…it might be too out there, or not fit your themes but what are names both boy/girl or unisex that you absolutely love just would never use.
[name_u]Leo[/name_u], which I love but is *probably* too similar to a family member's name.
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Gunnar – It’s my second favourite boys name,
and I know that people would butcher the pronunciation where I live. It sounds so beautiful when said correctly, so it’s unfortunate that I’ll never get a little Gunnar! I still would be open to using it as a middle name, though.
Elvar – Another one that would get butchered where I live. It’s beautiful, but I think people would equate it to Elvis Presley – very similar appearance.
Johanna – I love the way it looks, the way it sounds, all of that. However, I’m not so fond of the nicknames, and it’s much too similar to my partner’s sister’s name, and I don’t want people to think that it was an honour to her.
Esther – This one is really specific to where I live, and literature I read as a kid. CW// cults: there is a very secluded cult that exists not too far from where I live. A lot of people living on my island have written books about, and the most well-known of those books is about a young girl called Esther. I strongly associate the name with that cult now, so I don’t think I could ever name my kid that, at least not where I live. Very unfortunate, but I still love the name, surprisingly!
edit re. Gunnar
My partner has decided they like it!
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I have too many to count lol!
A lot of Hebrew Old Testament names that I don’t feel it would be appropriate for me to use like [name_m]Phineas[/name_m] or [name_m]Abel[/name_m]
Ones that are too close to a relative that I don’t want to honor like [name_f]Rebecca[/name_f], [name_f]Maxine[/name_f], [name_f]Carol[/name_f], or [name_u]James[/name_u]
Any that are not a part of my culture that would also be inappropriate to me like [name_m]Ramses[/name_m]
i love the combination of [name_u]Aspen[/name_u] [name_f]Astoria[/name_f] as a little girl’s first and middle. however i would not use it in real life because it sounds more like a princess🥰
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I absolutely love the name [name_f]Eliza[/name_f], but it’s my close friend’s name and I wouldn’t be able to use it without being seen to honour her, and there’s another way to honour her and also other names I love more.
[name_u]Willoughby[/name_u] is probably a bit too out there for me to use.
[name_u]Aiko[/name_u] and Yelyzaveta are international names which I don’t think are usable without having a partner from the same background.
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[name_m]Hi[/name_m] there.
I love love love [name_m]Colm[/name_m], but I just don’t think that I’d do it. I live in the Midwest U.S., & it just doesn’t sound right w/out an Irish accent. And it would constantly get mispronounced around here anyway.
I’ve loved the name [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] for probably 20 years, but there’s no way that I’d use it these days. [name_f]My[/name_f] area is just littered w/little Adelyns. Which isn’t nearly as good as [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] in my opinion, but it’s too close for comfort. I don’t mind [name_f]Addie[/name_f], but between all of the Adelyns & [name_u]Addison[/name_u], [name_f]Addie[/name_f] has kind of gotten tired too. And I’d fear that it’d be hard to avoid [name_f]Addie[/name_f] w/Adeline.
I love the name [name_f]Esme[/name_f], but I just don’t know. I feel like it’s a little hard to say & spell. And our ln starts w/an ‘M’, so it doesn’t flow great.
Then there’s beautiful [name_f]Josephine[/name_f]. I love [name_f]Josephine[/name_f], but I feel like it’d be hard to avoid [name_u]Joey[/name_u] or [name_u]Josie[/name_u]. And I just can’t get into those. I wish I could, because I adore [name_f]Josephine[/name_f].
And then there’s [name_m]Seamus[/name_m] & [name_m]Patrick[/name_m] which are two names that I love enough to use but have already been used by close family.
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WOW i love Aspen Astoria and it sounds 100% usable in real life imo
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There are quite a few tbh
just at the top of my head: Matilda- I love the name but hate every nn for it
Josephine- love it but wouldnt work where I live
I’ll be back with the rest of the names
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I have a ton, for a lot of different reasons.
L names - my SO’s last name starts with L and we aren’t a fan of alliterative names
[name_u]Lux[/name_u]
[name_u]Loki[/name_u]
[name_u]Logan[/name_u]
[name_m]Leyton[/name_m]
[name_u]Luca[/name_u]
[name_u]Lark[/name_u]
[name_f]Lively[/name_f]
[name_f]Lita[/name_f]
C/K names - we have 3 nephews with names beginning with C or K (same sound) so we want to avoid adding to the confusion (at least for now)
[name_u]Clarke[/name_u]
[name_f]Claudia[/name_f]
[name_f]Clementine[/name_f]
[name_f]Cleo[/name_f]
Coari
[name_f]Cora[/name_f]
[name_u]Cove[/name_u]
[name_f]Cache[/name_f]
[name_u]Cadence[/name_u]
[name_u]Calloway[/name_u]
[name_u]Coast[/name_u]
[name_u]Cooper[/name_u]
[name_u]Coy[/name_u]
[name_u]Calder[/name_u]
[name_m]Calvin[/name_m]
[name_m]Canon[/name_m]
[name_m]Captain[/name_m]
[name_m]Kylo[/name_m]
There are also a lot of names I love but are way too popular for me, and of course also names I love that my SO hates so I could never use. So really the list of names I love and can’t use is way longer than the list of names I love and would use.
