# What awful baby name could this have been? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771 "2017-05-03T12:29:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/1 "2017-05-03T12:29:09Z")
In a recent “Dear Prudence” column on Slate, the following item appeared: [Dear Prudence: My brother wants me to donate sperm a second time.](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2017/05/dear_prudence_my_brother_wants_me_to_donate_sperm_a_second_time.html) — > [@](#): > > Q. Everyone hates our baby name!: Long story short, we’ve picked out a name we like for our son. It’s a name from literature (and recently TV), but everyone hates it. Really, really hates it. It’s personally meaningful to me and I like that this character is a reader, like I am. … The column never reveals the name, but I bet, given the pop culture and classical literature expertise of this board, we could figure it out. The only possibility that I have come up with so far is “Hermione,” but that doesn’t seem quite right. What else could it be? It’s got to be “from literature,” “recently TV,” the name of a character who is “a reader,” and a name that people “really, really” hate. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/2 "2017-05-03T12:32:56Z")
It’s a name for their son, so probably not “Hermione” 😛 A name from literature and recently from TV, that everyone hates? Perhaps “Ichabod”? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/3 "2017-05-03T12:33:23Z")
Maybe Prudence? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/4 "2017-05-03T12:42:10Z")
Brick? That’s the name of the book loving kid on _The Middle_ and is also the name of one of the lead characters in Tennessee Williams’\* Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.\* The only problem is that in the sea of ridiculous names out there these days, Brick is far from the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/5 "2017-05-03T12:46:11Z")
Wow, Brick. That’s a pretty good suggestion. It’s not the worst, but I can really see someone’s friends and family really hating it when told about it. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/6 "2017-05-03T12:47:01Z")
Heathcliff? ETA: Not that the Cosby Show is recent tv, but more attention has been paid to it recently. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/7 "2017-05-03T12:52:44Z")
Mycroft (as in Holmes)? For that matter… Moriarty? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/8 "2017-05-03T13:05:24Z")
There are definitely more than 13 possibilities since everyone knows there are 14 krappy given names in a fine Prudence debacle. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/9 "2017-05-03T13:24:15Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > There are definitely more than 13 possibilities since everyone knows there are 14 krappy given names in a fine Prudence debacle. Hah! We never did get an answer to that did we? For the name I’m guessing Lucifer. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/10 "2017-05-03T13:31:01Z")
Another reason to give your kid a normal first name and reserve the weird stuff for the middle name. All of our kids have very common first names (well, one is a little usual but it’s a ‘real’ name, not some neonomen thing) and unusual to very unusual middle names. For the girls, they can discard that name at marriage if they choose… or, in the case of our youngest, swap a first name she doesn’t like for a rare and beautiful middle name everyone admires. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/11 "2017-05-03T13:32:28Z")
Homer. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/12 "2017-05-03T13:39:25Z")
Lucifer. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/13 "2017-05-03T13:40:47Z")
Boy’s name of a character from literature that likes to read and has been used on TV. It’s not clear if the TV character is also a reader like the literature character. Or even if the literature and TV characters are the same, or only share a name. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/14 "2017-05-03T13:41:32Z")
Homer and Lucifer are readers? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/15 "2017-05-03T13:45:03Z")
Probably, he is a man of wealth and taste, after all. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/16 "2017-05-03T13:45:49Z")
Googling “TV characters who are readers” brings up “Sawyer-- _Lost_.” I did not watch _Lost_, and am not familiar with the character, but it definitely fits the bill as a literary character as well. However, I’m not sure why people would hate it, unless “Everybody” means “Our parents.” Last name-sounding first names are very in now. We have a ton of kids at the preschool whose names end in -son, including two with the same name, which I would not in a million tries have guessed that two sets of parents would come up with independently. And a full quarter of the kids with last names as first names are girls. I am old enough to be the grandparent of a soon-to-be child, and I hate Sawyer, but I would think it would be the sort of thing 20-somethings would go for-- unless Sawyer on _Lost_ was a real jerk aside from being a reader, or something. Anyone who watched _Lost_ want to comment? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/17 "2017-05-03T13:47:24Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Homer and Lucifer are readers? Who were they recently on TV? ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/18 "2017-05-03T13:50:48Z")
Tyrion? (Game of Thrones) Not so bad. Could call him Ty. Klaus? (Lemony Snicket) Pretty bad. Sounds like a Nazi. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/19 "2017-05-03T13:52:03Z")
We also don’t know if the character on TV is the same character as the book. Could just share a name. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771/20 "2017-05-03T13:52:33Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Who were they recently on TV? Homer- Simpsons Lucifer has a show named for him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-awful-baby-name-could-this-have-been/785771.md?page=2)