Simba was a pretty good name though.
Names with Bad Associations
Are there some names out there that make you go “UGH”?
I’m not talking about baby names, I am talking about if for example you worked with a co-worker named Victoria (sorry in advance to all Victorias’ out there), and she was just the biggest b*tch alive, so much that you associate her name with her personality.
And now whenever you meet a NEW Victoria, or think about giving a name to a baby, you just get this involuntary shudder like “NO!! Please no!!“.
I have a couple of names like that, with bad associations. I won’t say what they all are because I don’t want to offend anyone out there, but one of them is Danny.
The guy was just the most obnoxious self-righteous co-worker… it really soured me on the name. I don’t mind Daniel, but Danny.. forget it.
Baby Names that are just….strange
On that note, why are parents today giving their kids the most screwed up names EVER?
I know they’re trying to be unique, different, or spell the name differently to give it a twist.. but STOP IT!
It’s already a headache as it is to remember everyone, now I have to remember her name is spelled Lyndzey not Lindsay.
Or his name is Breyan not Brian.
Kids will be different personalities from each other, no matter what you name them, or how you spell their name.
I can tell you from experience that with a first name like mine, people get it mixed up all the time with my last name, usually transposing the two.
That is something that couldn’t be helped by my parents because a lot of people think my last name is really my first name, and I screwed up when I wrote in my own name in the checked boxes.
Or how about celebrity babies?
- Christie Brinkley’s Sailor Lee (girl)
- Nicolas Cage’s Kal-el (son)
- Bob Geldof & Paula Yates’s Fifi Trixibelle (girl)
- Michael Hutchence & Paula Yates’s Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily (girl)
- Frank Zappa’s Diva Muffin (girl) or Moon Unit (girl)
- Penn & Emily Jilette’s Moxie CrimeFighter (girl)
Like, seriously!?
I’ve also heard of kids named Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola. But that might have been a stunt.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Mind you, there are some unusual names that cross the line into ridiculously funny (and maybe even a bit too over the top for me). My friend’s mom was a substitute teacher for a kid named Felonious.
Hahahaha. I love (LOVE!) weird and unusual names (I thought Moxie Crimefighter was fabulous and wish I’d come up with that one myself!), but I also do know exactly what you mean about names with bad associations. (I won’t name any. But, man, yeah. I still shudder when I hear certain ones.)
LOL Victoria also makes me shudder. Name of an aunt who must not be named. XD She’s just terrible. When I was a kid I felt she was evil. When I grew up and got to know her better, I found out I was right.
I met someone called Nicky yesterday …. only that wasn’t how she spelled her name. How was I to know it was spelled NYKKI ……
what’s with this blog now?
Baby names? Really?
Plus so much swearing (noticed this trend in another post recently — what gives?). And so much negativity.
This is weird.
I used to work with a girl whose name was Casey but it was spelled Cassie. I don’t think she got annoyed when people pronounced her name the way it was spelled, but I was peeved every time I saw her name written because Cassie does not spell Casey!
Have to agree with you on the name association. When picking out baby names my ex-husband and I would throw out names and we would nix them because the other party knew someone with that name that we didn’t like and ended up settling on name (and end up naming our son) by a name where neither one of us knew anyone else with that first name.
Another thing with the funky spellings are that when kids are in grade school and like want to buy personalized items like pencils, pens, license plates for their bicycles, etc. they are not going to find any with exotic names or spellings and it can make them feel left out.
My father is one of those parents that wanted to be different so noone can spell my name. On top of that I married a man with a last name that is close enough to my first name noone can spell either and I occasionally get the strangest pronounciations. When I owned my own business I used my middle name, because only dumbasses spell Holly wrong lol.
I’m not a big fan of the name Libby… I think I read a book where the bully was named Libby, and the negative association just stuck with me. It is odd, though, because it wasn’t a situation I was personally involved with… I guess I’m just weirdly empathetic.
