Is your baby’s name suddenly popular?

Even though we didn’t know what we were having back in 2010, one thing was for sure: when our January 2011 baby arrived, he’d be named Henry if he were a he and Charlotte if he were a girl. As January became February, and our baby took his time, we held steadfast on that.

Our bouncing baby was born in early 2011 and we went with our favourite name: Henry. As we slowly met other families in our neighbourhood with babies around the same age, we noticed more and more Henrys.

Then we started daycare. There was our guy, Henry A, Henry B and Henry McC (and eventually another Henry – who gets called by his full name). A B AND C.

We wanted to pick a name that was far less common for our second baby and when we found out it was a boy, I dug way deep into old Galic/Irish and Scottish names. Matt suggested Lachlan. I hated it. “We can call him Lucky!” he said. “I’m not having a dog,” I replied.

But then the baby was born and the name suited him perfectly and worked so well with Henry, so he got saddled with this big, old Scottish name.

Since opening up my shop (This Little Piggy), we’ve met all kinds of people, and now, I’m seeing more and more babies being born who are being given my baby’s name. Lachlan. Another was born just today.

And I’ll tell you, I’m partially super flattered that people liked my baby name and partially annoyed. We worked really hard to pick names that weren’t popular, but were also easy to spell, say and remember. Maybe it’s our neighbourhood, or the people that hear it. Maybe we are just that good at setting trends.

I was lucky. I only ever met one other Katrina in my school days, so everyone always knew who I was. We tried to get that for our kids but it failed.

We do want one more baby, and I’ve said repeatedly that I’d get to name the next baby (we agreed on H, Matt picked L) but Matt insists all his names are “winners.” Maybe I’m too hung up on this individuality thing? Maybe I just need to think, “Hey, you picked a good name, too!!”

And for some reason, I am way more OK about this with Henry’s name than I am with Lauchie.

So, of course, self-discovery again.

Damnit.

What about you? Did you meet a lot of “copycat” kids after your baby was born?