Rant 1: So on the nameberry forums I saw a post that really relates to me. So many of the members are really into names that I can’t imagine on a baby such as Maude or Persephone. And I would prefer to name my daughter Madison to Maude or Ava to Agatha. I think of Agatha, Maude, Beatrice and Penelope in the same way as I think of Gladys and Bertha names that don’t need to come back for a long long time.
Rant 2: What is wrong with popular names? You know why Lily’s popular because it’s so pretty, same with Ruby, Emily, Jessica and Sophie. I have a top 100 name and guess what: I have only ever met one other and her name was spelt Ebonee. My name is like another Emily, I actually know an Emily Ann with the same last name as me and I know she has a brother named James, she is more likely to meet another person with the exact same name as her first, last and middle then I am to share my name with 3 others in a class. Or if a name is only top 50 like Molly (number 50 in Australia) what are the chances that there will be so many, the number 1 name Lily gets boosted from all the variant spellings and the fact it is also a nickname. Popularity does not ruin a childs life.
Rant 3: I can’t stand nicknames as first names. Names like Bella and Ellie are just too short and cutesy for my liking BUT I can stand some such as Alfie and Archie due to the fact that Alfred and Archibald just seem too heavy for a child, adult or granddad. I know sisters of Lexi Rose and Cleo Rayne personally I would prefer Alexandra and Clementine but that could just be me being all name-nerdy, my mum prefers Lexi-Rose. I personally believe hyphens work well there as it makes the nickname seem more mature without the formal name.
Rant 4: I also can’t stand illogical nicknames such as Daisy for Margaret and Pippa for Ophelia or Penelope. The only one I can stand is Libby for Isabelle (and variant spellings) and Elizabeth. Personally if you can’t see the link to the nickname logically then there is way too much explaining to do. Lets say you use the name Isaac and use the nickname Ziggy which I saw on a website as a nickname for Isaac, how many people are going to see that connection, I still don’t know how they are connected even though I call my brother Ziggy a lot of the time.
Rant 5 (hopefully this is it): Names like Anne, Grace or Rose being used in the middle. My middle names Anne it is not a filler it’s my mums middle, my grandma’s 1st middle (she has 3) and my great grandma’s name is Annie. I was advised against using Rose as a middle because it is used so often, like I said in rant 2 it is popular for a reason we shouldn’t hate it for the fact that people like the way it sounds with so many other names. For example the commonly regarded “fillers” are Anne, Rose, Jane, Jean, Marie, May, Elizabeth, Lee, Lynn and to an extent Nicole. For short one and two syllable names Elizabeth works such as Eve Elizabeth. For names of one and three or more syllables Marie and Nicole work such as Stephanie Nicole and Annabelle Marie. While the others work with pretty much every name.
babynameobsessed 
Is this the Namberry (blog) post that you meant? The author was in her twenties, so it’s not surprising you would relate to it. http://nameberry.com/blog/confessions-of-a-name-heretic-or-in-defense-of-jayden
I have to admit I get annoyed by baby name folk who claim that Marie is a filler name, while Lark or Rain isn’t. If Marie is in honour of her grandmother, how is that less meaningful than some random vocabulary word? Of course, if your baby was born on a rainy day, or just as a lark flew overhead or something, then it’s equally as meaningful as Marie – but not MORE meaningful.
And people are WAY too freaked-out by name popularity. My name was in the Top 100 when I was born (still is actually), and I have never gone to school or worked with anyone else named Anna. I’ve probably met only a handful of people with the same name, although I do see it quite often in the papers, or people say, “I know someone called that”.
Yes It was. I know someone whose middle is Rayne because they thought she brought Rain when she wasn’t meant to. There was also a forum post http://nameberry.com/nametalk/threads/110396-Sometime-I-feel-I-don-t-belong-on-Nameberry, that also related to me.
I know what you mean about name popularity. When the time comes, I’ll probably pick something not in the top 100, mainly because my husband and I are in to scifi and fantasy, so just like some more unusual names. But in the year I was born, my name was #85, and I don’t often run into many others (possibly helped because I grew up in country towns!). And because I have a unisex name, I’ve probably met as many boys with my name as I have girls with my name, which hasn’t caused me any psychological damage 🙂
I also love Ruby & Lily, and am not so much a fan of Maude & Agatha.I disagree about Penelope and Persephone though. Maybe that’s because I have a friend named Penelope (she goes almost exclusively by Penny). I’ve also seen a little girl called Persephone on a “reality” show on the ABC about a family who lived as the old Australian Pioneers did for a year a few years back, and it was quite charming. I guess your perceptions change when you see them working in “real life”.
Great post 🙂
Thankyou 🙂
I share quite a few of your name rants, maybe with the exception of number 2. There is, of course, nothing wrong with a popular name (one of my very favourites is in the top 20 in England&Wales). Like you said, they are popular for a reason. But, because I work in a school, I hear the same names over and over again. It gets repetitive and frustrating. If I call Olivia out in a classroom, I will have three heads turn. Plus in the admin side of things, everything gets so confusing. I must confess, I will usually remember a Tiernie or a Jessamine so much better than I will remember a Jack or Lily. There’s so many of them that it is hard to keep them all straight in my mind. I definitely don’t think a popular name ruins a child’s life, but, like a very unusual name, it too has its drawbacks.
I agree with the nickname as first names. I tend to like a formal name to be the given name, then you can go crazy with the nicknames. Although I can understand why someone would go directly for a nickname. They might want their Andrew to only be known as Drew, but if they named him Andrew people would just call him Andy. Still, it’s not for me. Not a trend I’m fond of.
And I completely agree with you about number 5. Jane, Ann(e) or Anna, May, and Marie are gorgeous. They deserve to be used as first but they are often pushed to the middle. I always think it’s lovely when I come across a child that has them as their first name.
Anyways, this was a really great post!