You must have lived in the DC/MD/VA area in the past decade or so. She’s been teaching kindergarten.
Names I hate . . .
Jessica. Hoo boy.
Tyrone. Seems like a punishment for whatever kid has it.
Andrea (as “on-drayah”)
Patrick
Reggie
Allie
Sherman
Kathleen
Marshall
Another name has come to me. As you can see, I’m not fond of a lot of names :). Greg. It sounds like you’re burping or something.
I can’t believe it took me this long to post to this thread. I am a name FREAK. When I was a teenager, I used to make lists and lists and LISTS of names I liked, loved, tolerated, wanted, glad I didn’t have, hated and despised. Sometimes alphabetically, sometimes reverse-alphabetically, sometimes in no particular order. If for no other reason, my handwriting was really given a workout.
Pet hated names (this year) for females:
Jennifer (The first 5 octillion were plenty, thank you)
Jessica (Ditto)
Lee (400,000 Lee’s in Alabama…can we guess WHY???)
Jean (I know! Let’s get really plain!)
Bessie (Enough with the bag-lady syndrome)
Marie (Does the word “redundant” mean anything to you?)
Kelly (Every female I have ever known with this name was a $2 whore and a backstabbing bitch. Yes, including my husband’s white-trash, probably inbred, cousin. No offense to any Kelly’s I haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet, on or off the board)
Dawn (yawn)
Pet hated names (this year) for males:
Eric (So macho, so ultra cool, probably latent…not that there’s anything wrong with that…)
Vince (Why corrupt a perfectly good name like Vincent with THAT? Makes me think of a wanna-be Mafioso who has the misfortune to have the surname of Ogilvie or Snodgrass)
Michael (I loved it the first billion times. Let’s retire this name for eternity, please. I have married TWO of them, and dated at least eighteen others, so I might be prejudiced, in this case)
Drew (Trendy, trendy,trendy…trite, trite and TIRESOME)
Robert (My dad’s family had the market cornered on this name. Just about every male on his side of the family is a Robert, excluding him, thank Gawd)
Henry (Couldn’t think of anything wimpier, could you Mom??)
Bruce (Oh, yeah, I guess you could)
And in closing, I used to work with a guy named Alious, pronouced, “alias”. Every day that I saw him, I’d always have to ask, “But what’s your REAL name???” And he never once, in three years, knew what I was talking about. He always thought I was just flirting/teasing with him. True story.
Hildegard - Yuck. My grandmother’s name.
Ernest or Ernst.
Ronald.
Algernon.
Howard.
Alma.
Bertha.
Regula.
Marty or Marti.
Tina or Teena.
Roxanne.
Lynette, Collette, and other names ending in -ette. Names common among waitresses with big hair who work at truck stops out West and call everybody “hon.”
Names of characters in soap operas and romance novels, in general.
I used to dislike Leslie, until I met a really nice woman with that name. Still don’t like the name for men, though.
rivulus
I hate the ‘new’ spellings for names too- I teach 4-year-olds and I feel sorry for the ones with funky names- I mean, learning to write John or Sarah is hard enough, but there was one little girl in last year’s class who was saddled with the name ‘Mykhayla’. Can you say pretentious?
How’s this for a barfalicious name: OLIPHANT CHUCKERBUTTY! Yes, he was a real person, an 18th century English composer. And yes, Oliphant is a real name, I found it in some same book.
Dallas Rose
Just think about that name for a few moments. Let it sink in. And yes, her brother’s name was Austin.
Same vein, but the people were unrelated, Texi. Her brother’s name was Rory, which I thought was kinda cool, but Texi?! I often think about those people, and wonder what the hell they were thinking.
And my other pet peeve about names.
My name is Haley. Note the spelling, exactly like it sounds. Don’t make it more complicated by inserting an i. And there is only one y and one e.
I hate 99% of all Biblical names. Mainly because they make me think of the Bible, which reminds me of Christianity, which I have very bad childhood associations with.
Cutesy misspellings annoy the piss out of me. “Moaghna Lighsa” my ass.
