# Most-regretted baby names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 7, 2023, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730 "2023-07-07T13:45:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/121 "2023-07-08T22:13:39Z")
I can think of one that appeared in [various blogs](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/): > [@](#): > > 1. People have exactly one canonical full name. > 2. People have exactly one full name which they go by. > 3. People have, at this point in time, exactly one canonical full name. > 4. People have, at this point in time, one full name which they go by. > 5. People have exactly N names, for any value of N. > 6. People’s names fit within a certain defined amount of space. > 7. People’s names do not change. > 8. People’s names change, but only at a certain enumerated set of events. > 9. People’s names are written in ASCII. > 10. People’s names are written in any single character set. > 11. People’s names are all mapped in Unicode code points. > 12. People’s names are case sensitive. > 13. People’s names are case insensitive. > 14. People’s names sometimes have prefixes or suffixes, but you can safely ignore those. > 15. People’s names do not contain numbers. > 16. People’s names are not written in ALL CAPS. > 17. People’s names are not written in all lower case letters. > 18. People’s names have an order to them. Picking any ordering scheme will automatically result in consistent ordering among all systems, as long as both use the same ordering scheme for the same name. > 19. People’s first names and last names are, by necessity, different. > 20. People have last names, family names, or anything else which is shared by folks recognized as their relatives. > 21. People’s names are globally unique. > 22. People’s names are _almost_ globally unique. > 23. Alright alright but surely people’s names are diverse enough such that no million people share the same name. > 24. My system will never have to deal with names from China. > 25. Or Japan. > 26. Or Korea. > 27. Or Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Russia, Sweden, Botswana, South Africa, Trinidad, Haiti, France, or the Klingon Empire, all of which have “weird” naming schemes in common use. > 28. That Klingon Empire thing was a joke, right? > 29. Confound your cultural relativism! People _ **in my society** _, at least, agree on one commonly accepted standard for names. > 30. There exists an algorithm which transforms names and can be reversed losslessly. (Yes, yes, you can do it if your algorithm returns the input. You get a gold star.) > 31. I can safely assume that this dictionary of bad words contains no people’s names in it. > 32. People’s names are assigned at birth. > 33. OK, maybe not at birth, but at least pretty close to birth. > 34. Alright, alright, within a year or so of birth. > 35. Five years? > 36. You’re kidding me, right? > 37. Two different systems containing data about the same person will use the same name for that person. > 38. Two different data entry operators, given a person’s name, will by necessity enter bitwise equivalent strings on any single system, if the system is well-designed. > 39. People whose names break my system are weird outliers. They should have had solid, acceptable names, like 田中太郎. > 40. People have names. > > This list is by no means exhaustive… ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/122 "2023-07-08T22:25:47Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I know not a single Adolf I don’t know any Adolf personally, but there are/were some public figures of that name in my lifetime who wisely went by Adi or Addi, respectively, like [Adi Hütter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_H%C3%BCtter) or [Addi Furler](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addi_Furler) (born in March 1933, ouch). ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/123 "2023-07-08T22:28:16Z")
You just reminded me of [Adi Dassler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Dassler), the founder of Adidas. Born 1900, so no ouch, except he was a member of the Nazi Party. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/124 "2023-07-08T22:37:18Z")
This one girl, in the '60s, did not want to tell her name. She seemed embarrassed. After some coaxing, she revealed it: Adolphine (definite ouch) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/125 "2023-07-08T22:45:20Z")
Post of the day award. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/126 "2023-07-08T22:56:21Z")
I had a boss back in the 70s who was named Adolph (with that spelling). But he was African American. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/127 "2023-07-08T23:45:02Z")
I always said the “G” stood for Gilligan. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/128 "2023-07-09T00:22:41Z")
Harry S Truman might understand. Friends sometimes nickname me Em. I sometimes have joked that it sounds like they’re calling me the letter M. A friend of mine actually called me M in written communication after that. It was amusing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/129 "2023-07-09T00:33:15Z")
