And chasing unique names may not always be the answer or ticket to success parents want it to be, anyway. “Parents have the instinct that choosing a distinctive name will give their child an advantage in life. It’s a loving impulse, but in practical terms it’s not clear that it works that way,” says Wattenberg, because after all, “Popular means well-liked – and highly distinctive names can be polarising. People may point to successful celebrities with unusual names, but for every Madonna and Beyoncé there’s a Michael Jackson, Emma Thompson, Sam Smith and Elizabeth Taylor,” she concludes.