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What are some of the names that you would never use on a child?



I'll start -- I would never use Chastity (or any variant, such as Chasity or Chasidy).

How about you?

Chastity...I totally have to agree with you, Nancy. Don't like it either.

I also don't like Charity, Liberty, or Destiny. There are quite a few of the more popular baby names that I'd never use for my own child. One of the popular boys names that I don't like is Joshua. Sadly, that is one of my nephews names so I have to hear it every time he comes to visit.

May I suggest my name, Duane. It has been a curse to me, especially as a kid. It is always a guessing game as to how it gets spelled -- Dwayne, Dewayne, Duwayne, Dewain, Dwaine or seemingly a thousand other variants. Don't put your child through this. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "The Dwain in spain falls mainly on the plains" on the playground. I am 40 now and I STILL get mail addressed to all variants of my name sent to me.

You'll make his life a lot better if you give him a name that has very little chance of being misspelled.

Cecil, cyril, horace, albert, cicilia, tyler, edgar, egbert athalstan, stanley, justin, gertrude, sidney, ethelbert, chastity, destiny, sky anyother day or month, cagney to name a few! Oh and ethel, ida, edna, flora, mavis.

Recently there was publicity here because some couple somewhere wanted to call their child 4sure (oh yes, really) and when refused they named him superman! Poor lad! Abit like bob geldofs eldest, fifi trixibell, or another celebs: betty kitten! UHHHH!
I know that Starship (i think thats their name) band singer called her daughter god.

Here are a few more I wouldn't want to touch:

Dorcas
Fanny
Gaylord
Hortense
Pansy
Philander

I'm sorry to hear about your experiences, Duane. Your name is a tricky one -- there isn't a "standard" spelling, really, but there are a ton of equally popular variations. If it makes you feel any better, my mom's name, Elisa, is constantly being mangled (both on paper and out loud).

I wouldn't use the following:

Brittney
Hillary
Chasity
Charity
Hope
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Brandy
Dick
Bob
Bill
Jason
Jack
Jill
Moana
Al
Aimee/Amy
Betty
Larry

thats all I can think of.. i have a whole bunch more LOL

My sister's name is Amy. I'm gonna tell her and she'll kick your butt LOL

My sister is Aimee l0l and she'd agree with me

Some names I would never use and I know people with them are:
Women's names:
Dorcus,
Bunny,
Kitten
Germaine

Men's names:
Carroll
Knight
King,
Prince

Duane - is your name used much in the States or is it a family name? I've never met a Duane - how is your name pronounced?...is it pronounced Dwayne?
My sister's name is Narelle - she hates it - it was very unusual when she was born - a few babies were named Narelle 10-15 years after her birth - unfortunately, there was a popular sit-com in Australia in the 70s featuring a dumb girl called Narelle - so, my sister got all the "dumb Narelle" cracks - it didn't really bother her - she was a top student.
Her mail is often addressed to Narele, Narell - she even gets Mirelle - her friends & family call her Nelly or Rel...
I think parents should think of the child when they choose a name - Dweezel Zappa always reminds me of Weasel - and his sister MoonUnit One...What! One of my colleagues called her son, Alphonsus...
I suppose he'll get Alf or Alfie...St John is another unusual name (pronounced Sinjon)...not keen on either...
I also, don't usually like "made up" names or names with "creative" spelling...Belinda becomes Byllinda...no one will ever get that right!

i like some made up names. My sister created a beautiful name A'Daja Lynnae which represented all four of us children... Addie Jason Michael and (Aimee) Lynn

For some reason, I'm not fond of made-up names either. I'm puzzled about this since it seems contrary to my style but I just feel that way. I don't even like it when common names are spelled differently than usual. Perhaps I don't like the uncertainty of not knowing how to spell them. I do, however, tend to like a lot of unusual names such as historical or mythological names or even names that come from ordinary words that I find pleasing or interesting. In retrospect, I wish I had been more open-minded when naming my children.

I'll copy Duane and say that my actual name (Elsa) is up there with the worst names to give a child. Honestly - who names their child after a painful medical condition? Not to mention that no one ever gets my name right, but I really don't mind being called Alison or Lisa. I'm not as fond of being called Alma or Elna, though.

And I'm with Diane, I loathe made up names and I hate names with apostrophes that are soooooooo overused in fantasy fiction.

I like my name, but like Duane's, it gets mangled regularly, and there's the fun of getting mail addressed to yourself, but as a male instead of a female, so would consider carefully naming a girl Carey : )

There are alot of names I like but would never saddle a child with due to the fact that my REAL name is so unusual.
I use those fun names for my cats, I have Rufus, Tumnus and Salem.

Elsa,
At least you're not named Leper Priest, Rubella Graves, or Fever Bender. BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

I like Elsa as well.

I hate Jason, hence why I am changing to Jase LOL

This is going to irk some people, but the reason I would never name a child any of the following names is because they're SO overused right now and have been since the 90s:

McKenzie
McKayla/Makayla
McKenna
Madison
Addison
Kennedy
Britney
Bailey
Peyton
Hayden
Hannah
Hailey
Kaitlyn
Kaylee
Taylor
Aiden
Caleb

I'd never consider:

o Traditionally male names used for girls
--James, Logan, David, Aidan, etc.

o Most unisex names (or recently viewed as unisex... meaning names that were viewed as male up until recently, but are now seen as being unisex or even female):
--Shannon, Morgan (though for a long time I wanted to use that one), Kelly, etc; and also the recent ones: Hayden, Jadon, Peyton, Mackenzie, etc.

o Most last names used as first names (ESPECIALLY on girls)
--Mackenzie, Hayden, Madison, Taylor, Kennedy, etc etc.

o Names that mean "son of ___" for girls
--Mackenzie ("son of Kenneth"), McKenna (also "son of Kenneth"), Madison ("son of Maud"), Addison ("son of Adam"), Emerson ("son of Emery"), etc etc.

o Trendy names
--They -ayden trend (Jadon, Caden, Aidan, Hayden, Brayden, etc)
--Made up names (Kayla, Kailey, Nevaeh [*shudders*], etc etc)
--Also includes all the previous categories.

o Names in the top 100 (preferably not even the top 500). I like my names to be unusual. Even if I like the name a lot, I wouldn't use it if it were in the top 100.
--Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Anthony, Andrew, William, etc.
--Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, Samantha, etc.

o Non-Celtic names... this is specifically for my kids. We prefer our children have Celtic names. I love a lot of non-Celtic names, but we wouldn't use them for our kids.

There are a few more things in my list of criteria, lol... but this should suffice for now.

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*