I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Homer[/name] (my grandfather’s name) and [name]Bruno[/name]. I just worry about that TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE [name]Sacha[/name] [name]Baron[/name] [name]Cohen[/name] movie when I think of it, which breaks my heart completely.
I like [name]Huxley[/name], Avonlea, and [name]Bruno[/name]! I know a girl named [name]Bruna[/name], too, and she’s adorable. It has the appeal of [name]Bruno[/name] and [name]Luna[/name] for me, I think it’s adorable, but I think most people wouldn’t agree!
Erm, I love [name]Agnes[/name], it honors my mom, but most people I mention it to think it’s hideous, haha. Erm, I’m trying to remember the names I’ve been told are awful that I bring up to family:
[name]Isabelle[/name]. “Ew, like [name]Bella[/name] from Twilight?”
[name]Arianne[/name]. “Oh, [name]Ashley[/name], no. They’ll call her [name]Ari[/name] the Airhead!”
[name]Violet[/name]. “Ew. No. That’s a terrible name.” (Me: “But why?!” Mom and sister: “[name]Just[/name]… no. It’s an awful name!”)
[name]Charlotte[/name]. “It’s okay, but it sounds so preppy. And the nn [name]Lottie[/name] is terrible!”
[name]Liliana[/name]. “Why do you have to pick such complicated names?!” (lol! They should join Nameberry and see how tame my style really is!)
[name]Beatrix[/name] (which would have been a MN, fwiw). “[name]Ashley[/name], never! Your daughter would hate you for life for giving her such an old-lady name!”
[name]Lyra[/name]. “Ew. It’s terrible.” “Why?” “It’s terrible. [name]Just[/name]. No.”
[name]Caleb[/name]. “It sounds like the name of a wimp!”
[name]Avery[/name] (boy). “[name]Avery[/name]? I like it!” (Me: on a boy?) “Ewww, no! Where do you get this stuff from?!”
[name]Bailey[/name]. “[name]Ashley[/name], your son will kill you!”
That’s all I can think of now. For the most part, my family hates almost every name on my list. The only ones they’ve agreed to are [name]Olivia[/name], and when it was still on my list, a handful of them liked [name]Anneliese[/name]. They’d probably freak over the traditional [name]German[/name] spelling, though! I haven’t really talked to people outside of family and naming sites about names I love. Oh, I polled my coworkers on [name]Linus[/name] once when I was going to use it for a story–the majority of them thought it was geeky and only for a guy sucking on a blanket, and one guy said it was the name for a fundamentalist [name]Christian[/name] family who homeschooled their kid and deprived him of the real world and he grew up to produce porn, or some such nonsense, lol. My HR manager thought it sounded like a “likeable, gregarious guy”, haha.
Um, ALL of them? People look at me like I’m crazy when I bring up perennial favorites [name]Marigold[/name], [name]Waldo[/name], [name]Juniper[/name], [name]Roscoe[/name], [name]Atlas[/name], [name]Magnus[/name], [name]Zephyr[/name], [name]Odessa[/name]…though I’ve gotten mostly positive reactions to [name]Eloise[/name], [name]Thaddeus[/name], [name]Sylvie[/name], [name]Willow[/name], [name]Jasper[/name] and [name]Geneva[/name].
I also love [name]Susan[/name], [name]Marjorie[/name], [name]Janet[/name], [name]Mabel[/name], [name]Winifred[/name], [name]Polly[/name], [name]Darwin[/name], [name]Ursula[/name], [name]Valentine[/name], [name]Merlin[/name], [name]Winslow[/name], Solace, [name]Erasmus[/name], [name]Calvin[/name], [name]Rupert[/name], [name]Otto[/name], and [name]Duncan[/name] – most of which are not exactly hits, on Nameberry or elsewhere. I think they’re fabulous.
I love the name [name]Tosca[/name], but most people say something like, “Oh, that’s…different.”
Aw, so many great names on this thread! Adding a few more of mine…
[name]Dexter[/name].
“Like the serial killer?”
[name]Hobbes[/name].
“The tiger?”
[name]Marjorie[/name].
“Are you having an 80 year old?”
I mentioned [name]Roscoe[/name] to my fiance and he made a face like he had taken a big swig of curdled milk.
I would name this baby [name]Magnolia[/name] in a second, but both my husband and my mother think it’s awful. sigh
My fiance black listed [name]Reuben[/name]!! & makes fun of it 
I don’t even know why, he usually loves names with lots of Bs- [name]Phoebe[/name], [name]Tabitha[/name]… but no love for poor [name]Reuben[/name].
I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Huxley[/name] nn [name]Huck[/name] but not everyone agrees with me so I feel your pain
Ahhh! This happens ALL the time! [name]Hazel[/name], [name]Louisa[/name], [name]Aurora[/name], [name]Mara[/name], [name]Luna[/name], [name]Clayton[/name], [name]Seth[/name], and [name]Zariah[/name] have all been rejected.
Most of the names I like get weird reactions from people.
[name]Wolfgang[/name] (People think it sounds too old, I like that it is uncommon and has the word wolf in it)
[name]Wolf[/name] (they say it is an animal and not a name, I beg to differ, a lot of names come from animals)
[name]Magnus[/name] (too European,I like that it is an old latin name)
Elowen (sounds geeky, fantasy type name, I like that it sounds that way)
[name]Rowan[/name] for a daughter (they say it is a boys name, I say it is unisex)
[name]Damian[/name] and [name]Damon[/name] (they think it is evil, it is actually from a Greek myth about friendship and loyalty)