For me I don’t understand the popularity behind Payton/Peyton and Hayden.
Names you don’t understand the appeal/popularity of?
Baby NamesRykers Island
Yes—rather low expectations for your kid.
Could be worse the could be named Attica.
Only acceptable if a Trekkie
I was gonna say, William Riker was an excellent First Officer. He was a decent captain, but like Joe Biden, the lesser responsibility of being second in command allowed him the freedom to really be himself and is where he really shined. Something something Deanna Trois second husband something something.
Also Rider/Ryder for me.
My friends cousin just had a baby and named it Riker Ridge and my jaw genuinely dropped lmao
I assume if it was a girl they were going to name it Ruby Ridge.
My friend named his baby Ryker and I think it’s awful
Sutton. What a horrible name. I find it hard to say; I either over-pronounce the “t” sound or eliminate it completely: “suh’un.” It’s a pretentious, try hard, ugly name and I loathe it.
The idea of naming my daughter Sutton came across my mind, and then someone said what if they call her slutton, and that immediately changed my mind.
You inspired me to write a rap bar
She's a glutton for slutton, all over town struttin that button
Reminds me of mutton. Just no.
HORRIBLE name. And Dutton too.
Yes, I almost included Dutton, which sounds like a low IQ version of Sutton imo
This is my soon-to-be niece’s name, and literally everyone in the family has approached me to try and talk my sister out of it.
Keep up the good fight. I’m so sorry.
Oh, I forgot about Sutton. That's just as terrible as Sloane.
Sutton Coldfield
About as aspirational as Slough
User deleted comment
23d
I’m going to guess you’re American, and I think the awkwardness is caused by the expectation of a “T” sound in the center of the name. Americans often use a soft “d” sound or a glottal stop when pronouncing a T in the center of a word (think button, parting, mutton, butter). The regular T feels unnatural — though if you listen to many British accents, they use the T.
Ironically the first name you mention, Quentin, feels less awkward to me; I think because we do sometimes say the T after an N —think Venting, Punting.
Jayden/Aidan/Brayden/Kayden, etc. I can't stand the sound of any of them. Overused and annoying.
I feel like Aidan is the og name. The others completely agree
I saw Raiden on a kids locker the other day. & I thought we lived in a nice sensible community ☠️
Totally agree, except for Aidan, which is a real name (Welsh).
Maeve. I just can't stand it for some reason.
I think the name looks off. Phonetically it's Dave but w an M.
You’re right, it does look off. It’s Meadhbh
Or Medb if you want to go old school
it’s gaelic…
Well it's a different language, so there's that.
Being in another language will do that.
I only knew one girl with this name and she was so sweet and pretty. I love this name.
I have an adult cousin with this name. She’s the worst. Whenever I hear about someone naming their child Maeve, I shudder.
Naming girls boy names - Ryan, James, Dylan, etc.
This is my biggest name pet peeve. Girls have so many beautiful names, and i feel like naming them a boy name just screams that you wish you had a boy and are uncreative.
It’s internalised misogyny.
If you genuinely want a unisex name, and fair enough, there are loads of female names that shorten to Alex, Chris etc.
Until these parents of “baby girl Richard” start calling their sons “Jennifer”, I’ll judge them for the misogynist idiots they are.
I literally heard a couple admit that they gave their daughter a boy name so that she'd be more successful in life.
To be fair there’s research that supports this. Studies have been done where they create identical resumés and submit them for job applications, with the only difference being that some have masculine names and some have feminine names, and the ones with masculine names are more likely to be contacted for an interview/offered the job.
For example:
But here’s the thing- if too many parents have that same idea, then the name in question stops being seen as masculine. That’s what happened to Lindsey, Ashley, Courtney, Meredith, Aubrey, Taylor, and so many others. Then not only does their experiment cease to work, but parents of boys avoid those names altogether (because “feminine” still equals weak in society) and often try to add some violent word as a name (Gunner, Cannon, Colt, etc).
Such a good point! You never see hipster parents name their boys Jessica or Emily. Only the other way around
I've always considered the strict binary divide to be utterly boring and devoid of creativity or joy. Just screams square.
We just met a little girl called Johnny, her birth name is John. Tell me you wanted a boy without it telling me you wanted a boy😂
I mean Johanna was right there, wasn’t it?
I LOVE Ryan as a girls name but I definitely get when people don't like it.
My cousin did this exact thing. Elliott and Sterling are their names. They go by Elli and Ling. Just why
I like Sterling (much prefer for a boy), but Ling is a terrible nickname
Maverick and Jaxon. I just don't like em and I don't get why it's so popular
Harper, Blair, Sloane, Smith, McKenzie.
