Sometimes when I share a new name I’ve found with my husband, he immediately (usually unintentionally) ruins it for me. For example, when I told him I liked the name [name]Duncan[/name], he said, “Like [name]Duncan[/name] [name]Hines[/name]?” When I mentioned [name]Greer[/name], he said kids in high school would call him “[name]Greer[/name] the [derogatory name that rhymes with [name]Greer[/name]].” Or when I asked him how he felt about the name [name]Maeve[/name], he told me he thought it sounded like the name of a witch, and now that’s all I can think of when I hear the name.
Oh my gosh, my husband does that all the time! I keep telling him we’ll never find a name that’s not associated with anybody! I’m loving [name]Miranda[/name] at the moment, but he thinks it’s too associated with the model [name]Miranda[/name] [name]Kerr[/name]. Family members haven’t really “ruined” any of my favourite names, but my cousins have used names I’d have otherwise had on my list, such as:
[name]Alexa[/name] (means [name]Alexandra[/name] is definitely out)
[name]Alison[/name] (means [name]Alice[/name] is likely out)
[name]Angus[/name]
[name]Anna[/name]
[name]Beatrice[/name]
[name]Elsa[/name]
I’m particularly bummed about [name]Beatrice[/name]. [name]Beatrix[/name] is also unlikely now because it’s so similar.
I don’t think [name]Miranda[/name] is too associated with [name]Miranda[/name] [name]Kerr[/name], although guys would probably associate it more often than females haha.
My sister and all of my friends have very different naming styles than I do, and my cousins are all either way older or way younger, so I guess I’m lucky!
I think that you could totally still use [name]Alexandra[/name], [name]Alice[/name], or [name]Beatrix[/name] as middles! My husband has a nephew named [name]Owen[/name], but I was considering [name]Eoin[/name] as a middle for a while, which I think would have been fine.
Oh, a lot! For example, our dialog from the pregnancy times(kind of):
Me: - J, dear, what do you think of the name [name]Amandine[/name] for our girly?
SO: - This name reminds me of [name]Amanda[/name] [Surname]. You know, that horny woman.
Me: - Well, how do you feel about [name]Cosima[/name] then?
SO: - clarifies the spelling and the pronounciationLike my ex-girlfriend with Co- in the beginning? You really think I can name my precious daughter after her?
Me: - Not after her! She doesn’t own the name and, moreover, it’s [name]Cosima[/name], not [name]Sima[/name]. If you don’t like it then suggest some other names!
SO: - I like [name]Elizaveta[/name]. Polyhymnia, [name]Mildred[/name] or [name]Zinaida[/name] will be cute.
That being said, [name]Elizaveta[/name] and [name]Mildred[/name] are the names of his very close leaving relatives, Polyhymnia was a joke and [name]Zinaida[/name] is from the book he was reading. He suggests either spelling-disaster names or the names of his friends/family members.
And it’s nearly impossible to find the name that don’t make him think of his ex-girlfriend or ex-celeb crushes. That’s why [name]Fenella[/name], [name]Violet[/name], [name]Scarlett[/name], [name]Asher[/name] and many others were out.
But on the positive side, a lot of my relatives use exclusively Ukrainian names like [name]Darina[/name] and Oleksander that we never consider so they don’t ruin any names for us.
[name]One[/name] of my friends told me she likes [name]Ophelia[/name], but her husband was convinced boys would chase little [name]Ophelia[/name] around the playground yelling, “Oh, feel ya!” It was never a contender for me anyway, but now I can’t hear the name without thinking “feel ya”.
I suspect my husband is going to make naming difficult anyway. The other day, I suggested [name]Alice[/name] for a future daughter, only to be met with, “Like [name]Alice[/name] [name]Cooper[/name]?? Or that creepy movie?” I’m not letting aging rock stars define my kids’ name choices! (BTW “that creepy movie” = [name]Alice[/name] in Wonderland. Sigh…)
Other than that, no family members have ruined names, unless you count my cousin having a very unexpected third child and using [name]Nicholas[/name], one of my all-time favourites (though she didn’t know that).
My sister and mums the name ruiner I love [name]Alice[/name] but mum thinks its a grandma name and my sister can’t pronounce [name]Eamon[/name] correctly she always says it ee-mon not ay-mon but I love [name]Eamon[/name] so its staying on my list.
Oh, gosh. I hate to admit that i am the horrible person who does this to other people. My sister asked how i felt about the name McCall, and i immediately began imitating a crow cawing, and said “like Ma-call, ma-call?”
