Did something happen with Columbine? I am not American so I do not know. But anyway, depends on how bad this connotation is. If it is too bad, i recommend to use it out of the states. I mean, i am from europe and I have not heard of a thing.
Iām not in the US. However this tragedy was in the news here too.
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The [name_f]Columbine[/name_f] high school massacre in 1999 in [name_u]Colorado[/name_u]. Iām not in the US.
Thank you!
[name_m]Ah[/name_m] I see ! We did hear about it here too , but admittedly not as much as thereās a language barrier. Gosh, it really was such a horrible tragedy that it transcended borders & is still so poignant to people over 20 years later.
There are similar variant names like [name_f]Columbia[/name_f], [name_u]Columba[/name_u], [name_u]Colombe[/name_u], [name_f]Colombina[/name_f], etc. if you like the sound & the ādoveā meaning ! 
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A definite no. Iām also not American but [name_f]Columbine[/name_f] is so tied to the school shooting massacre that I really donāt see it being usable at all for this generation or the next.
All you have to do is Google the name and it is the first thing that comes up also.
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Yes, thatās the first thing I did.
Definitely not firstly Iām sure the parents of the victims and those who lived through the event probably wouldnāt be fans of the name, as well as names are not just about what you see as pretty but what the child who wears it will experience. Most people donāt know the names actual meaning they will simply think you named you child that for a horrible reason, and I doubt teachers or students will take kindly to that. I disagree with the āreclaimingā thing as it was so recent, and the survivors are still alive it is not for you to decide whether or not it should be reclaimed.
Columbine is a place, so to residents there, itās the name of where they live (named after the state flower). There are parks and businesses with Columbine in the title. The school is still running under the same name - itās actually where my US family were based at the time and the school they attended. After grieving their loss, the school have had to get out of the shadow of the tragedy in order to keep doing the most important task at hand - educating children. Thatās not of course to be dismissive of the victims of this awful event, to not remember them or to sweep it under the carpet. But to kids there now, Columbine is just their high school where they are spending their formative years and making memories along the way.
My point is that the people of Columbine live with the name every day. Its only from the outside that the name is solely associated with a terrible tragedy 20+ years ago. This in itself is enough to warrant consideration though, because thatās the reality and it will be many peopleās first thought. And I agree with your point about considering the child who wears a name which was my very first response to another pp on this thread. This has to be priority.
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I donāt think itās an American-only issue. āColumbine Effectā is a term to describe how the [name_f]Columbine[/name_f] shooting inspired other shootings - in many different countries and it also influenced popular culture. I donāt think itās usable.
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Yes, Iām inclined to agree. I donāt think Iād want my child googling the name to see it overwhelmingly in the context of a horrific tragedy.
Yes, I have many positive associations - the flower and the flowerās meanings (fertility, the goddess [name_f]Freya[/name_f], the myth of Columbineās opening doors to other worlds [admittedly probably due to poisonous / hallucinogenic properties of the root], hardiness and resilience, aspiration / elevation) and from Commedia dellāArte. But I guess none of that matters if the association of almost everybody else will be overwhelmingly negative.