All utterly hideous.
Sloane is soooo bad
Sloane makes me thing of two things, of course "slow anne" and the normal pronunciation for some reason reminds me of snails
Combining those two things, I think Sloane is a perfect name for a snail 🐌
I always wonder if I pronounce it wrong as I will never understand the appeal.
I dislike all the Mc first names.Edit to add I only dislike then as first names!! Charming surnames!!
I pretty much hate Sloane as a name. I just think 'Sloane Ranger' and I just get the vibe of a snobbish, spoilt shallow woman.
Blair is pretty bad too (I just think Tony Blair or the Blair Witch Project), but Sloane is worse.
That's just my opinions though. I understand that some folks will love those names.
I've never heard of Smith being used as a first name, as it's pretty much one of the most common surnames in the world.
McKenzie isn't too bad. I've taught a couple of little boys with that name, so I don't really mind it.
Juniper and Wren are also hideous in my opinion.
Agree completely (especially with Sloane lol) on all but Blair, what about names that rhyme? Or is it the B sound?
Wren. Wrenlee. All variants thereof.
I mean I don't hate it but I can't understand why Wren is so popular, I also don't get the mass appeal of Atlas.
Atlas is awful. I’m immediately suspicious of anyone who names their kid that.
For the wOrLd TrAvELLeRs. The global citizens
Both Wren and Wrenlee are equally awful. I just think wretched, or wrench or wench.
Liam. It’s a perfectly fine name, cute even, but #1? Every year?
I personally know eight little Liam’s from age 10 down, and I’m not even super involved with kids.
I feel the same way with Noah. I know so many of them and I just don’t get the appeal of the name. Plus every Noah I’ve known have been pains
Braxton. It’s a contraction. Just… why?
Emma, grew up with LOADS of Emma’s. There’s nothing literally bad about the name on its own but personally I’ve always thought it’s extremely plain.
Likely caused by the amount of Emma’s that I knew lol
… Sorry to any Emma’s out there!
I don't get this one, either. It sounded rather more "fresh" than the ubiquitous "Emily" when I met my first one, in the nineties. (My son's first little "girlfriend", they were in sixth grade, lol.) But it felt worn out very quickly. I have a niece by this name, and I love her, but the name itself does nothing fot me. Emily is actually a much prettier option, in retrospect.
I also remember years ago, when Hannah was beginning to climb the popularity charts, I was like, you've got to be kidding me!! Hannah?? It sounds like the name of a washer woman or scullery maid in some book about the hard lives of the servants of British aristocracy in the late 1800s, or something.
I've come to like it much more over the years, but, it took quite awhile for me to warm to it.
Lots of names are popular whose appeal I don't get. That was just the first of many of which would go on to become endemically popular, and I was pretty young when it began its meteoric rise.
Conversely, some names I didn't used to like have grown on me. My youngest has friends/former classmates with trendy names, like Caitlin, Madison, Emily, Mackenzie, Sydney (although I always liked that one, even before it became popular.) Maybe exposure to real people bearing these names has changed my opinion, IDK.
Hannah was the name of the housekeeper/maid in the Nancy Drew books. I thought it was really different and kind of exotic back in the 70s when I was reading all the Nancy Drew books.
Omg! Hannah Gruen! You’ve brought me back to my childhood!!!🥰
Maggie. It sounds like a dog name to me.
It was my dog's name!
I love that name. I have no idea why.
Also have you noticed how many Fox comedies have a main character with a named derived from Margaret. There's Marge and Maggie Simpson, Peggy Hill and Peggy Bundy, Meg Griffin, and probably others.
Any -son name, because they’re never actually the son of (blank).
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle named their eldest Archie Harrison and I was like, finally a -son name done right 🤣🤣
Whoa, I didn’t even make that connection!
Except Archie as a first name is baaadddddd
I'm not a fan but it's such a basic, common name in the UK. I was a nanny to a boy called Archie.
Well his real name is Henry, Harry is just his nickname. Still cool to call the baby Harrison though. Everyone really knows him as Harry and calls him Harry. I bet he hardly ever uses Henry.
"real" names are a bit vague-er when you're royalty.
It's more akin to the papered pedigree name of a dog than a normal persons real name.
I find the -son/-syn names made worse when tacked onto a female child. Just my opinion.
Especially when so many are actually daughters!
Paisley. It just sounds so floppy and drippy. Like if she tried to shake your hand she’d have clammy hands and do that thing where she puts her limp hand in yours and just rests it there.
And Presley
It just sounds so country, too. My cousin named her youngest daughter this, and said in a heavy southern dialect, it just makes me cringe (for the record, I also have a southern dialect).
