Names ruined by word/sound associations

What are some names that have been ruined for you because of word associations with the spelling or sound?
For example: Someone once pointed out that [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f] spells “beat rice”.
[name_f]Isabel[/name_f] sounds like “is a bell”

1 Like

[name_m]Graham[/name_m] - I was having a conversation with a girl and I thought she was talking about spending the day with her Grandma (Gram) but the whole time she was actually talking about her friend [name_m]Graham[/name_m]

[name_f]Poppy[/name_f] - every time I say it I just hear papi, like the Spanish word for dad. I couldn’t imagine a little girl named [name_f]Poppy[/name_f] going on vacation to Mexico, or even wanting to move to a predominantly Spanish-speaking area as an adult.

[name_u]Everly[/name_u] - one day I realized it’s just [name_u]Beverly[/name_u] without the B and it ruined it for me

[name_f]Iris[/name_f] - a family I watch on Youtube was considering naming their baby [name_f]Iris[/name_f] in 2020 but when they said it out loud to their other kids, their oldest said “why would you name the baby Virus?” And once you hear it it’s hard to unhear it

4 Likes

[name_f]Alice[/name_f] containing lice
[name_f]Alaia[/name_f] sounding like A liar
[name_f]Amaia[/name_f] sounding like “am I a” - I would still use this but I think it requires more caution on middles eg [name_f]Amaia[/name_f] [name_f]Lily[/name_f] sounds like “am I a lily?”

1 Like

margot - i used to love this but someone said it looked like maggot and i cant unsee it now! i have replaced it with margaux which is one of my favourite girls names (ever)

dorothea - name of a serial killer dorothea puente - kinda put me off

2 Likes

[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] - rhyming with pedophilia
[name_f]Elektra[/name_f] - Maybe not ruined, but it does bother me: [name_f]Elektra[/name_f] is used as a word for electricity in [name_m]Dutch[/name_m].
[name_f]Annalisa[/name_f] + similar names - too close to anally
[name_m]Leif[/name_m] - Lijf, pronounced the same as [name_m]Leif[/name_m], means body in [name_m]Dutch[/name_m]

Several people here on NB ruined [name_m]Pollux[/name_m] for me by saying it sounds like bollocks. I try not to care because [name_f]English[/name_f] isn’t my first language and I don’t live in an [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking country, but I can’t unhear it now :sob:

2 Likes

Yes, this exactly! I call my husband Papi and my kids call him Papi. I can’t imagine calling a young girl Poppy.

2 Likes

Oh boy, I have a lot of these… here’s a few.

Violet. I can’t unhear “violent.”
Viola. Means something terrible in Spanish.
Poppy. It’s gross, but I can’t help but see “poopy.”
Flossie. Makes me think of dental floss.
Gretchen. I just hear the “retch” in the middle. I’ve “replaced” it with Greta, which I like a lot.
Chloe. Someone once said it sounds like if you’re clearing your throat and I can’t unhear it. I do quite like Clio as an alternative to it though.
Rona: Maybe self explanatory, but COVID.
Harry. I just hear “hairy.” Harrison and Harris are fine.
Hamilton. Don’t love that it begins with “ham.”

1 Like

[name_f]Astraea[/name_f] is a big one for me. I love the name, the meaning, the spelling but I absolutely cannot get ‘ash tray’ out my head when I say it, no matter how hard I try.

I loved [name_f]Ferelith[/name_f] for a while, until I couldn’t stop hearing it as ‘Feral heath’. [name_m]Heath[/name_m] is a super common element of places where I live, so I can’t shake it.

[name_f]Kerensa[/name_f] = cadenza.

[name_m]Phelan[/name_m] = failing.

I worry about [name_f]Pallas[/name_f] sounding and looking like phallus.

[name_f]Soraya[/name_f] as Suh-RYE-uh sounds like psoriasis. I do like Suh-RAY-uh though.

There are a few names that sound like homophones of words when I say them, and they lose the appeal. ‘er’, ‘ar’, and ‘or’ turn into ‘uh’ most of the time in my accent. So Saela = sailor and [name_f]Jayla[/name_f] = jailor (although a character reference helps this one).

Some sounds don’t bother me, like [name_m]Isidore[/name_m], but more negative ones or where it overshadows the feeling I get from the name, tend to bug me.

I used to love Violet before I realised it was one letter away from violent :pensive:

1 Like

I think Annalie/Annelie is pretty in theory but it does remind me of anally

I love the sound of [name_f]Effie[/name_f] [name_u]Lou[/name_u] as a sort of double name but it does remind me a bit of f you

1 Like

Savannah – In Spanish it just sounds like bedsheets
Elliot – Looks like the Spanish spelling for corn, and I can’t unsee it! Elote
Theodore – Someone once pointed out it spells “The Odor”. I love Theo however!
Viola – Love this namee, it just has a terrible meaning in Spanish.
Aspen – I wanted to love this name, but it just sounds like something else to me :sweat_smile:

3 Likes

I used to love the nickname [name_m]Auggie[/name_m] when I heard Americans say it but in my accent it’s just a hard G away form orgie (or organ).

[name_f]Astrid[/name_f] but someone midheard it as ass turd and now that’s all I hear.

[name_f]Amelia[/name_f] used to be a favorite of mine…until I took a medical terminology class and now all I can think of is the medical definition (absence of limb(s))