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

[Thurlow]

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?

Yes Lucas does sound like mucous.

I also don't like Janus because it sounds like anus, or Younas because as someone pointed out on a previous thread it sounds like a cross between eunuch and anus.

Also Gretchen, too much like retching and Geraldine, like gelatine.

I also liked Lana until I read what it spelt backwards....

As a teacher I rejected quite a few names because they reminded me of children I taught who'd been...let's say difficult to love. I think that's quite common.
Might be ridiculous reason to some though

As a teacher I rejected quite a few names because they reminded me of children I taught who'd been...let's say difficult to love. I think that's quite common.
Might be ridiculous reason to some though

I think we are all guilty of that one. Little tyrant spirited children's names were avoided by us too.

I wanted Isaac for ds but dd is called Isobel and kept imaging signing Christmas cards from Is&is.

We wrote off a lot of names based on how they would sound in a Bristolian accent. We're not from Bristol but a lot of DD's friends will be.

I'm pregnant and I told my mother recently what our No.1 name is because she asked I thought it was a good idea and she said I can't name our son that because her cousin David used to have a dog called that name.

Note that this the same cousin that she has only seen about twice in the last 15 years and has little to do with other family either. Oh, and I met him once - when I was about 10.

And by the way the name is a traditional type one and unusual I think for a dog. It was considered a joke name at the time.

He said "You can't call a baby Grandma".

That made me burst out laughing!

I used to post on an American forum where some people said they preferred the name Steven spelt that way rather than Stephen, because Stephen looked "too feminine" as it was a bit like Stephanie! I felt like saying "would you reject Paul because it's a bit like Paula?"

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

I'm with him on that one. People on MN say 'Ailsa what a lovely name'. I think 'no, that's the name of the woman who had a hamburger phone in Summer Bay'.

violetbam that's why we took violet off our list despite it being one of our favourite girls' names. Having said that our surname would make misreading it as violent more likely as it would act as an adjective iyswim.

My. Mum had a specific list of boys' names (she had 4 girls) which were declared "Fat boy names" and we were told not to use them.

None of us did, although it wouldn't have stopped me, we named DS after DH's late brother.

He was grief stricken Donkey.

I once met a mum with a baby named Abigail. hate that name but not the point

She had wanted to call her DD Alexandra but couldnt as her nephew had Alexander as his middle name.

WTAF!

If her nephews first name had been Alexander then granted it would be a bit confusing. But what problem is there in using Alexandra when the nephew has similar as a middle name.

We had a lot of trouble with my surname which can make many words sound like a phrase. Think of "Eva Green", you get the idea. One such combination was a popular 80s song which has been an earworm ever since!

I also rejected a number of beautiful Irish names like Aoife and Cormac as being too 'plastic Paddy'. We do both have Irish roots but jeez I was born in Slough and she was born in UCH.. and we're neither of us in the NYPD. WIBU?

My OH doesn't like the name Sebastian because he worked with two guys who both have sons called Sebastian and so apparently it's "too common". Maybe in his ridiculously small group of people he's worked with but not in wider society!

Yet at the same time he wants to give our daughter the same middle name as his niece (it was his Nan's middle name and doesn't think it's fair that his sister got to use all the grandparent names just because she has kids first).

couldn't call dd "Alice" because of the song "who the f* is Alice"....

couldn't call ds "Charlie" because it's another word for cocaine......

not sure what planet dh is on sometimes...

Hamlet sister- would love to know which are the fat boys names!

I don't think I could use a name which I had known any pet by. That includes pets owned by friends and relatives. It would just seem to strange! So that's all these names out if the window: Alfie, George, Scout, Liz, Leon, Pearl, Sam, Charlie, Paddy, Jake, Doug/Dougie/Douglas, and Bilco. The last is obviously a great loss

I once dated someone with a brother named Benjamin. Their mother later got a dog and called it Benji (to my boy friend's great amusement).

Generally speaking, I don't understand the British tradition of naming pets with "people" names. Too confusing (as CornishFarm could probably confirm).

I also know someone who agreed to the name Sara but refused to spell it Sarah (pronounced the same in his country) because the H made it "too Jewish." Ashamed to say that person is a member of my family.

Finally, another someone who wouldn't let his wife name their son Wayne as it was "too Canadian." Apparently he didn't like Canadians.

Wow, I know some real idiots.

Too Jewish
There is some very weird anti-Welsh sentiment amongst members of my partner's family. I am Welsh, and so tempted to chose an incredibly Welsh name for our next DC

Mum Cornwall - I double dare you to choose a really Welsh name!

Mum Cornwall yes do, Ioan, Llyr or Angharad. I love hearing non Welsh trying to say words beginning Ll and getting it spectacularly wrong

I've been double dared I was also VERY tempted when asked by his sister what to get our DS1 for Christmas to say that a contribution towards the Welsh language lessons I was booking for him would be very kind. I don't actually speak Welsh, but she doesn't need to know that.