How rare is your name? Not as rare as you think

Everyone likes to imagine they are a unique snowflake. And that may be true when it comes to personality and experiences. But when it comes to names? Bad news, Brantley. Joke's on you, Jace. A new study has found that people consistently rate their first names as rarer than other people would.

In a study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, researchers asked 247 participants to rate how rare their names were on a scale of 0 to 100. They then asked a separate group to rate the names of the first participants.

Results showed that all of the participants rated their own name as more rare than the ratings of the second group.

But don't worry too much, Maeve. The researchers also found that people with truly rare names reported much higher satisfaction and happiness with their name. When researchers asked participants if they would consider changing their name, the response was highest among those who felt their name was too common.