Nevaeh, Isla and Emma are 3 I just don't get
This is going to sound really mean,but Neveah just sounds like a name a teen mom picks to me. I knew several teen moms in HS and they all had Neveahs.
Nevaeh- I remember a mother proudly telling me the name of her baby and then explaining it was Heaven backwards to almost justify it. I don't like it at all.
Edit: typo.
There are 2 types of people in this world: those who are impressed by the fact that Nevaeh is heaven spelled backwards and those who are vehemently repulsed by it. I definitely fall into the latter.
You should have replied with: Woahhh!!! I never, ever would have noticed that!!! wow that's awesome. Heaven backwards, that's so creative!! Wait a minute though, if you're spelling heaven backwards, is that some kind of demonic reference?
Neveah isn’t even heaven backwards which makes it even more awkward
I work in a psych hospital for kids and Nevaeh is by far the most common girls name lol
Can't stand Nevaeh, it's awful
Gunnar, Neveah
Nevaeh gunnar give you up
Nevaeh gunnar let you down
Nevaeh gunnar run around and desert youuu
👏👏👏
Porter is strange to me. It evokes portly which is not a great thing
Our dog is Porter but after a chocolate Porter! And he’s a bit portly too 😂
Edit- he’s a chocolate lab
McKenzie or McKinley or any variation
My last name is one of those and I hate to see it used as a first name.
Me scrolling down the comments hoping to not find my name in here 🫣
Same, and I’m also hoping to not find my kids’ names! 😅
Already found mine 😬😅
Aurelia/Aurora
I hate the way my mouth feels saying Aurora!
I have a dog who came with the name Aurora, but she only gets called that when she's in trouble or just mentally gone and nothing else had caught her attention. The rest of the time it's Rora, Girl Girl, Baby Girl, Baby Princess, Miss Ma'am, Burrito (Girl), or Chicky Nugget
🥺
Love Aurelia. (Pronounced Au-RAY-lee-yuh)
My niece's name is Aurora. It suits her. She's such a little princess.
I love Aurelia too!! I prefer the pronunciation au-RELL-ee-ah (my great great grandmother’s name) but honestly I love any pronunciation!
I love the many nickname options too, like Aurie, Rellie/Reli, Lia, Rella, etc.
Charity as a name just sounds so condescending I don’t know why
I don’t understand why people like the name Isla.
Nevaeh
y’all some haters fr
Arlo, super popular here in the UK atm and I just don't get it.
Declan/Decklan🥲 I don’t know why. It just is my LEAST favorite.
Liam is an utter mystery.
Sloane - I just hate how it looks and sounds.
James for a girl- I'm all for gender neutral names. All my kids' names are technically gender neutral. James for a girl feels wrong. It might be because I have like 10+ James in my family, including multiple brothers and my dad. I don't even like it as a boy name.
Chloe- This is petty, but I misspell it 99% of the time.
Nevaeh- Grew up in the Bible belt. If I hear "it's heaven spelled backwards" one more time, I swear.
Random X in names- my cousin named her kids Jaxon and aidxen (Aiden) or something. I forget the exact spellings. My siblings, other cousins, and I made fun of it for months after aidxen.
"Iden" or similar name (example braiden, Aiden, jaiden, etc)- I hear way too many. Again Bible belt. A LOT of kids are name variations of that for some reason.
Almost any surname for a baby- most just don't sound good as first names.
Owen/rowan- personal reasons. Also seems super generational/trendy. My youngest was born this year and I know 5 other kids born around the same time with those names.
Multiple brothers named James!?
Yup. Weird family situation where I have my biological parents, stepparents, AND adoptive parents. I have 16 siblings in total (most of those are biological half siblings). Somehow between all of them there's mutiple James and Matthews.
So I hate the name Parker. I know it’s a commonly used name. Full disclosure, I babysat a kid named Parker and his mom affectionately called him “Parker farter man”. So that may have ruined it further.
I really don’t like Juniper or Willow
Everly (or any the million spellings)
It’s not popular really, but I met a guy named Holden and I just couldn’t see it as a normal name.
Holden? Like… you’re holdin’ him? Or something? Just sounds like a weird verb to me, not a name.
Olivia
This is my number 1. It's a fine name. But why it is so popular when there are so many beautiful girl's names out there, I don't know.
Jackson
My cousin’s son is named Jaxon. I do not like the spelling of that name.
Florence, Harriet, Harry. Every single name misspelled on purpose to make it yoounique
My friends niece was named Haiileigh (Hayley) because her sister is just so kree8iv
Aw my dog is Harriet, we call her Harry.
