[QUOTE=Ultraviolet]
I have an irrational hatred for names that end in “een” or “ene”, they just sound so trashy to me. I suppose it’s a connection with some girls I knew in high school. Arlene, Darlene, Marlene, etc.
[QUOTE]
I totally agree! I can’t think of an -een name that I like. My in laws are wonderful people, but Eileen and Maureen had been not expect any of my offspring to carry their names. Maureen gets a double-ick because it sounds so morbid and depressing and blah (see also: Maura, Moira, etc).
:eek:
Well, now you know an Elizabeth who “cuted it up” to Betsey but who isn’t opinionated, bossy and insensitive. Okay, I have my opinionated side, but I’m not a bitch about it. Just so you know.
As to the OP:
I’d say the current ‘last name as first name’ trend bugs me. Jackson, Cameron, Campbell, McKenzie, Carter - unless it’s actually your family name, don’t do it.
There’s an overabundance of Irish names around here. At my son’s baseball practice, I sometimes think we’ve moved to Ireland and no one told me. Liam, Conner, Devon, Tristan, Dylan, Ian, Aidan, Declan… welcome to Dublin!
I don’t know if there are any names I hate. Certainly there are some I associate with a nasty people I have met (Joanne, Angela, Tina) but the names themselves are fine, I guess. Ridiculous spellings do irritate me somewhat, however.
Oh, and there are some names I associate with strippers: Trixie, Trina, Trista, Bambi.
Okay, the name was had picked for a girl has been mentioned by eleanorigby. We picked it because I think it sounds lovely, I don’t know anyone named Lauren and it doesn’t seem cutesy. What am I missing?
I won’t even mention the boy’s name. No one else has either, but I anticipate full-on hatred since it’s not a common name (255 on NameVoyager) but sounds trendy. Since it’s taken months of negotiations to get me to agree to it, we’re not going back to the drawing board.
Whoops! Look carefully, I mentioned three different names. Kirsten is a girl’s name in Norwegian. So is Kristin. But Kristen is a boy’s name.
As far as the “proper” pronunciation, well, my two boys’ names are pronounced a little differently in English versus Norwegian, and we’ve taught them (as they are bilingual) that both pronunciations are correct. So I don’t really care how people pronounced Kirsten. I was just being a wiseacre
I had a coworker who named his son Rufus, after a friend who passed away. Given that the kid’s name is Rufus Leo, I expect him to become a funk musician when he grows up.
I used to loathe the names “Bob” and “Harry” but this subsided after years of hearing them.
Nothing will make creative spellings of common names better. “Brittonnee” was the worst I’ve ever seen.
“Dakota” just seems played out, and was never that great to begin with.
After years of reading News of the Weird’s regular feature about killers with the middle name “Wayne,” I think “Wayne” is a crappy middle name.
I have a cousin who gave his son a trendy name whose spellings differ, the middle name Wayne and our easily mispronounced, difficult-to-spell last name. Triply damned.
Heh. My sister’s middle name is Rosemarie. In her case, though, it’s justified, as the name came from my mother and grandmother’s names.
No, it’s a boy’s name, as are Evelyn, Carol, Lindsay, Courtney, Ashley, Shirley, and Kelly. They merely have been wrongly appropriated by the female sex.
What I find particularly irritating is when parents of 3 or more kids give tham all the same first initial, which is why I get a good laugh out of Jiminy Glick’s sons’ names–Morgan, Mason, Matthew and Modine.I was never fond of Stuart (or Stewart), but after Mad TV’s creepy sketches, I find that name even more distasteful. As far as girls’ names go, I have to go with the dreaded “ABCs”–Ashley, Brittany and Courtney. Michaela also rubs me the wrong way (no matter how it’s spelled).
I have always hated non-traditional spellings as well. It’s as if the parents are trying to visit their perceived sense of superiority onto the child by giving them a name with a “unique” spelling.
I’m also amused by pretentious names for males, usually ending in “on”…such as:
Mason
Hampton
Preston
etc.
I’ve got the stereotypical grandmothers’ names: Mildred and Gertrude. True, they were both born early in the 20th century, when those names were much more popular.
The first names I’ve never been able to stomach are Sue, Peg, and Babs. Don’t know why, know very few people with those names, but the names just bug me.
I also shudder at made-up names, or trendy names with made-up spellings or apostrophes. English doesn’t use apostrophes except for contractions or possession. First names do not have apostrophes!
Trixie Belden isn’t a stripper!
I hate trendy names too. Be ORGINAL people! …I know too many Laurens, too many Jenns and too many Elizabeths. At one time in high school all of my friends were named some varient of Elizabeth. Most of the people with common names that I know, go by their last name (eg Brady, Hendry…i remember i knew her for a few years and just this past year found out her name is Jenn)
The pronounciation/spelling thing goes both ways. I named my son Atticus. Not very common, but still a relatively straightforward name. I got a telephone call shortly afterward from the hospital and the girl wanted to survey me on my experience having “A-TISH-iss”. It took me a good two or three seconds before I realized what she was saying.
