Genuinely problematic names

[AuntDympna]

Starting this thread for names which are genuinely problematic.
The purpose is, a quick reference for people to check is the name they are thinking of on the list, and also as a reference for justifiable reasons to advise against using a name.
To be included, there needs to already be a thread on the name, where the case against it was made clearly.

I never knew that.

I think a lot of parents don't think about how names fit with their surnames. For example I went to school with a Wayne Kerr poor boys life was hell.

I loved the Slithery thread. Such a fantastic twist!

Mike Hunt.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon Amelia is in the top 10 most popular names in the UK in recent years. That means lots of people don't seem to know/care.

I agree with this. It is often the combination which is problematic in reference to famous and very unpleasant people.

To be included, there needs to already be a thread on the name, where the case against it was made clearly

Bad news for you op. You don't get to set the rules on a public forum.

The name Amelia doesn't mean limbless. It's a name that happens to be spelt the same as another word. Amelia sounds like friend "ami", honey "miel".

Diseases like Addison's are literally named after people, not the other way around. (Some people say diseases shouldn't be named after people anyway.)

Pretending that Wayne Kerr, or Joby sound rude is silly, you have to change the vowel. It's like reversing the letters. It's bullying to do that.

A name which is associated with a terrible event, which younger parents might not know about, could be upsetting. The Enola thread had a lengthy discussion about people not even knowing what happened at Hiroshima.

Separating out the seriously awkward names is absolutely the point of this thread, because people say you can't call your child Aloysius" or "Seven" or "Mildred" bc those are pretentious or tryhard or old ladyish, all of which pale into insignificance next to Enola. This thread is about figuring out what is a real problem, and what is just personal taste.

Diseases like Addison's are literally named after people, not the other way around

Yes, I know. Still creates an association with the name itself though, so I wouldn’t use it.

Re Myra - I know a Myra born late 50s ish. After a brief thought about how rarely it’s used and why I have absolutely no thoughts about Myra Hindley now. Knowing a Myra has rehabilitated the name for me.

How about Wendy House?

“Pretending that Wayne Kerr, or Joby sound rude is silly, you have to change the vowel. It's like reversing the letters. It's bullying to do that.”

Nope joby is pronounced the exact same way as it would be in a central belt accent - you don’t need to do anything to it.

Gosh, this thread is such a dictatorship!

OP I think you are being unrealistic about how people are going to behave on a public thread!

@Gingerkittykat

Electra.

I saw a little girl on a documentary called Electra and I was shocked since it is the name for the process where little girls want to sleep with their fathers according to Freud.

Electra is a mythological character. The complex was named after her. And the Electra complex is no longer accepted by most psychologists. If Amelia can be a top ranked name while also being a birth defect then I don’t see why Electra can’t be used. I guess some people don’t like to use names with tragic associations but the recent rise in Ophelia suggests this is just a personal preference thing.

@cookiemonster2468

Gosh, this thread is such a dictatorship!

OP I think you are being unrealistic about how people are going to behave on a public thread!

Yep. Because I kept noticing that the careless way people talk about names causes real upset and contributes to name regret, which is very distressing. It's not unreasonable of me to propose some rules.

Every so often someone does start a thread (and in the real world a conversation) along the lines of "how funny are these names! let's all laugh at the parents who call their kids 'Delilah' or 'Bear' ". Mumsnet recently had to delete a thread that was along those lines. This thread is meant to be the opposite to that.

Some people might want to make out a serious case for including Delilah or Bear, but there's a difference between setting out your reasoning clearly, and posting "No, just no!" or hooting with laughter when a new mum tells you the name.

When people only read the thread title and post something like "Wendy House" without any explanation, I bet there are people thinking "what's a 'wendy house'? Is that rude? Is it something I don't know?" A wendy house is just a little play house for children. (Unless there is something I don't know.) That's why I suggest if you propose a name, you include a brief explanation and a link to a thread. That way people can decide what is serious.

@AuntDympna

The name Amelia doesn't mean limbless. It's a name that happens to be spelt the same as another word. Amelia sounds like friend "ami", honey "miel".

Diseases like Addison's are literally named after people, not the other way around. (Some people say diseases shouldn't be named after people anyway.)

Pretending that Wayne Kerr, or Joby sound rude is silly, you have to change the vowel. It's like reversing the letters. It's bullying to do that.

A name which is associated with a terrible event, which younger parents might not know about, could be upsetting. The Enola thread had a lengthy discussion about people not even knowing what happened at Hiroshima.

