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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Baby names

What's the strangest reason for rejecting a name you've heard?

105 replies

Thurlow · 26/05/2016 16:56

Chatting to DP about girls names for DC2. I suggested a classic name which just happens to be the name of both of his grandmothers, and then suggested a shortening we'd use day to day. Let's say it's Elizabeth, with us actually using Betty/Bets.

He agreed this is a great name, in keeping with DD1's name, a lovely touch to use a family name, and he really likes the shortening Bets. However, an old friend of ours for some very obscure reason refers to his own mother as "Bets". This is a friend who now lives in another country and whose mother we've never actually met. But for this reason, DP thinks we should veto the name because it's "a bit weird"

Anyone got an stupider reasons?

OP posts:

Report

Thurlow · 27/05/2016 10:14

DH said he didn't like the name because he was in school with somebody with that name who always wore trainers to school rather than shoes

OP posts:

ItsyBitsyBikini · 27/05/2016 10:16

Haha noodle a local/rival school to my old high school is renowned in the area for being called Scabby Gabs so I'd have vetoed the name too even though I do like it!

Muskey · 27/05/2016 11:48

My dd is a Gabrielle she has never been called scabby Gabby. TBH I didn't think of that. Although DH again vetoed the male version Gabriel because he thought people would think that he (not the baby ) was gay. Please don't ask I just think I have a weird DH as far as baby names go.

ItsyBitsyBikini · 27/05/2016 12:08

Haha muskey I think your DH and mine have been talking. He would veto anything that would be taken as a slight on him but he has anxiety due to his upbringing so is very self concious of how people perceive him, me, our son. I'm surprised he likes the name we have actually chosen!

babyblabber · 27/05/2016 12:10

DD1 is Sophia because according to DH "you can't call a girl Sophie, that's a dog's name!"

There was one dog on his road called sophie. Never mind the Illinois of little girls so.

babyblabber · 27/05/2016 12:10

*millions

ReturnOfTheJewel · 27/05/2016 12:14

DH vetoed my favourite ever name because (apparently) it was the name of someone his uncle had an affair with many years ago and he didn't want to upset his aunt by reminding her of this (never mind that we see the uncle and aunt about once a year. Or that the uncle still works with the woman he had the affair with, so I can't see the aunt being all that bothered).

Elledouble · 27/05/2016 12:19

My partner vetoed Tabitha (which I adore) because he said it was a cat's name.

He vetoed Hope because we wanted our theoretical daughter (we had a boy in the end) to have the middle name Ivy, and it would mean she could never marry someone with a surname beginning with V, because then her initials would be HIV.

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 27/05/2016 12:43

One day I got talking to a proud grandma who was telling me that her DD and son-in-law were expecting again. Further along she confided she was a bit anxious because they were considering names she thought of as "black".
This was in the west country last year.

Notenoughsleepmumof3 · 27/05/2016 12:50

DH's family said I couldn't name either of my boys after my father, whom I adored, because it was the same name as a politician's (they hated) husband. Totally irrational, but there you go.

HeteronormativeHaybales · 27/05/2016 12:56

I liked Matthias for dc2, dh said no as he had had a classmate of that name (not in UK) who was murdered Not a 'strange' reason at all, though - a very sad one.

We dismissed a planned middle name for dc3 because it rhymed with another middle name that we definitely wanted to use (all our dc have 2 middle names).

Mookbark · 27/05/2016 12:58

A sad one, but I have a friend who wanted to name her DS Jack, but her DH vetoed it as he is black and was worried the DS would be called Black Jack. So sad that was seen as a real possibility in this day and age.

LolaStarr · 27/05/2016 16:37

I have a very weird one, and I have no explanation for it at all... DH loved the name Beth for a girl, but for some crazy reason it makes me think of corned beef yes I know I'm a crazy person

HerRoyalNotness · 27/05/2016 16:44

DH vetoed names based in fictional characters, ie

Cyrus.....the virus
Phineas... Fogg

Can't remember the others but there was a long list.

All 3 of the DC names, I suggested names and he said, nah I don't like that. They all ended up with my original suggestion.

originalusernamefail · 27/05/2016 16:47

This will out me, but DH refused to call DS2 Henry as DS1 is called Thomas. Apparently everyone would ask when we would be having a Richard (Tom, Dick & Harry) .

EllenTheEgret · 27/05/2016 17:28

My dp won't use Ailsa because of Home and Away.

PenguinWatch · 27/05/2016 19:32

My DH has vetoed Jonah because "it's an old man's name". He has never met any Jonahs, old or young

HTD2013 · 27/05/2016 19:37

I vetoed Mackenzie (my husband's middle name and a family name passed to all the boys) because it reminded me (my words) 'that kid from so solid crew..... I hate so solid crew'.
I have since found out there was no Mackenzie from So Solid Crew. There is a Kenzie from Blazing Squad and I actually quite liked one of Blazing Squad's songs. Not enough to name my child Mackenzie though.

And my husband vetoed Posy because, he said, people would call her Posy the Poser...... sigh

barbarossa · 27/05/2016 19:44

This reply has been deleted

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TragicallyUnbeyachted · 27/05/2016 20:13

EllenTheEgret -- I vetoed Ailsa for DD1 because of Home and Away too! I'd actually come around to the idea by the time we got to DD2 but by then DH wasn't as keen anyway.

Ashers40 · 27/05/2016 20:24

DH vetoed Lydia because it sounds like chlamydia

Maudelish · 27/05/2016 20:30

My grandmother tried to veto my name as she thought people would think I was black.....

A friend had Max vetoed as her MIL had had an affair with Max Clifford.

I retired Lachlan because Loki means asshole in German apparently!

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maggiethemagpie · 27/05/2016 21:12

My mum rejected my brother's name of Nora for his daughter, as apparantly her father had once had an affair with a woman called Nora back in 1950-something.

She is currently on a one-woman campaign to get them to change it to Laura!

BikeRunSki · 27/05/2016 21:13

I vetoed a name DH chose because it's really unusual, and a work with somebody with the name. I know her a bit, but not that well. DH had also met her once or twice through work.

Really unusual name I don't know anyone with - fine
That we know someone who with - fine
That a passing acquaintance/collegue is called - too odd.
As it happens someone who reports to her used the name for his DD s couple of years later, and she was quite

Momer · 27/05/2016 21:29

When I found out the twins I was expecting were boys I had to find a second boy's name, having chosen one early on. I wanted Gordon but my stepdaughters were in hysterics about it. It was at the time of Gordon the Gopher on Saturday tv. So glad we didn't call him after all.

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