Hi,

I am currently pregnant and I don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but I already have a two-year-old named Owen. It seems that I am drawn to some of the more popular names, like Olivia or Henry. I do not want to meet other children and find out every other kid has the same name as my child. I know that there are a lot of names now as people create names and bring back older names, but I am still worried. What would your advice be? My friend told me she was on a flight with three infant girls that all turned out to be named Sophia. I just don’t want that to happen.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Jackie

Hi Jackie,
Well, if you are drawn to popular names, you’re going to meet other children of the same age group with that name. You can’t copyright a name and you can’t stop others from using it.

If you want to avoid trending names (or soon to be trending), take a look at the BabyNames.com Popularity Lists. It is curated from our members’ favorite name lists and has actually predicted the birth name trends from 1-3 years!

Another way to see if a name is going to hit the top of the charts is to see how fast it’s rising. You may have heard the term “Number one with a bullet” from the music industry. It means that the song rose FAST on the charts! If you see a name was not on the charts one year, and #50 the next, and #12 the next, most likely it will keep rising.

Some girls’ names that are rising fast are: Elsa, Annabelle, Ivy, Hazel and Piper.

Hope that helps!
Sincerely,
Jennifer