Names you love that make you cringe

General Name Discussion
1

I was discussing with my anatomy & physiology teacher (for a massage course) his children who are 7yrs, 5yrs and 8 months and I of course asked their names which are, respectively, [name]Samuel[/name], [name]Bella[/name] and [name]Sienna[/name]. And they’re such lovely names, but I couldn’t help but cringe internally at the fact that he had three kids under ten with names that have all rated quite highly on the popularity list over the last ten years and are all within the top 50 in Australia right now. If you count [name]Bella[/name] as [name]Isabella[/name], then [name]Samuel[/name] is the least popular name at Number 12!

But they are popular for a reason. They’re good names. So on top of cringing internally, there was the guilt! The guilt for judging him for being so common!

Does anyone else find themselves automatically re-acting to popular names in the same way?

Are there any names that you just don’t understand the popularity of at all? (For me it’s [name]Madison[/name]. I have an unnatural despise for it!)

[name]Do[/name] you think people should try to be more original?

[name]Do[/name] you think us Berries think way too much about this stuff?

2

Absolutely. I think way too much about the popularity of names. Then again… we Berries are interested in aspects of naming, and popularity is one of them.

Sometimes I do judge people’s baby names when I hear them, but most people will, in the same way you might judge someone’s clothes or whatever (of course, I’m talking about judging the name/clothes, NOT the people who have them.) And, of course, you don’t have to say what you think about the baby name. Save that for the celebrities who are popular enough to criticise! :slight_smile:

3

Oh, I would never!! I kept a proper smile and just said how nice I thought they were. [name]Cos[/name] they are nice names :slight_smile:

And yeah, we definitely do over-think it. But that’s our “thing”…it’s definitely mine!

4

Yes. I was at a party the other day when I was introduced to a sister set named [name]Ava[/name] and [name]Sophia[/name]. I think both names are beautiful, but I also cringed at the same time because now that seems to be the names of every other baby girl.

5

I wouldn’t cringe at a family made up of [name]Bella[/name], [name]Samuel[/name] and [name]Sienna[/name]. It wouldn’t even trigger my inner name nerd.

I only cringe at sibsets such as [name]Zayden[/name], Maddisyn and MacKinleigh (cringe at the tryndee-ness) or [name]Sawyer[/name], [name]Parker[/name] and [name]Skyler[/name] (cringe at the fact I don’t know which are the girls/boys).

[name]Bella[/name], [name]Sienna[/name] and [name]Samuel[/name] are extremely average names so not something that’d attract my attention, good or bad.

6

(I just want to preface this by saying I don’t mean to offend… I’m just flabbergasted over the way Berries avoid popular names like a plague. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, imo…)

lol, if I met siblings [name]Samuel[/name], [name]Bella[/name], and [name]Sienna[/name], I definitely wouldn’t cringe–inside or out! [name]Just[/name] because a name is popular doesn’t take away from its legitimacy and strength and beauty. [name]Imo[/name], there are two kinds of trendy–trendy but timeless (to me, these are names like [name]Lily[/name], [name]Sophia[/name], [name]Isabelle[/name]/a, [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Charlotte[/name], etc.), and trendy but will be extremely dated ([name]Braelyn[/name], all the Mc- names, [name]Addison[/name], [name]Nevaeh[/name], [name]Jayden[/name], [name]Kaylie[/name], etc.). And the only thing against a name like [name]Samuel[/name] or [name]Isabella[/name] is that it’s well loved, and I can’t possibly understand why that’s a bad thing.

Sure, it’s nice to have a less popular choice, but really, when it comes down to it, a lot of names are popular because they’re really great names. Really, I love the Berries, I do… I just don’t understand the flack they give popular names, because they’re really not that bad and they could be a million times worse. I grew up with a popular name and it really didn’t affect me negatively–I actually loved the popularity of my name. And on top of that, when you really do the math behind the statistics, even in the most populated areas, the likelihood that a little [name]Isabella[/name] or [name]Sophia[/name] would go to school or know another one isn’t as likely as most Berries like to say.

And no, absolutely not, haha. I don’t think they should have to be original. [name]Samuel[/name] and [name]Isabella[/name], [name]Christian[/name] and [name]Julia[/name], [name]Anna[/name] and [name]Patrick[/name], [name]Emily[/name] and [name]James[/name]–why should parents have to stop loving those names? Sure they’re popular, but they’re great names. If those are the names parents love, they should be able to use them.

And yeah, lol, I think a lot of Berries overthink it. But that’s just the nature of how we are. We love names and we love to talk about them.

7

[name]Jessica[/name], [name]Savannah[/name], [name]Grace[/name], [name]Marie[/name], [name]Anne[/name], [name]Hannah[/name], [name]Megan[/name], [name]Tina[/name], [name]Penelope[/name], [name]Susie[/name]. these names are just really common for me. they’re beautiful names and i think they are lovely ( i’m just not found of [name]Tina[/name]) but they are too common. especially [name]Susie[/name].

8

I guess it’s more the idea of losing the opportunity to meet a real person with an interesting name that makes common names cringe-worthy. Names like [name]Samuel[/name] and [name]Isabella[/name] are by no means bad, they’re quite lovely names, but everyone knows a dozen each. There’s something really special about meeting someone with an interesting name, one you’ve seen on paper, or maybe even heard, but never actually /met/. This experience can make or break a name, so when a new person comes along, name nerds can’t help but hope that they get a name test-drive too.

9

I agree with all of this. [name]Sofia[/name] is still ruined for me though, because I have a [name]Noah[/name] and I’m afraid everyone will judge me for my common/unthoughtful choice (despite all of the overthinking that was put into each choice!).