To not understand why people call their baby...

[smellfunny]

Not to be goady, but I don't understand why people give their babies names with negative connotations or meanings. Examples from the top of my head being:

Cain (murdered his brother in Old Testament)
Hector (hector also being a synonym for bullying someone)
Tristan (this one is a bit contentious because it can either mean 'tumult' or correspond to 'sadness')

Is it just that people don't think about the meanings behind the names? Feel free to add more names to the list...

Bonus name: 'Claudia' coming from the Latin word for 'lame'. I gave this one a pass because it's so established and the connotation is generally unknown...

[SilverdaleGlen]

You have your own answer really, they either don't know or feel the connotations are lost in the mists of time.

[MoistCantaloupe]

Adolf Hitler

[insancerre]

You missed off Willy

[honeylulu]

Mary means bitterness. Plenty of girls/ women called that!
It was also my s name

[Trills]

Maybe people (rightly) think that nobody thinks about whether Claudia means lame - we just see it as a name.

[PinkSquash]

My sons name is on your list I don't look into the meanings, my name is a derivative of loveable and it really doesn't suit my hot tempered nature so it makes no odds to me...

[Baubletrouble43]

I like all four of your examples. When I hear them I think of different connotations eg hector of troy- brave, eldest son etc or Tristan and isolde....

[FuckMyUterus]

moist I have a cat named Adolf

[smellfunny]

insancerre

You missed off Willy



There was an unfortunate boy in my school called Benedict Williams whose name was shortened to Bendy Willy. Made me think that regardless of effort, kids will always find a way to ruin a name!

[PantPlot]

I think some people just well, don't give a shit really. I know I didn't.

I have three DC and chose names we liked- meanings and derivatives didn't come into it at all.

[60sname]

I wouldn't really care about the meaning if I liked a name as they're generally not well-known, but wouldn't choose a name with a famously negative connotation such as Cain.

[Baubletrouble43]

Lots of names have daft meanings and are widely used.

[Henrysmycat]

I’m going to get flamed but I detest misspellings of “names”. One I saw yesterday: Destyny Joi.

[Believeitornot]

You assume that names have the same connotations for all people. They don’t.

There might be a serial killer with your name OP, for all you know.

[honeylulu]

Oops my MIL's name and it suited her ... bitter by name and nature.

Gideon means lame too. Quite popular now.

Imogen means "last" so an odd choice unless you're sure it's your final baby.

We named our stillborn son a name that means sadness, but that seemed appropriate.

Most people don't know or care about meaning of names though.

[MoistCantaloupe]

fuckmy that’s a cute cat name! Is he black and white?

[smellfunny]

Believeitornot

I think considering the number of people in the world, then it's highly likely that each one of our names is shared by a notable criminal/murderer.

I was mostly interested to know why people would choose names that have an intrinsically negative connotation. Either through their original meaning or origin. But I guess that that question has been answered in the above responses - people simply don't worry about it

Obviously none of this really effects me. But I had two long-standing childhood friends called Hector and Tristan and I was always curious to know why their parents named them that. To me the negative meaning behind each name was obvious and it felt a bit strange to me!

[mailTo]

Try being a headmistress married to a headmaster. Every name has a negative connotation!

[LoniceraJaponica]

“I’m going to get flamed but I detest misspellings of “names”. One I saw yesterday: Destyny Joi.”

I’m with you on that. I know someone who called their son Konner.

OP I think you are overthinking it. I had no idea about Tristan and wouldn’t have associated Hector with bullying. In fact it reminds me of Hector’s House which was a children’s programme back in the 1960s. I had no idea about the meaning behind Claudia either.

[surlycurly]

I called my son Jonah. We love it. He loves it. It clearly had negative connotations. He, however, has been the greatest blessing of my life.

[TheQueenOfWands]

Amelia is a disease.

Also the name of quite a famous serial killer.

Baffles me that it's so popular.

[tiptopteepe]

Tristan is a beautiful name though and some people find a name that means sadness, dramatic and romantic, not negative.

Mara
Deirdre
Dolores
Lola

All of those names mean sadness. I think people use it interchangeably with meaning soulful. Its not necessarily negative.

Other dramatic names:

Maura means 'dark'
Mallory means 'unfortunate'
Lilith means 'of the night'

[sausagerollsrock]

I think most people just select a name for their baby that they like rather than go into the ins and outs of what it means.