Were you listening to Little Steven on Sirius XM’s Underground Garage today by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/130 "2023-07-09T01:56:43Z")
I’ve wondered why people think it’s a good idea to saddle their kid with a misspelled name? A phonetic spelling may seem cute for a baby. But imagine when that person is working in a professional field 25 years later. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/131 "2023-07-09T01:59:16Z")
I tend to doubt the folks who name their baby something like “Brandy” are visualizing her being, say, a presiding judge. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/132 "2023-07-09T02:07:08Z")
Judge Sandi Beech with a ❤ over the I. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/133 "2023-07-09T02:21:37Z")
Yeah, you name a future judge something like Learned Hand… ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/134 "2023-07-09T02:23:50Z")
I don’t know, but I suspect it’s related to the way that my university students can spell the same name two different ways within a single paragraph (whether handwritten on an exam or typed in a paper). A large number of people don’t seem to find it important that things are spelled consistently or correctly. I also see, from hobby genealogy, that almost every single individual had their name spelled multiple ways in officialdom before the computer era. I really think that the idea that there is a single preferred spelling for a name is historically unusual, even among literate groups. The 21st century is MUCH more anal about having records match than the 20th century was. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/135 "2023-07-09T02:24:51Z")
> [@Wolf333](#): > > I’m a Michael. My issue is that it is such a common name that is nearly useless. I was once a an appointment and when the nurse called for Michael, four of us stood up Me, too. But it’s a little more unusual if you insist, as I do, on the full “Michael”. Sooo many want to shorten it to “Mike”, which I loathe. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/136 "2023-07-09T04:05:42Z")
> [@Folly](#): > > Yeah, you name a future judge something like Learned Hand… I’d say that’s actually a darn good name for a judge. Assuming s/he lives up to it, of course. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/137 "2023-07-09T04:11:48Z")
Spelling in general used to be a lot more whatever you want to use thing. Here’s an [article in the Oxford English Dictionary](https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/) blog that points out: > In the late-fifteenth century printers began printing books written in the form of London English which had already become a kind of standard in manuscript documents. Between 1475 and about 1630 English spelling gradually became regularized. There are noticeable differences in the look of printed English before the mid-seventeenth century, but after that date it is largely the same as modern English, the major difference being the use of the long s (∫) in all positions except finally. More: > By the mid-seventeenth century printers followed general principles of spelling much like the present ones. Notably the modern distinctions between _I_ and _J_ and _U_ and _V_ were established by about 1630. The spelling of nearly all individual words was also identical with present-day forms in printed books. In ordinary handwritten documents, however, even those of well-educated people, spelling continued to vary noticeably until well into the eighteenth century. Also goes into the Great Vowel Shift’s effect on spelling, and a lot of other interesting stuff for word nerds. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/138 "2023-07-09T04:18:21Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > I’d say that’s actually a darn good name for a judge. Assuming s/he lives up to it, of course. [He](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_Hand) did OK. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/139 "2023-07-09T04:30:27Z")
The young lady in question had had 4 children by 4 different fathers by the time she was 20. She quit high school when her first child was born and then continued to get preggy while living in her mother’s home. When I met her, they were all living in an RV on her mother’s property and not allowed in the mother’s home for bathing or cooling down and RV’s aren’t great in the summer. Or winter. Or getting preggy again, so her mother did the right thing there IMHO. I didn’t judge, that wasn’t my job, so she felt free to tell me that she was really sorry for her bad choices and sorry that her children were suffering because of her choices. She said she should have waited to have sex and should have finished high school and should have named Imperious Tyrael instead cause the kids in school all knew that Imperious was a bad guy and picked on him. SMH. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730/140 "2023-07-09T06:00:03Z")
Yes, but we more or less had complete standardization by the 19th century, so it doesn’t really explain living people or the five generations prior. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-regretted-baby-names/986730.md?page=8)