Dear Jennifer,
 
I have always been fascinated by name meanings, and have enjoyed using your site since my early teen years. Back then my favorite name was Aiden, but around 2008 the Aiden-craze hit and I quickly changed my favorite boy name to Elijah.
 
Elijah is also a family name on my husband’s side of the family tree; we both love it. It has a lot of meaning to our faith background, and we think it sounds fantastic with my husband’s Scott/Irish last name. But it seems that I have a problem with picking “winners.” Since I picked the name in 2009 it’s jumped from number 22 to 11 on the USA’s baby name census.
 
We don’t want our child to have the same name as every other boy in his class, and it seems like every young Christian couple is naming their son Elijah. Should we just skip the name we love and go with some of the other names we’ve considered like Callahan, Rordan, or Cashel?
 
Sincerely,
 
Bad Baby Name Luck

Dear BBNL,

Elijah is becoming popular, and Biblical names tend to stay “in style” longer than others. How about some alternatives, like Elias, Elliot or just plain Eli (one of my favorites)?

Cashel is a great alternative, also, as well as Dashiell!

Good luck and let me know what name you settle on.

Sincerely,

Jennifer

 

 

 

Headshot of Jennifer Moss

Jennifer Moss (she/her) is the founder of BabyNames.com, author of The Baby Names Workbook, and Producer of The Baby Names Podcast. Jennifer is widely regarded as the leading expert on popular baby name trends and the naming process, serving as the authoritative source on the subject for national and international media.

Jennifer entered the tech arena in the 80s as a software developer and database architect, and became a pioneer in the Internet industry. In addition to operating BabyNames.com, Jennifer owns a web development agency in central California.