Separating out the seriously awkward names is absolutely the point of this thread, because people say you can't call your child Aloysius" or "Seven" or "Mildred" bc those are pretentious or tryhard or old ladyish, all of which pale into insignificance next to Enola. This thread is about figuring out what is a real problem, and what is just personal taste.

OP, you seem to be confusing your own personal opinion with something that is genuinely objectively problematic. Other posters have told you names that THEY consider to be problematic, and you can´t really tell them that they´re wrong. It´s not a right or wrong sort of issue, it´s ALL just opinion.

For example, I would be REALLY concerned about naming my child Addison, and then finding out it is a disease, or naming my child something which sounded like something hideously embarrassing and which they´d be mocked, laughed at, and bullied for (like Wayne Kerr or Joby). To ME, these would be genuinely problematic names. Enola, on the other hand, less so, in my personal opinion. And yes, I know all about Hiroshima as a keen historian. To me, though, this strikes me as less of an issue. Enola was simply the name of the plane. Yes, it dropped the bomb, but it was not the name of the bomb! Many planes and ships that were involved in horrible events had names! Why is ONLY Enola a problem in your opinion?

Similarly, we can see that this is all subjective when we consider the name Myra, which is a so controversial on this board, with some people claiming it is without a doubt unusable due to Myra Hindley, and others saying that they didn´t make this connection at all.

So you´re basically contradicting yourself here. You´ve written this entire post explaining your own opinion, but stating it like it´s fact - and then said that your entire aim is "figuring out what is a real problem, and what is just personal taste."

It´s ALL personal taste. It´s ALL opinion. Some opinions may be more common, but that doesn´t make them fact.

"Diseases like Addison's are literally named after people, not the other way around."

Similarly, Enola was a name prior to it being the name of the plane. Myra was the name prior to Myra Hindley´s crimes. You´re not being consistent with your logic.

thing is OP, as well intentioned as I think you are, this thread will absolutely not become the reference resource you are hoping it will be, so you may as well stop policing it.

This thread will get lost into the back pages of the baby name section of MN within a matter of weeks, people won't be looking to it when thinking of naming their child.

It will also become outdated before too long, some of these references will become less relevant - you can already see a generational divide on the name Myra where older mothers are more resistant to use it, but younger ones are not put off by the murderer. In the same vein 10 years ago Alexa, Isis, and Siri would have been issue free, now they have connotations meaning people don't use them.

Some names are only an issue when used with a certain surname - Wendy, with almost any surname no problem at all, with House, best avoided. So you can't account for all combinations.

Finally, there is so much variation in what people think is and isn't acceptable, there are very few where it is outright, clear-cut unusable (Adolf being one of the only examples). Most names invite discussion where some people warn against and think no-way, but others proceed because they like the name and feel the negative reference isn't strong enough, like Donald. There is no absolute answer, so you are not going to be able to create a list of names which are too problematic to use.

Wayne Kerr is totally unusable!! Who ever would think that’s an ok combination? Maybe it’s just my accent (NZ English). But it totally doesn’t work and would lead to a lifetime of bullying - much more so than being called Myra or Percy

You’re also kind of assuming that everyone who is naming a baby runs it past mumsnet first. In reality I think the minority do. So probably a bit pointless in the grand scheme.

Lucifer wouldn't be a great baby name.

To be honest I'd also steer clear of Rudolph, although in a country where it was more common as a man's name rather than primarily a reindeer (with a side option on Rudolf Hess) it might be different.

Randy is unusable in uk (imo) and prob quite dated in US

Up thread someone said Abigail -which is a biblical name and means my father's joy not sure if it means other things in different languages

@Ikeameatballs

And you are the arbiter of “genuinely problematic” because?

this

Pretending that Wayne Kerr, or Joby sound rude is silly, you have to change the vowel. It's like reversing the letters. It's bullying to do that

Nope, Joby/Jobby are pronounced identically.
It doesn’t sound rude, because it is just another word for faeces. Or stool. Or crap.

And it isn’t bullying. Basically everyone in Scotland would do a double take because for us Joby/Jobby means one thing and one thing only in Scots.

Here’s an explanation from a website all about Scots language

Jobby,, which is generally considered the polite word in Scots, is one of a number of words in the language equivalent to the English turd. However, it is also true that in North East Scots (or Doric) a jobby can also mean exactly that - a little job or task

Some people might want to make out a serious case for including Delilah

In the bible she leads somebody on until she gets a secret from him, then uses it to get power over him and turns him over to his enemies who gouge his eyes out.

There's also the Tom Jones song where the woman is stabbed to death.