that three years ago we rented a condo in a condo/townhouse development with about 300 units. There were three little boys named Crew! (Barely in the top 1000 that year, and the boys were all named without knowing the others).
This is SO fascinating!
When we chose our daughter’s name in 2012, it was in the mid-100s. Of course, now it is in the 70s. Shortly after her birth, we began meeting all these other little girls with her name. But… so far, in nearly 3 years, she has been the only one with her name in her entire preschool. (And she has been at two preschools so far.)
Also: her name has a very easy nickname that is a VERY popular nickname for a VERY popular name (Top 20 for the past 10 years). But in nearly 3 years, she has only met one other little girl with that nickname.
Oh! Something else interesting: In her current preschool class, seven of the top 10 baby girl names are represented in her classes. But there is only one of each of them.
It is so interesting! I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’ve recently noticed a little micro-trend at my daughter’s school. A small school of 200 students, and she is friends with 2 Jaylins (spelled differently, not sure of the second spelling) and a Jaela. Seemed like unusual names to be repeated! I wasn’t as surprised with the repeated Isabellas. I also know two people in the same area with Ethan and Eden sibling sets.
Over the past few years, I have come across a TON of students named Daniel. I have two right now. I don’t think I’ve had a class in five years that didn’t have at least one Daniel. Often I’ve had two, and they aren’t even the only two in the grade just in my room. The past two years we saw a lot of Sophia.
Also, I’ve always had the majority of my students have names starting with A. Very popular name letter!
My daughter’s kindergarten is about 20% A-initials, including an Ava and Avier, and an Alex and Axel. No duplicates, though.
Oh, I remembered another one! Circa 2000, I was in a driver’s ed class of 14 students in which three of the boys were named Clint. There were no Clints in my school or anywhere I knew of in my town, but this driver’s ed class was in the next town over, which was known for its trucks-and-country-music culture.
Definitely a crapshoot. My name was somewhere in the 400s for the year I was born, but had another Hope in my preschool. From then on I think I’ve only ever met 2 other Hopes in my whole life. So I did not care one bit about popularity with my kids. My oldest’ name was #9 the year of her birth and there is not another one in her whole school. She was in a dance class with a girl with her same name last year, but she’s the only one we’ve come across. My youngest’s name was #22 the year of her birth and if I’d put her in preschool this year, she would have been 1 of 3 with that name in her class.
I have two other weird duplicate stories. My mother and stepfather met in their 60’s, and they both have sons named Scot(t) Michael. And I know 2 Stacy C.’s who gave birth to Ryan’s 2 months apart. My little called them girl-Ryan and boy-Ryan for a long time.
I am Stephanie born in 1983 when the name was #8. In my elementary school class of probably 60 kids, there was only one other Stephanie. In adulthood, I’ve encountered a handful of Stephanie’s around my age and one who is in her 50s! I’ve actually never felt like I had a super popular name (not like Jennifer, Jessica, Ashley, Sarah, Katie, etc).
At one point in time, my husband and his two best buddies from college were all simultaneously dating Stephanie’s (only two of those turned into wives – I’m one of them!).
We chose my DD’s name because it was ranked as less popular than my husband’s favorite: there were 86 girls born with DD’s name in our state that year, vs. 400+ for DH’s first choice, Katherine (not including its alternate spellings).
When DD was 2, a new family moved in next door, with a little girl just her age – and with DD’s first name. Now I yell “DD last initial” out the back door to call her in.
We have since run into so many others that we are convinced that all 86 girls with her name live in our town :)
In my kids’ schools, the only duplicate names I’ve encountered are Joshua, Noah, Elijah, Jaden, Amira, and Madison. With the exception of Joshua and Noah, all of the repeats were in mixed-age classes in preschool.
86 children were given the same name as one of my children in his birth year. We happened to meet another one of them at a birthday party a few miles from our house.
I went to school with 5 or 6 Ryans in our grade.
We also briefly had 4 Annas and an Ana.
Just a hiccup.