I find these posts amusing, coming from the other side. Growing up amongst hippies and artists, with an unusual (but not unheard of) name, I have the toughest time keeping all the Sarahs and Matthews etc straight. I was once in a class of about 25 with three Rebeccas, two Lauras and two Sarahs (though one was a “Sara”). I get that there should be a line somewhere so the kid can actually have a productive life, but not every name has to come from the Bible…
I am a midwife and from my caseload alone, I have heard some names that just make me invisibly smack my forehead when I hear them. Shawnae (duh, Mum’s name is Renae and Dad’s is Shawn – lets mash them together!), Cliche, Candida (oh god…), Ventouse, Capri, Phenix. Some kids don’t stand a chance.
There is also a 5 year old in our community called Mistake. How’s she going to handle getting a job in 15 years time??!
The Freakonomics chapter was a great read, and there is other research to suggest that children with these kind of names have higher admissions to emergency departments than kids with names in the Top 100. Sad fact.
Mistake!!?!?!? That’s just cruel!
I know, hideous isn’t it? That poor child I feel terrible for her.
Renesmee
I have had problems with Laura, Lori, Laurie..so I understand. My sister in law is named Rachel and she is such a mega b**** that I now hate that name.
Have you ever seen the Freakonomics documentary? Apparently, a lot of black people are trying to give their kids “unique” names. However, when sending these names out on resumes to companies as potential hires, the people making the documentary found that these “ghetto” names got a vastly lower response rate than anyone with a normal “white” name.
Haha, I can laugh at this because I have an extremely uncommon name. My mom chose a Hawaiian name, and every time I go in for a job interview I get a surprised look…because I am the blonde blue eyed barbi-doll type. It takes my coworkers months to figure out how to pronounce it. I have to explain that it sounds like “Princess Leah, but with an A in front.”
Those are some pretty bad celebrity baby names. My boyfriend’s last name is Kong and we joke about naming our kids Hong for a girl or King for a boy.
Not that we’d ever do that…but I would totally make it their middle name for fun. 😀
As a teacher, you come across names that you quietly add to a list of ‘never name your child’. You also discover that the name you love, everyone loves and there are three in each classroom. The odd spellings are growing more frequent if you talk to Kindergarten teachers. Random spellings of traditional names until they are unrecognizable like your ‘Brian/Breyan’ example.
Hee hee, thinking the same thing Jolie…I have certain names that my children would never be called….lol. cole being one of them. My kids are Chloe, Sophia, and Joshua, ALL names of kids I have ne’er taught, lol!
I’ve known two girls named Amy Smith in my life and both have been major a-holes.
I concur about the baby names, too. My name wasn’t common when I was born, but became popular 5-10 years later. There are about 15 variations of spelling and pronunciation, and despite mine being the most common one, it gets misspelled and mis-pronounced all the time. My orthodontist called me the wrong name for months because I got tired of correcting him. I just roll with it.
Haha, I can one up the Walker name. My boyfriend, if we ever have kids wants to name his Luke…Walker. I nearly died. LOL.
Jordan, Shane, Laura and Rachel – all bullies at school thus I have difficultly in warming to anybody with those names because these four really screwed me up in school. On a nicer note a friend of mine had a baby girl and she chose the first name and her husband picked the middle name, something they had agreed on before she was born. It was only a little later that she twigged – their surname is Walker, and her husband picked the middle name Sky … guess what he’s a fan of! (Thank goodness she has a sense of humour about it!)
Ha! I can’t help but comment as Danny is probably my most hated name association too. Must be some odd vibes with that name. The one I knew was also obnoxious and self-righteous. And add to that, perverted, cocky, arrogant, creepy… Funny huh, what we unconsciously end up associating names and words with.
Vanessa. Actually, any of the ‘V’ girl names…vivienne, valerie. Uch. Never met a good one (I’m sure there are plenty out there, so sorry if you are one of the good ones!).