AIBU - to ask you for your worst girl and boy names

Mirrorlolo · 2026-08-22T07:38:38+00:00

Asking on behalf of DD who is expecting. What are in your view the worst girl and boy names. for me they are the made up ones like Nevaeh and Jayden

LifesabagofRevels · 24/08/2026 22:35

Story. For a baby girl I met recently.

LancashireButterPie · 24/08/2026 22:32

Candida for a girl
Freddie for a boy (visceral reaction to Freddie, it's hideous).

5682Jhd · 24/08/2026 22:26

I don’t like names that seem cute on a baby but will sound ridiculous when they grow up. I used to work with a woman who called her little girl Flossie. And I don’t like the name Teddy for a boy.
I do like Florence and Edward, and think it would have been a better choice and they could have used Flossie and Teddy as nicknames.

Redredrumdedrum · 24/08/2026 22:18

Aside from the obviously stupid ones, I really hate:

Ophelia
Archie
Leonora
All jewel names
Willow

EvieBB · 24/08/2026 22:16

Fivebyfive2 · 22/08/2026 08:45

I was at a farm park place in Devon last month and heard a mum call her children over - "Cleopatra, Odin, it's time for lunch" 🤣

😆

wellington77 · 23/08/2026 18:57

I think so but angel was a white English girl. I’m just not a fan of them, each to their own.

Coinkidinki · 23/08/2026 18:56

KTheGrey · 23/08/2026 10:44

Think you might be telling on yourself there - I would imagine it's a looking for names that sound nice or that you haven't heard of before, or trying to make sure your pick won't be one that means there will be three other children with the exact same name in class.

There are also hazards in picking a name that is popular and sounds terribly similar to other popular names without being the same, so your child is forever known as Amy I mean Amelia I mean Aimee I mean Emmy I mean Emily sorry Mia ... etc.

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The OP gives 'Jayden' as an example, which is a popular name, so I doubt it.

Surely you'd ask for 'unpopular' names if that's what you want, not 'worst' names. They are not the same thing.

Bollihobs · 23/08/2026 16:19

Purplecatshopaholic · 22/08/2026 08:47

I don’t like it when nice names have a butchered spelling. No need, just awful. I know an Aalivyah (work it out, lol) - wtaf!

Oh my god that's the most bonkers spelling of Olivia in the world! 😂

I'm with you on the "our take" spelling atrocities - was watching Endeavour last night and one of the female actors was called 'Shvorne'......🙄

KTheGrey · 23/08/2026 16:04

PointedFirs · 23/08/2026 12:05

Not any more. I think they abolished it in the early 1990s.

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Gosh. There has definitely been fuss about attempts to use dictator's names - Hitler, for instance - more recently than that. Google thinks Germany bans names deemed 'offensive' or 'tied to historical atrocity' which seems reasonable.

AnitaCam · 23/08/2026 13:10

Melissa is out of fashion , never really was hugely popular in the UK. I met a ghastly woman once called Larissa, which sounds to me like the name of a cleaning fluid.
Sonia has disappeared too. Thankfully.

bloblob · 23/08/2026 13:07

Spike is awful, I would assume it was a nickname. It just sounds harsh and spiky 😆

More ‘surnames as first names’ I’ve seen- Hudson, Carter, Digby, Montague, Parker, Sawyer. There are so many names to choose from, unnecessary to resort to using surnames.

SewYellowLikeButter · 23/08/2026 13:01

Coinkidinki · 23/08/2026 10:07

There are still people (not me) who believe the Krays represented a golden era of criminality - I think because they left 'ordinary people' alone and had lines they wouldn't cross - they wouldn't condone mugging old ladies, that kind of thing.

Their type of fraud was on a corporate scale, not scamming the man on the street. That contrasts favourably to some compared with modern life, which is like trying to cross a minefield as you dodge scams left, right and centre.

Of course, the Krays type of crime did affect the person on the street if you dig deeper - protection rackets sending people out of business, collusion with corrupt police etc.

But to some people, the Krays were 'gentlemen thieves'.

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Ah yes those wonderful criminals… they wouldn’t harm a granny. They would rape people though and did. Lauding them is sick.

igelkott2026 · 23/08/2026 12:45

FrostyPalms · 22/08/2026 17:03

Names are very personal, so it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks.

Personally, I don't like diminutives as official names - Archie, Teddy etc. I'm also not a fan of names that have until very recently been seen as old fashioned - Alfie, Violet, etc. On the other hand I don't like trendy modern names. My daughters both have names that are classic but not old fashioned, and worked for them when they were babies as well as they do now they're young adults, and won't seem out of place when they're old.

