Having a baby is one of the biggest life decisions a person can make – but many don’t often realise how hard picking a name for their newborn is until the moment actually comes.
Baby name trends are constantly popping up and fading away, with plenty of lists of the most popular picks shared to assist prospective parents. However, one mum decided to take things in a different direction, instead sharing her least favourite baby names, asking fellow parents to share the ones they aren’t fans of.
Taking to Mumsnet, they wrote: “I am an absolute name nerd and love hearing other people’s preferences, but instead of being boring and asking for your favourite, I want to hear your least favourite baby names.
“I am not encouraging anyone to hate on anyone’s name choices—everyone has different tastes and it makes life interesting. I just want to hear the names that you personally dislike or would never use.”
The online thread has since been flooded with replies from parents all giving their two cents on names they can’t stand. Their opinions varied from criticising names that sounded too old fashioned, to “annoying nicknames”, others they thought just “sound ugly”.
One parent took issue with more famous names, writing: “I don’t like names that are off TV shows or movies, like Madison becoming popular after the movie Splash, and then obviously the Game of Thrones names.
“In the same vein, I avoid names that have been used recently by celebrities. Hazel was my all time favourite name from childhood, but then Julia Roberts used it for her daughter before I had a chance to use it so I had to avoid it.”
A second penned: “Names that are the nicknames of a traditional name. So the child can never choose the ‘full’ version of their name to fit a formal or professional situation as an adult. I don’t understand when people talk about wanting ‘cute names for a baby’. The baby will be an adult for 20x longer than they will be a baby/small child!”
A third felt that Scottish names should be kept for only those who hail from the country. They began: “Old people names, Elsie, Iris, Ada, Arthur, Alfie etc. they’re just ugly names.
“Irish or Scottish names on people who have no relation to those countries, or even worse people whose grandad’s second cousin’s cat’s sister was Scottish/Irish so they give all their kids Scottish/Irish names and tell everyone they’re Scottish/Irish really when they’re not, they’re as English as they come. I don’t know why this annoys me so much, but it does!”
Some felt that the thread itself was “cruel and judgemental” but others took it to be more lighthearted, with one parent admitting: “Just a bit of fun, both of my children’s names have been mentioned on here plus my own. I expect to see the husband’s soon.”
While there are so many to choose from, below are the 10 most frequent suggestions made from parents with some of their reasonings. Do you agree with them?
Top 10 ‘worst’ baby names, according to parents
- Hunter – “also see Gunner or any other violence-based, American-sounding name”
- Archie – “shortened names in general”
- Luna – “sounds like a pet name”
- Violet – “too close to violent”
- Pearl/Ruby – “any gemstone name feels ‘cheap’”
- Olive – “drab colour, nasty tasting fruit”
- Dustin – sounds like dustbin
- Farley- “sounds like Farty”
- Maya/Maia – “due to pronunciation difficulties”
- Gertrude – “sounds like a combo of regurgitate and rude”