Are there any 'boring' baby names you'd never consider giving your children because they're just too tame (in your opinion)?

Maybe...
Anne, Emma, Jill, Mary, Sue?
Allan, Ed, John, Mark, Steve?

If you do think of certain names as being 'boring,' what makes them boring to you -- simplicity? overuse?

Well, to answer my own question (and to get things rolling!), Anne and John are names I could never use--either as first or as middle names.

Why? Two reasons -- they're common, and they're short. I just tend to prefer names that aren't as well known and that have 2 or 3 syllables.

(Unfortunately, Anne and John are both are also family names for me, so taking these two out of the running makes it that much harder to incorporate family names into the mix...)

Names that are too overused lose their spark for me for sure.
Their are names I simply don't like, they just don't appeal to me. I would never name a child Ed or Tom or Joan to name a few. They are fine names, but just don't appeal to me personally.
I used to adore extremely unusual names, but now I have gone to liking traditional names (that aren't overused).

How funny -- I've gone through this exact sort of perspective-shift.

I used to love totally off-the-wall names, but now I realize I liked them not because they were good names, but because they were novelties.

My current tastes are a lot like yours -- I like names that are established, but not very popular.

There are names that I would not give my children, not because I find them boring but because they hold bad memories for me. They might remind me of someone's name or a name that was made fun of in school.

Tom, Dick, Harry, Peter

An interesting observation that I've found is that certain names set up children for certain behavior, successes, failures, popularity, even sports and educational abilites.

Michael was an archangel - but was a militant ...many Michaels are a little devilish

Kyle is a very studious name and most Kyles make good grades and very successful. Look at Kyle on the TV show, "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Most adults pick him every show.

Well, those are a couple of examples. I named one son Jonathan, meaning "the fair one". He is definitely fair, balanced, good student, self sufficient, independent. Most Jonathans I know are much the same.

Just my observations. It is funny how our childhood influences our ideas as adults.

Trish