I don't personally like unisex names for girls or names that can be surnames. I have two nieces who have unisex names that are also names that are sometimes surnames. Obviously I wouldn't have chosen those names, but they are their names and I love them regardless of their names!

Yes I don't like abbreviated names as the official name.

Names like Sam or Nick or Abi. Call them Samuel, Nicholas or Abigail. You can still call them by the short version but they have the option to use the long version.

Way back in the day I had a friend called Michael who went by Mike - he'd studied engineering. He said if he'd done law he'd have been Michael and if he'd been a bricklayer he would have been Mick - but as he was an engineer he thought Mike suited him. He liked having the choice, rather than being Mike on his birth certificate.

igelkott2026 · 23/08/2026 12:39

A while I ago I knew someone whose first son was called Spike.

I think she went on to have three more sons who all had "ordinary" names like Jack or William.

Not sure if Spike had a second name.

igelkott2026 · 23/08/2026 12:37

PointedFirs · 22/08/2026 15:16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_(given_name)

Look at the large numbers of notable Orlandos, most born long before Disney World or Orlando Bloom playing Legolas. And the heir to the Dukedom of Marlborough, who must be four or five, is Orlando Spencer-Churchill. I doubt his parents conceived him behind the Cinderella Castle.

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I have a cousin a couple of times removed who is called Orlando. He wasn't conceived in Orlando!

igelkott2026 · 23/08/2026 12:35

pinkstripeycat · 22/08/2026 22:29

I’m in my 50s. No one my age is called Barry! It’s for someone much older. Saying that a family friend called their son Barry (probably around 40 now) after Barry Sheene the racing driver and as a kid I wondered why they were giving him an old man name.

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I'm in my 50s and there was a Barry in my primary school class. I would have thought it was a Gen X name. Like Gary. Not granddad names unless you become a granddad in your late 40s or early 50s.

rumplestiltskin88 · 23/08/2026 12:20

PointedFirs · 23/08/2026 12:05

Not any more. I think they abolished it in the early 1990s.

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I don’t live in the uk but I still think in most countries there are systems in place to prevent naming children grossly inappropriate names. Not necessarily a list , but other laws. It’s like a form of abuse .

ButterPiesAreGreat · 23/08/2026 12:20

Oh God, I’d forgotten that our third goalkeeper, currently out on loan, is called Li-Bau!

PointedFirs · 23/08/2026 12:07

AnitaCam · 23/08/2026 11:59

Bernard and Bernadette don’t seem to be having a resurgence, do they. Nor does Theresa. or Irene.

some names seem to have sunk without trace.

I just think those haven’t been gone quite long enough to have come back into use.

PointedFirs · 23/08/2026 12:05

KTheGrey · 23/08/2026 10:59

Probably is in parts of Europe - don't the French have a List? The British are pretty liberal though.

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Not any more. I think they abolished it in the early 1990s.

AnitaCam · 23/08/2026 11:59

Bernard and Bernadette don’t seem to be having a resurgence, do they. Nor does Theresa. or Irene.

some names seem to have sunk without trace.

KTheGrey · 23/08/2026 10:59

rumplestiltskin88 · 22/08/2026 10:36

I am surprised it’s not illegal to name someone Lucifer

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Probably is in parts of Europe - don't the French have a List? The British are pretty liberal though.

KTheGrey · 23/08/2026 10:44

Coinkidinki · 22/08/2026 08:49

Oh, dear - this is going to be one of those threads where people sneer at names from demographics or cultures they perceive as inferior.

Why does your DD need a list of 'the worst names'? Why not post some names she is considering and get people's opinions?

If you're naming your baby, it seems an odd way to go about it - take every single possible name and start crossing off those that Mumsnetters don't like.

Think you might be telling on yourself there - I would imagine it's a looking for names that sound nice or that you haven't heard of before, or trying to make sure your pick won't be one that means there will be three other children with the exact same name in class.

There are also hazards in picking a name that is popular and sounds terribly similar to other popular names without being the same, so your child is forever known as Amy I mean Amelia I mean Aimee I mean Emmy I mean Emily sorry Mia ... etc.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 23/08/2026 10:26

LGBirmingham · 23/08/2026 10:23

And Allegro is a musical term for a fast section of a piece.

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Which is also why IMO Allegra is a lovely name for a girl, since besides sounding attractive, presumably it means lively.

LGBirmingham · 23/08/2026 10:23

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/08/2026 19:42

Whoever mentioned Allegro/Allegra, Allegra was the name of Lord Byron’s natural daughter.

And Allegro is a musical term for a fast section of a piece.