A couple of months ago my wife and I found out we were having a little girl and needed to start thinking seriously about picking some names. After going through a dictionary of names we narrowed it down a (long) shortlist. Interestingly almost every single name on one of the various 'Top Baby Names UK 2017' lists happened to appear on our shortlist. 8 out of the top 10 names below appeared on our list.
I'm assuming that this isn't coincidence and it's probably very common, hence the popularity of the names. What I struggle to understand is where the influence comes from.
I don't read celebrity magazines. I don't have lots of friends with children. None of these names are family tradition. I've never even met people with some of these names and some I've only met who are 80+ years old. Ava being a good example of that, it turns out for the last ten years, completely unbeknownst to me, every woman and her dog have been named Ava.
What is influencing our preferences and why does this convergence happen?