I’m drawn to names primarily for their sounds and the enjoyment I get out of saying them, and then the imagery they conjure up. Their actual meanings are not nearly as important.
[name_f][/name_f]Having said that, if I loved a name and its meaning was pretty awful, I think I’d only choose it if this meaning were not well-known and the name had some other positive m association (eg an honour name, a movie or literary reference, a historical figure etc), I wouldn’t go ahead and try to cancel the meaning with a positive or cancelling out second name because for me that would draw more attention to the “bad” meaning and its importance.
[name_f][/name_f]I do think if I had a few top names, I’d definitely chuck the one with the off meaning first, if not an honour name. It’s nice for a kid to have a sort of personal [name_m]North[/name_m] [name_f]Star[/name_f] with a good meaning. I’m not saying it counts for a lot but I do think it has an effect, telling your child what their name means.