When I was a kid I could never find the correct spelling of my name, and it always disappointed me at amusement parks. I could find “Sherry” with no problem, but not “Sheri.”
These days, however, I can usually find something pre-personalized.
I think one of my girls will have problems - her name is Becca. Sure, she’ll be able to find “Rebecca” stuff, but I haven’t seen Becca yet.
Sheri
Mrs. evilhanz is similarly disappointed in every gift shop offering personalized items. She just sighs as she passes them now remembering her childhood desire to have her very own “Dorian” keychain. Her name is unusual for anyone, but extremely unusual for a woman.
Jose is a very common name. Anyone ever see that one?
The local Wal*Mart has a rack of faux Alabama motor vehicle license plates; I assume they go on your bicycle. 72 girls’ names, 72 boys’ names, and 72 Borts ;). I compared it with the list of 1990s top 100, though I only looked at the top 60. I realized that in order to answer the OP, we have to set some ground rules about nicknames. For instance, Alexander (#26) was not there, but Alex (#57) was. Here are the girls’ names and boys’ names from the top 60 that I did not find, with rank, and if a nickname or close name was there, I put that in parentheses:
Katherine 8 (Katie), Kaitlyn 15, Haley 21 (Hailey), Alyssa 26, Christina 29, Jasmine 30, Kelsey 32, Anna 35, Madison 44, Mikayla 45, Shelby 46, Jacqueline 48, Jordan 52, Abigail 54, Olivia 57, Marissa 58 (Marisa), Natalie 59, Sydney 60
Nicholas 6 (Nick), Steven 21 (Steve), Alexander 26 (Alex), Thomas 32 (Tom), Benjamin 34 (Ben), Christian 36 (Chris), Jose 37, Samuel 38 (Sam), Timothy 39 (Tim), Richard 42, Corey 43 (Corey)*, Charles 46, Jeffrey 47, Devin 49, Derek 51, Luis 53, Juan 54, Cameron 56, Caleb 60
Notice that there are lot more guys’ nicknames present than girls’. I was also going to try to guess what was the most exotic name that was present, but I realize that I have no idea what are exotic names today.
As for regionality, though these were Alabama tags, the rack with the names on it could just as easily have been filled with Montana tags or Puerto Rico tags.
Names that Dopers here mentioned that I found: Aaron, Lindsey, Lindsay, Bryan, Brian, Rebecca, Christopher (that’s me ;))
Names mentioned that I didn’t find: Anita, Carla, Dawn, Russell, Russ, Rusty, Heidi, Victor, Frank, Penny, Robin, Robyn, Veronica, Sherry, Sheri, Becca, Dorian, Jose
[sub]* I don’t know whether Corey was there or not. My notes say Corey is not there, but Corey is listed as an alternate which is present. Maybe it should have been Correy, or maybe I can’t read my own writing.[/sub]
I’m wary of buying personalised stuff for my kids.
I tried to post this yesterday, but the hamsters ran out of steam.
The Census Bureu has lists (long lists) of the most common
and female given names.
That’s pretty cool, bibliophage. I assume those columns on the right are percent, cumulative percent, and rank, and they go up to 90%. So 90% of the population will find their last name on that last name list, and 90% will find their first name on one of the other two. Wow.
Also note how there are over three times as many names on the female list as on the male list. I think there are definite differences between name trends in these populations. I noticed it too when I was doing my small-scale survey of license plates—more absent boys’ names had nicknames.
I’m amazed that there are about 5,000 males each with names likes Jere, Shon, Lynwood, Graig, Patricia, Lino, and Man.
You think you’ve got it bad? My name is Esther. I grew up in the 80s and early 90s. Do you ever think I found ANYTHING personalised with my name on it? All I ever wanted was a keychain or one of those little license plate. . . 
My boyfriend, on the other hand, is David. He’s had it pretty sweet I must say.
My first name’s Megan. Sometimes, I’ll find Meagan, Meaghan, Meaghaen…all the variations, but not the simplest, and not the way I spell my name. Other times, just “my way” will be there and no other variations. 
I’ve also cursed my daughter by giving her a name that almost NO ONE has (Sage). Maybe I should have just relented and allowed my boyfriend to choose the name he wanted (Amanda). That way, she would always be able to find her name.
However, maybe things are turning around. It seems that the age of the cutsie names is dawning. Everyone is Hailey, Allie, Kaylie etc. Maybe all of the “normal” and “common” names like John, Michelle, Deborah etc. will one day get a raised eyebrow and a blank stare.
My sister’s name is similarly never there - the “Ch” version almost always makes the list. But my parents decided to spell her name with a “K.”