I wouldn't name my kid Icy, Snowy, Candy, Brandy, Porsche or anything like these (you know they sound like strippers).

anything generic that everyone has.. no offense to anyone!! but I know like 500 Katies, Ashleys, Megans .. etc

What I'd warn others of is to take into account your last name when you're picking the first one. I knew a kid in highschool, no kidding, named "Richard Headly". Guess what he got called a lot?

Haha Grey! I know a guy named Peter Weiner.

If I had a kid (and that's a big IF) I would never name them an old school name, like Mildred, Pearl, Bertha or Betty. No offense to anyone who has those names, but to me they sound so old fashioned.

I have a lot of names I like, but would never use because there are sooo many of them already. I tried to give my children names that were not used to death, kind of wanted them to be the only one in their class.

I also tried to give them a name with a song, I know it sounds silly, but I liked the idea.

Ultimately it is the parents choice and you can't imagine what will be popular 20 years later, so you just have to go with your gut. My daughter hates her name, but I still love it as much as the day I gave it to her and her consolation is she gets to pick her childrens' names.

Even if you pick a name that you think goes with your last name, a girl will probably change her name, anyway, and who knows at the time of birth what name she will marry into.

All that being said, I would certainly try to avoid a name that you can reasonably assume will cause the child humiliation on the playground.

What I have always hated is the public changing your child's name, such as Daniel to Danny and Thomas to Tommy. I am the mother of a Daniel, always has been Daniel, but his teachers thought it was perfectly acceptable to refer to him as Danny, even to me! He never even called himself Danny, but everyone else thought it was OK to call him that.

So I guess, you give it your best shot and hope the world is kind to them.

Definitely consider the last name. In high school, there was a teacher Candy B. Goode, and Harry Weiner.

If your last name begins with M or S, avoid B first names!

Angela - I was interested to see the name Hayden on your overused list - in Australia its not at all common - when my nephew was born his parents had no idea what to call him - they couldn't agree - I suggested Hayden - I think it's a strong, uncommon and nice-sounding name...
He was the only Hayden at kinder & primary school and there is only one other at his secondary school...
Interesting that the name is sooo popular elsewhere...

My History of Civ teacher in college sounded like Kermit the Frog and was named... Bill Licht. We all shuddered.

Hmmm... Since I'm not the "matronly" type, I can't say I wouldn't name my kids anything... but, were I to immaculately conceive, I would not use:

Alistaire
Laird
Conner
Damien
Darryl
Eric/Aerik/Erich/any other variant spelling
Millard
Garfield
Lolita
Lola
Dorothy

...and those are just off the top of my head...

In stories, however, I like to take common names and spell them funky... so, my characters get the weird names you'd never want to saddle a child with... like Melany or Aezrick. *writes down Aezrick for her next fiction story*