[name_m]Anakin[/name_m]
Salazar
[name_m]Balthazar[/name_m]
[name_u]Ezra[/name_u]
[name_u]Logan[/name_u]
Names i would love to use but can’t:
[name_u]Swayze[/name_u] (celeb & bf hates)
[name_f]Wildrose[/name_f] (love primrose)
[name_f]Blossom[/name_f] (sisters name)
[name_u]Calloway[/name_u]
[name_f]Clementine[/name_f]
[name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Fleurette[/name_f]
[name_f]Holiday[/name_f]
[name_u]Happy[/name_u]
[name_f]Jezabel[/name_f]
[name_f]Mazikeen[/name_f]
[name_f]Khaleesi[/name_f]
[name_f]Millicent[/name_f]
[name_f]Pandora[/name_f]
[name_u]Santana[/name_u]
[name_f]Zipporah[/name_f]
[name_f]Narcissa[/name_f]
[name_f]Artemisia[/name_f] (bf says amnesia)
[name_m]Ambrose[/name_m] 
(love primrose)
[name_m]Bastian[/name_m] (bfs brother)
[name_m]Malachi[/name_m] / [name_m]Malakai[/name_m] / [name_m]Malachite[/name_m] (bf hates)
[name_u]Wanderer[/name_u]
[name_u]Traveler[/name_u]
[name_m]Archangel[/name_m]
[name_m]Casanova[/name_m]
[name_u]Montgomery[/name_u]
[name_m]Hawthorne[/name_m] (fingers crossed this one changes list)
[name_m]Llewelyn[/name_m]
[name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u] (bf hates for a boy)
[name_m]Orlando[/name_m]
[name_u]Zealand[/name_u] (still obsessed tho)
[name_u]Sylvester[/name_u]
[name_m]Lucifer[/name_m] / Lucyfer ( 
)
[name_m]Toulouse[/name_m]
Zéphyr (bf hates)
[name_u]Beckham[/name_u] (bf puts emphasis on ham)
[name_u]Cohen[/name_u] (obvious reasons)
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[name_f]Vera[/name_f], because that is the name of my father’s wife
[name_f]Lilia[/name_f] due to religious reasons, also [name_f]Eleonora[/name_f], and [name_f]Stefania[/name_f], and [name_f]Athena[/name_f]
[name_m]Alexander[/name_m] and [name_m]Vladimir[/name_m] because there are too many of them in my family
[name_m]Ilya[/name_m] because of the association with my friend’s abusive boyfriend
[name_f]Marina[/name_f] also a bad association, and all names with the root [name_u]Angel[/name_u] (except [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] (a) I guess), and [name_f]Tatiana[/name_f] too
Any name with a religious meaning…so,like half of all names!
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I have way too many of these.
[name_u]Daniel[/name_u]— I have two exes called [name_u]Danny[/name_u].
[name_f]Natasha[/name_f]— love the name, but bad associations.
[name_m]Kent[/name_m]— it’s a place name for me, and not one I have particularly positive associations with. [name_m]Kenneth[/name_m] is the name of a close family friend, so also out.
[name_m]Samuel[/name_m]— the name of a family member and also the name of an ex, but most importantly I had a dog named [name_u]Sammy[/name_u].
[name_m]Thomas[/name_m]— had a dog named [name_m]Tommy[/name_m], plus this is the name of a family member.
Natalie/Natalia— bad associations with the name [name_f]Natalie[/name_f], and [name_f]Natalia[/name_f] is the given name of a close friend.
[name_f]Sadie[/name_f]— bad associations with this name, even though I love it. These associations might fade over time though and I still could see myself maybe using it as a nickname for [name_f]Isadora[/name_f].
[name_f]Sabrina[/name_f]— name of a family friend’s daughter.
[name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f]— too many of these in my family, mostly middle names but still can’t get past it. Also my preferred nickname (Libby) is in use in my family by someone else already.
[name_f]Amy[/name_f]— name of a family member.
[name_u]Sean[/name_u]— name of a family member.
[name_m]Patrick[/name_m]— name of three family members.
[name_m]Colin[/name_m]— name of a family member.
[name_u]Antonia[/name_u]— name of a family member, and also a negative association (with a non family member).