(see http://haggisbutt.tripod.com/fave.html for more)
People named after trendy stuff like movie characters (how many kids out there are being named “Anakin” right now? Oy)
and in particular, the name Jacob, because it makes me want to burp when I say it.
(and I agree, not enough kids are named Opal!)
Ashley.
Courtney.
Brittany/Britney.
And surnames used as first names: Cooper, Carter, Porter, Parker, Hayden, Hunter, etc. (What’s next? “This is our daughter, Jones, and our son, Smith” ???)
I didnt think anyone would mention this name and I was right.
Why? Because it is the most horrible, stupid, ridiculous
name on the planet and I’d bet everyone on here would agree.
Are you ready for this name?? It’s so bad I can hardly even type it.
The last I heard there was some old lady judge somewhere in New York with this name, but I’d bet she’s 80 by now.
In fact I’d bet no one has even been named this in 80 years.
Why on Gods Green Earth would someone name their child…
Oh, this is difficult are you ready??
OK, it’s…
H o r t e n s e .
See. I was right, you all agree dont you? It’s worse than
Bertha or Agatha or Beatrice.
and while I’m at it…
WAZZUP with the names
Mary Ann
Betty Ann
I always find myself asking…
"Mary and what ???
Mary Ann her dog?
Mary Ann her car???
Hello?
One more thing…
To the person who works with convicts.
Dimes to dollars … there are more convicts named
Wayne and Duane than any other names on the Penitentiary Rolls.
Wish someone would check out the statistics on that one…
1.) Candice. Mostly from bad experiences, but also because of the way it’s most commonly shortened - Candi. Ugh.
2.) Sharon. Absolutely no idea why, but it just rubs me the wrong way.
3.) Vicky. Just waaaay too cutesy. It sounds good on a 7 year old, but for a grown woman? Nu-uh.
Although a lot of the names that people appear to hate suprise me - Britney was a favourite of mine until a certain pop princess appeared, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Courtney here somewhere too - I love that name. But I guess YMMV.
I don’t like all the girls’ names that are just boys’ names that have been slightly changed. Roberta, Georgina, etc. Well, some of them are okay.
I actually like the name Hortense. I recently saw a movie, “Secrets and Lies” and one of the main character’s name was Hortense. She was a really cool character, too. I guess a lot of it has to do with association.
I went to high school with three girls named, I kid you not, Luscious, Precious, and Caramel. There should be a law against that.
In the Weird Names category: my nonna’s name was America (she was Italian and this was actually a somewhat common name in her age group). Her sister was named Italia (also common). Not that I hate those names; but they sure are unusual-sounding to modern ears.
Ariadne, I think Katharine is a perfectly acceptable spelling - not at all “alternative.” I much prefer it with the A instead of the E in the middle.
A friend of mine named her daughter Tiffany and she said she did so because the name is actually derived from a biblical name. She said “I thought it was so pious when she was born, but now I realize my daughter has the name of an exotic dancer!”
Considering “Amerigo” and “America” were personal names long before the continents were disovered, 's not that weird. I kinda like “Amerigo” myself, but more as a middle name than a first name.
Lots and lots of names that I hate have already been mentioned here, so I won’t rehash them. But one that has always bothered me belonged to a girl I went to school with. Her name was Afrika. Now, okay, even if you pronounced it like the continent of her ancestry, I still wouldn’t like it because it just is not than attractive as a sound. But it’s pronounced a-FREAK-a. Now, come one…(Afrika, if you’re out there, it’s nothing personal…I think you’re far too nice to be going around with a name that sounds like FREAK!)
I can’t believe this thread’s gone on so long and this name hasn’t been mentioned…
Chester
as in “Chester the Molester” eeek! I pity whomever got pasted with that atrocious moniker.
Claude - Every one I ever met fit the name.
Dolores - I feel your pain(s).
Has anyone mentioned the name Jordan yet?
Actually, I always liked Hrothgar…though I wouldn’t give it to a kid, except maybe as a middle name.
Unferth, however, is right out. 
Oh, and since someone brought it up – Griselda (even if it’s not bad as a name) definitely falls under the “bad character mold” thing, because (as anyone with a good working knowledge of Chaucer or Boccaccio knows) the woman was a dishrag! Same goes for Ophelia.