names to avoid

my name, sarah, is a plain name. there are absolutely no ways to make a nickname out of that name, nor are there many ways to mock the name. but it's a very usual name. when i was in school, there was always someone else named sarah in my classes. i was always known as "sarah t." i thought for a while that "sara" was spunkier than "sarah" so i dropped the h for a while. but really...there's not a whole lot you can do with the name. it's just sarah.

growing up with a very common name, i'd like to avoid naming my children common names. i want their names to be unique and unusual. so i've gathered the top ten most common boys and girls names of 2007 from babycenter.com and am using this as a list of names to avoid.

girls: sophia, isabella, emma, madison, ava, addison, hailey, emily, kaitlyn, olivia.
boys: aiden, ethan, jacob, jayden, caden, noah, jackson, jack, logan, matthew.

unfortunately, some of the names on this list are names that i really like. but i simply couldn't name my kids the same names that everyone else will have. i guess i'll just have to be more creative.