All the names that end in: -son
Madison, Jackson, Greyson, Dyson, etc..
Im throwing my potential baby name in the mix for honest opinions. What do we think of Melody?
Absolutely love it. Teacher here. There's a 4th grader with that name. She's lovely.
Eta: she's named for her grandpa who was a music teacher and loved all things music.
I like it. I don’t LOVE it, but I like it. Easy to pronounce and hard to misspell. Slightly basic.
I think Melody is such a pretty name. I’ve only known one and she’s a lovely person. Artistic, smart and kind. Oddly though I have a strong dislike for the name Melanie.
Neveah, Luna, and Nova 🥴
Brogan.
I know of three 8-11 year olds named Brantley. They all use the full name. I find it so chunky to say!
Sloane FFS
Ottilie, it just looks like a dyslexic person trying to spell Lottie.
Naveah/navaeh especially love when it’s heaven misspelled
Phoenix especially when paired with river, Joaquin isn’t going to f*ck you. But I actually live River on its own.
Ezra 🤢
Any -leigh names.
Aaliyah
Kai (as a full name in particular, I guess a nickname is okay)
Milo
Kyler
Blythe 😅
Harper, Liam, Wren, Ophelia, Beau, Eloise, Rhodes, Crew, Lennon, Nova, Adeline (sorry), Milo, Margot, Elora/Alora, Jett, Evangeline
We have very different tastes then because I love most of those names
I like some of these, but Omg thank you for saying Crew. That’s my new cousins name and He’s so stinkin cute and I don’t get the name at all >_< and this is coming from someone who likes unique-ish names. Is it regionally popular?
My dog is named Milo, it is a name reserved for dogs to me. ETA: Milo tax
maeve, mckenzie, neveah, remington, (remy’s cute though just not the naming your kid after a gun part.)
Violet (sorry if you love it! I just hear violent 😭)
Raelynn and braylynn 🫠
Wren. Horrible
Payton/Peyton and Hayden.
I can only answer for Hayden. We choose this name 40 years ago before there was an internet and a way to comparatively evaluate any name for its level of popularity. We had to teach people how to say it.
We choose the name because it's a family surname for us and important for reason.
I had a friend who chose the name Peyton for their daughter because they had originated from a small area called Peyton. Both reasons - a family surname and a family origin community seem like perfectly acceptable reasons. They just happened to be party of the fad happening. In this case I ignored the fad and my friend also ignored it. We did the right thing for the right reasons.
Anything “…leigh”
Riot. Just why??
Luna, Alfie, Bailey … to me these are names you’d give to a pet :/
Maren. Every time someone suggests it, the overwhelming response seems to be people saying how pretty it is. It's just Karen with an M.
Really not a fan.
Paisley (or paisleigh as a cousin recently used 😬)
It's like naming your baby gingham or damask... Or Argyle 🤣
It’s not exactly popular anymore, but Patricia. And the nicknames Patty/Pattie and Pat are even more terrible.
Hilary, sounds a bit weird (not trying to mock any names but I’m just giving my own opinion)
I never liked Isabella/Bella or Charlotte
Michael.
Moms who pick this name act like they have found the most gorgeous combination of sounds in the known universe and I just don’t get it. It’s not bad, but it’s a super common, average name. They guard their precious Michaels and fiercely try to protect them from being Mikes. I just cannot understand why they are like dragons guarding treasure about this damn name.
August
Delaney / Laney
Jalen, Jaden, Braden, Caden
Maverick. Yuck
Maeve, Clementine, Evelyn, Vivian
Agree with those first two! Evelyn is always gonna have a special spot in my heart after someone I knew and loved. I can understand Vivian but I like it for its “purple” feeling it gives me.
That’s so weird - Vivian is purple for me too! Do you have synaesthesia? Are all V names purple for you?
It’s because of Violet
Nevaeh. Hate it
Elodie and Elowen
They just seem incomplete. And hard to say.
I can’t get behind Riley. Just never liked it.
Jackson/Jaxson/Jaxon.
Grayson. As a side note, my daughter got a birthday invite from a little boy named Graceson, pronounced Grayson....I feel bad for that kid.
Aria. So. Many. Arias.
Poppy
People will probably hate me for this. Amelia. All I can hear is 'a meal, yah'. Also makes me think of mealworms and I don't like Millie as a nickname. Sorry Amelia fans!
Sloane and Margot for me. I have synesthesia and they feel bitter to me. But to each their own!
Isla
Like what? Why?
margot. i think it's rlly pretty but the spelling of it is literally one letter off from maggot
Dustin, Justin, Payton, Hayden, Brayden, Braxton
Penelope and Olive
Riker / Ryker