My mother and sister are constantly hating on the names I love. I do not plan on having children for a few more years, but occasionally I will throw out a name that I love, and they will tell me how much they dislike it. My sister tells me that she feels sorry for my future children because of the names I suggest. In my opinion, they are not kre8tiv, trendy, or weird.
So far they have not liked:
[name]Charlotte[/name]
[name]Oliver[/name]
[name]Silas[/name]
[name]Lucia[/name]
[name]Jude[/name]
[name]Henry[/name]
[name]Adele[/name]
[name]Jasper[/name]
[name]Sebastian[/name]
[name]Milo[/name]
[name]Ezra[/name]
[name]Atticus[/name]
[name]Titus[/name]
[name]Leif[/name]
[name]Jonah[/name]
I will probably still use some of these because I really do like them, but it is likely I won’t share my children’s names with them until they are officially named.
My mom is particularly great at ruining names. [name]Henry[/name] got a “You will not name my grandson that!” with such a sheer amount of contempt I can’t even fathom it.
My dad immediately changed [name]Leopold[/name] (my brother’s favorite) into Tadpole.
And my favorite naming conversation:
DH: I like [name]Virgil[/name].
Me: raised eyeball
[name]BIL[/name]: from the kitchen Yeah, [name]Virgil[/name] the Virgin. You can’t tell him Uncle [name]Clay[/name] saved him from that.
DH: Shut it [name]Chuck[/name]!
I haven’t had a problem of names being ruined by people pointing things out about them. But I have some names I love that have been ruined by certain family members owning the name. I wouldn’t want my child to share a name with a relative in prison for kiddie porn or an alcoholic no matter how much I love the name.
@rkrd: Maybe you can convince your dad to change his mule’s name before you start naming kids! [name]Alex[/name] doesn’t sound like a mule-ish name to me at all
@mclevine: Luckily we’re not big fans of any of each other’s ex’s names, so that’s not a problem for us. Maybe if you convince him for a while that you’re seriously considering his ex’s name, ones that seem vaguely similar won’t seem so bad
@maggie from canada: Not gonna lie, I totally thought [name]Alice[/name] in Wonderland was a creepy looking movie too!
@ebenezer.scrouge: [name]Eamon[/name] is a pretty cool name, [name]IMO[/name].
@ameliawilliams: That is hilarious, and competely something that my husband would do. [name]Even[/name] when I’m mad at him for ruining names, sometimes I can’t help laughing at it.
@smismar: I feel your sister’s pain! For a long time I loved the name [name]Keeley[/name], but then married a man whose last name ends in “-ie.” Terrible decision making on my part
I also know a girl from college whose name was [name]Jessica[/name] and got engaged to a man whose last name began with “[name]Ca[/name]-” and she all of a sudden became panicked that people would start calling her “ca-ca” (she apparently thought we were still in first grade), so she all of a sudden started making people call her [name]Jess[/name]!
I don’t have any children just yet, but I’ve always loved names, ever since I was a little girl. I can remember going into the family office/computer room and pulling out my mom’s baby name book and just sitting for hours reading through the different names and meanings and origins.
With regard to family members or friends ruining names for me, yes, it has happened. A few months ago I was talking with my mother and we started talking about names, as we sometimes do. She’s always supported my love of names and name origins and such. Anywho. I mentioned the name [name]Leo[/name], which I have fallen in love with. You would have thought I had told her I was going to name my future son Shamallamadingdong or something. She said she didn’t like it at all, made fun of it, and then said she wasn’t going to call him by that name and that she’d use the middle name instead, which is going to be my husband’s first name ([name]Daniel[/name]) since it’s a tradition on his side of the family for the son to have the father’s first name as his middle name. I was positively heartbroken. Granted, [name]Leo[/name] is a bit more unusual, but it’s nothing extreme, at least in my opinion. I love the name. It’s simple, a bit unique but not exceedingly so, and the meaning “lion” really speaks to me because lions have always been one of my favorite animals. Needless to say, I have avoided talking names with her since then. It’s funny, though, because she adores the name I will most definitely use for a future daughter: [name]Avalon[/name].
@mythian: Family members being that negative about a name you love is always tough, it’s happened to me too! Although I think that if it actually came down to it, she would feel pretty silly calling him [name]Dan[/name] if everybody else was calling him [name]Leo[/name] (although a kind of cool [name]Daniel[/name] and the lion’s den connotation).
