When I was pregnant with my daughter, our first child, we didn't agonize for months over what to name her.
In fact, we had her name picked out before we even knew she was a girl - Lucy Jane. When I worked as a reporter in Dalton, I interviewed a girl named Lucy, and it really stuck with me because that was the first time I'd encountered anyone with that name. And, since then, I hadn't really heard of any other Lucys, with the exception of one girl in our playgroup. To me, it was the perfect name - classic, something that will be able to grow with her, and not very common. And, her middle name, Jane, after my grandmother Bobbie Jane, made it flow perfectly.
This morning, when I saw a list of names expected to skyrocket in popularity in the future, I was a little sad to see Lucy on the list. I don't want her to have a popular name. I don't want her to be one of several Lucys in her class in school.
What also surprised me was that many of the classic names for girls are predicted to become more popular in the coming years, names like Penelope (which my cousin just named her new baby) and Scarlett. On a list of names on the rise are Alice, which I think is another classic, beautiful name; Isla, which really surprises me because I know only one person who named her daughter that and I think it's really unique; Olive, another classic though not one of my favorites; and Vera.
What did you name your child? Did you see it on the list of names expected to skyrocket? Does the popularity of a name even matter to you? Tell us in the comments!
On the boy's side, Brantley and Iker were listed as the fastest growing names in 2011, neither of which I thought would be popular. Also on the list of boys names sure to skyrocket and on the rise are Declan, Grayson, Asher, Atticus, Archer, Levi and Henry. The last two really don't surprise me as I've been hearing those more and more.
We hope to have baby No. 2 in the next couple of years and, yes, we already have names picked out. We love family names, and our name for a boy is a compliation of our grandparents' last names. Our pick for a girl goes well with Lucy and hasn't made the top 1,000 on the Social Security Administration's list of popular names since 1992. And, even then, it was ranked at 989.
At the end of the day, though, does popularity really matter? It's the name that you like that really counts.
My younger son, Marshall, is named after my wife's grandfather. Again, we didn't necessarily take the popularity (or unpopularity) of the name into consideration--the name itself just seemed a good fit and a nice nod to a loved family member. So, even though my wife and I didn't set out to give our boys rare names, we are happily pleased that their names aren't too popular but aren't too zany, either. Furthermore, it's fun when we introduce our boys and hear remarks like, "Those are some really strong names" or "That boy's name [Harrison Tyler] sounds presidential!"
The best names are the ones that are right for the family, not the ones people pick off a popularity list.