[name_f]Hermione[/name_f]— feels too much like a fandom name even though that’s not why I love it.
[name_f]Ginny[/name_f]— same as [name_f]Hermione[/name_f].
[name_m]Neville[/name_m]— same as [name_f]Ginny[/name_f] and [name_f]Hermione[/name_f]. Actually, there’s a lot of [name_u]Harry[/name_u] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] related names I love for non-HP reasons, but I just don’t feel right using them. I could make a whole list of just those.
[name_m]Roman[/name_m]— negative associations.
[name_f]Caroline[/name_f]— negative association.
[name_u]Ari[/name_u]— name of an old friend.
And then of course there’s all the names I love that just wouldn’t make cultural sense for me to use, would feel appropriative, etc. Not to mention the guilty pleasure names I have that I adore in theory but couldn’t commit to in practice.
– Oksana is a favorite of mine, I would just worry about the “Ox” nickname and think it’s a pretty obvious way to bully someone. If anyone has any thoughts on that nickname please feel free to share.
– Any name ending in “th” because I would have a hard time pronouncing those name with “ ’s ”. Ex: Gwenyth’s, Edith’s, Ruth’s, Judith’s, Elizabeth’s, Lillith’s (then again Lillith is a demonic figure so I probably wouldn’t use it anyway).
– Anakin: Absolutely love this name, and would use it regardless of it being in Star Wars because I like the look and sound of the name. Although I’d worry about him being made fun of.
– Celebrity Singers: Bowie, Presley, Elton, Elvis, Jagger, Lennon, Cher, etc. I think they’re all cool, I just wouldn’t be brave enough to use them.
Unfortunately there are quite many names that I love but wouldn’t use 
Several of the names on my list are in my opinion too fancy to be given as a first name. Like [name_m]Amadeus[/name_m], [name_u]Auberon[/name_u], [name_m]Octavian[/name_m], [name_u]Konstantin[/name_u], [name_m]Carolus[/name_m], [name_m]Ludovic[/name_m], [name_m]Alaric[/name_m] and [name_m]Leonidas[/name_m] for boys and [name_f]Apollonia[/name_f] and [name_f]Amalthea[/name_f] for girls.
I also wouldn’t use names that are hard to pronounce in Finnish like [name_m]Theodore[/name_m], [name_m]Ambrose[/name_m], [name_f]Adelaide[/name_f] and [name_f]Josephine[/name_f]. I couldn’t use [name_f]Cosima[/name_f] either, because it sounds too similar to the Finnish verb “kosia” (which means "to propose).
[name_f]Io[/name_f] .I love this name so much but it doesn’t go with our surname at all and people don’t seem to know how to agree on a pronunciation and have said they don’t know how to spell it (it is two letters people… Come on!).
[name_u]Ocean[/name_u] . I really really wanted this for our son but then my husband kept pronouncing it O’Sean To make fun of it and now its ruined for me ever using it for a kid.
[name_f]Calliope[/name_f] . [name_f]My[/name_f] husband won’t even consider it for a second.
[name_u]Sage[/name_u] . If our son had been a girl this was my first choice name. For some reason it feels weird and wrong to consider it again…it is like the time for [name_u]Sage[/name_u] has passed and it wasn’t meant to be.
[name_f]Chloe[/name_f], [name_u]Joni[/name_u], [name_f]Cressida[/name_f], [name_f]Leandra[/name_f], [name_m]Raphael[/name_m], [name_f]Amelie[/name_f], [name_f]Sophie[/name_f], [name_u]Cadence[/name_u], [name_f]Kaia[/name_f], [name_u]Cassidy[/name_u], [name_u]Kerrigan[/name_u], [name_f]Tamar[/name_f], [name_f]Thessaly[/name_f] and [name_f]Nadine[/name_f] because I’ve used them on characters
[name_u]Florence[/name_u] and [name_u]Henry[/name_u] because they’re too popular
[name_f]Elowen[/name_f]- Simply would not get pronounced right and I don’t feel comfortable using a cornish name without proper pronunciation/respectfulness/admiration
[name_m]Fergus[/name_m]- Not a fan of US pronunciation (Fer-Gus) but love hearing scottish/irsh (Fair-gus)
[name_f]Clover[/name_f]- FH thinks it’s a dog/pet name
Nora/ah- family name but far too popular for my taste would still consider for a middle spot
[name_u]Sage[/name_u]- poor associations (bummer)
Meadow/Harmony/Melody- too word namey for me to use IRL
[name_f]Marceline[/name_f]- [name_u]Love[/name_u] the idea of it, beautiful NN possibilities but just isn’t quite it
[name_m]Oswald[/name_m]- family name but seems very surnamey/old-man
Probably a bunch more but who knows.