I graduated from high school with 8 Jessicas, 6 Michaels, 5 Jennifers, 4 Kevins and 4 Christophers. Even though my class wasn't a particularly large one, I still needed to use a last name whenever I referred to one of the above people to clarify which Jess or which Mike I was talking about.

Many expectant parents don't want their children to have to share a name with multiple classmates. Therefore, they aim to keep names that are "too popular" off of their baby name lists. But... how can a parent know which names are, in fact, "too popular"?

The easiest way is to find a list of the most popular baby names in your area. (Parents in the U.S., for instance, can check out the Social Security Administration website for both national and state-by-state statistics.) Skim this list and try to pick a "cut-off" rank -- a threshold over which a name would be "too popular" for you to consider.

For instance, if you want to avoid only the trendiest of names, you'll be okay simply steering clear of the top 10 or 20 baby names in your region. If you want your child to have a relatively unique name, on the other hand, it would make more sense to keep out of the top 300, or even the top 500.

For me, the magic number is 150. It may sound a bit arbitrary, but here's how I came up with it: I compared the top baby names for the year I was born with the names of people in my high school class. (If there were ever a pragmatic use for a yearbook, this is it!) Based on what I saw, I concluded that names ranked below 150th place were not likely to pop up more than once in a class of several hundred students.

This method isn't guaranteed, of course. Relatively unpopular names will sometimes experience popularity surges, virtually overnight. (This is exactly what happened to the name Chloe, which was once rare but is now in the top 20.) Even worse, there's no way to know whether 5 other families in your neighborhood are all suddenly in love with the same baby name you are for some unlucky reason.

If avoiding overly popular baby names is your goal, though, this method will probably be helpful. Just decide how selective you want to be, quantify your decision with a "cut-off" number, and keep that number in mind as you create your baby name list (or cull the list you already have).