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Names w/ negative meanings or associations?


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#1 Laney

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Posted 31 March 2018 - 07:48 PM

What are some names that you feel are off limits to you because of their meanings or just certain associations you have with them? 
 
 
Mine - 
 
Kennedy - Means "misshapen head."  Not a fan of the name anyway, but even if I did like it, the meaning is a big deal breaker.
Mallory - Means "unfortunate."
Portia - Means "pig."  It also reminds me of the car, which some people pronounce the same way.
Lucifer - The Satan association is too strong.
Crispin - I think of a brand of hard cider.
Jezebel - I don't think I can ever get past its association.
Alexia - A perfectly normal and beautiful sounding name, but I think of snack foods and frozen french fries.  It's also a reading disability.
Blaise - Means "lisp" or "stutter" and it sounds too close to Blaze which is too violent for my taste (I think of house or forest fires).
Cameron - Means "crooked nose."
Narcissa - Sounds too close to "narcissist."
Tristan - Means "sad" or "sorrowful."
Mort/Mortimer - Mort means "dead" in French.  Too morbid.
Oleander - Too associated with the poisonous flower.
Adolf - A good name if it wasn't for Hitler.
Judas - A nice sounding name, but he wasn't a nice guy in the bible (I'm an atheist, but still couldn't use it for my kid).
Augustus - A great name, but I'm still going back and forth on whether or not I can live with naming a kid after Augustus Gloop or a certain Roman Emperor.  August feels safer, though it's been getting more popular.
Cohen - It's considered offensive and insensitive to the Jewish faith.
Damien - Love it, but some people can't stop thinking about The Omen.   I also had a crush on a classmate with this name in 7th grade and he turned out to be a jerk.
Colby - I think of cheese.
Elsa - The movie Frozen.  There was also a girl in my class in 5th grade who bullied me.  The name itself is okay, but I couldn't deal with the reminders.
Homer - Homer Simpson.  Enough said.
Harvey - Probably would've used someday if it wasn't for the hurricane.
Maisy - The character on Nick Jr.
Harry - Had a substitute teacher in high school named Harry Pitts and he was a jerk.  And there's Harry Potter!
Ronald - Ronald McDonald and Ronald Reagan.
Hillary/Hilary - Can't shake the Hillary Clinton association.
Delilah - There's a gentlemen's club in my birth place Philadelphia called Delilah's Den.  The name itself isn't awful though.  I used to hate it, but it's set at neutral now.  Prefer the simpler Lila.
Donald - President Donald Trump and Donald Duck.
Gavin - My neighbors who moved away a couple years ago used to have a dog named Gavin.  He was a sweetie, but I don't feel comfortable naming my kid directly after a pet.  
Maggie - My sister's cat (I'm still very attached to that little gremlin kitty and her sister Skitz.  lol).  Like with Gavin, it doesn't feel right.  I could use Magnolia or Magdalena nn Maggie, but not Maggie on its own.
Gordon - I like it, but Gordon Ramsay comes to mind and while I love watching Masterchef Junior, his behavior is sometimes too over the top.
Marco - The "Marco Polo" game.
Devin - Another bully I went to school with.
Isis - Probably not a good idea, considering it's the name of a terrorist group.

Edited by Laney, 31 March 2018 - 08:04 PM.


#2 allofthestars28

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Posted 04 April 2018 - 11:23 PM

I have a bunch of names I would never use because of bad experience with people that I've met who've had that name. The biggest one for me is probably Emma, which is a shame because I think it's very sweet and adorable, but every girl I've met named Emma has always been very catty and rude, it also happens to be the name of my best friend's sister so I probably wouldn't use it for that reason anyways.



#3 Marvelous_Things

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Posted 23 April 2018 - 10:35 AM

I generally try to not get too caught up with the meaning of names. I'm more likely to balk at associations with people (or pets, as you mentioned) that I've known, or that have a terrible connotation that everybody will make (like Adolf). If there was a name that I was on the fence about, a negative meaning might make me decide not to use it, but for names that I love the look and sound of, I don't let a potentially negative meaning get in the way. 



#4 .:alexandra:.

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 07:31 AM

One of the biggest ones for me is the name, Kayla. Every Kayla that I've ever known is rude and petty. Also the name Lily. There is a Lily and a Lilly in my family already. I honestly would still use it, but it would just get so confusing. Sucks because I've liked that name before there were any Lily's. Also the name Emily. There were at least 10 Emily's in my high school class/year and I swear in elementary school there were always at least 2 Emily's in my class.






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