Worst Baby Names

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Nope, she's right. http://www.behindthename.com/name/liam

Liam as a free-standing name only goes back to the 1970's.

sophhabobopha · January 2015

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Me neither.

charcoalandblush · January 2015

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Interesting. The only time I've ever seen it as a standalone name is my cousin's son.

According to Wikipedia, shortening "William" to "Liam" is an Irish thing. So based on my family/where I'm from, it makes sense that I've only seen it that way.

ETA: But my point doesn't just apply to "Liam" specifically, that was just an example. I am equally opposed to "Bill" or "Katie" or "Annie" or whatever.

sophhabobopha · January 2015

charcoalandblush said:

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Interesting. The only time I've ever seen it as a standalone name is my cousin's son.

According to Wikipedia, shortening "William" to "Liam" is an Irish thing. So based on my family/where I'm from, it makes sense that I've only seen it that way.

That's really interesting!

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

charcoalandblush said:
Interesting. The only time I've ever seen it as a standalone name is my cousin's son.

According to Wikipedia, shortening "William" to "Liam" is an Irish thing. So based on my family/where I'm from, it makes sense that I've only seen it that way.

ETA: But my point doesn't just apply to "Liam" specifically, that was just an example. I am equally opposed to "Bill" or "Katie" or "Annie" or whatever.

Well, that's just because Liam is an Irish (nick)name... it's been co-opted but it's not like "only Irish people shorten William to Liam, but Liam is a regular name for other people." You're still right even if most people nowadays see it as a standalone name.

But lots of names do start like that... Jack didn't start out as its own name - it was originally a nickname for John. Actually a LOT of names started as nicknames for John. (Maybe cuz everyone was named John and they needed to tell people apart.)

charcoalandblush · January 2015

lolo883 said:

charcoalandblush said:
Interesting. The only time I've ever seen it as a standalone name is my cousin's son.

According to Wikipedia, shortening "William" to "Liam" is an Irish thing. So based on my family/where I'm from, it makes sense that I've only seen it that way.

ETA: But my point doesn't just apply to "Liam" specifically, that was just an example. I am equally opposed to "Bill" or "Katie" or "Annie" or whatever.

Well, that's just because Liam is an Irish (nick)name... it's been co-opted but it's not like "only Irish people shorten William to Liam, but Liam is a regular name for other people." You're still right even if most people nowadays see it as a standalone name.

But lots of names do start like that... Jack didn't start out as its own name - it was originally a nickname for John. Actually a LOT of names started as nicknames for John. (Maybe cuz everyone was named John and they needed to tell people apart.)

See, to me, Jack still IS a nickname for John. I would never consider "Jack" its own name.

bethsmiles · January 2015

lolo883 said:

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Nope, she's right. http://www.behindthename.com/name/liam

Liam as a free-standing name only goes back to the 1970's.

Interesting, I've never seen it used as a nickname.

levioosa · January 2015

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

kaitlynmichelle · January 2015

My brothers and I were given our names because of our Irish heritage. They may not be traditional spellings, but my mom picked Liam for one of my brothers because it was Irish. It had absolutely nothing to do with being short for William. I've never heard of that.

lovesclimbing · January 2015

thisismynickname said:

lovesclimbing said:

I know a girl with whose name is Jenniffer. Yes, with two f's.

I just read an article on USAToday that the Frozen craze is so big that people are naming their kids Sven. The article quoted an actor in the show saying "if it gets to the point where you are naming your child after a reindeer, you really need to get yourself checked out."

This made me laugh because Sven is a valid name anyway, primarily in Scandinavia. My mom and sister and I had a really hot waiter named Sven once (he was indeed Scandinavian). After, we used to joke for years if we came across a hot service worker we'd say, "My waiter / plumber / UPS guy was a total Sven!"

I agree that it's a perfectly valid name if general you're from/in Scandinavia. But if you're naming it after reindeer in an animated kids movie, I judge.

chibiyui · January 2015

levioosa said:

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

Fucking this man.

And syllables. Don't tell me that "Juniper" is a nick name for "June" It doesn't fucking work that way. (There's been some more egregious ones, this is just the most recent that I can recall)

Oh. And I hate the name Holden. Catcher in the Rye was a shitty book. Fuck you hipsters.

Fran1985 · January 2015

charcoalandblush said:

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Interesting. The only time I've ever seen it as a standalone name is my cousin's son.

According to Wikipedia, shortening "William" to "Liam" is an Irish thing. So based on my family/where I'm from, it makes sense that I've only seen it that way.

ETA: But my point doesn't just apply to "Liam" specifically, that was just an example. I am equally opposed to "Bill" or "Katie" or "Annie" or whatever.

Liam Hemsworth! Liam Neeson! two very important Liams

Fran1985 · January 2015

hmm I can't edit my comment. But it was its own name from way before the 1970s, I have some Liams in my family from the 1800s and it wasn't short for William.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

Liam Hemsworth! Liam Neeson! two very important Liams

William Neeson IS his full name. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000553/bio

Edited to shrink quote tree.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

Fran nobody's saying people don't use lots of names as freestanding names, or that anybody isn't free to do that, just that at some point in time they originated as nicknames. For Liam, it became popular in the US in the 1970s, meaning it wasn't in the top 1000 names before then.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

chibiyui said:

levioosa said:

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

Fucking this man.

And syllables. Don't tell me that "Juniper" is a nick name for "June" It doesn't fucking work that way. (There's been some more egregious ones, this is just the most recent that I can recall)

Oh. And I hate the name Holden. Catcher in the Rye was a shitty book. Fuck you hipsters.

Nickname doesn't mean it's shorter, it just means it's a different, familiar form of your real name. Diminutives are short forms of a full name. So Kate is the diminutive of Katherine but KareBear can still be a nickname for Karen.

Though I'll agree that Jack as a nickname for John doesn't make any damn sense. That's like "my name's Bill, but you can call me Bob." But... why?

lavenderfields13 · January 2015

lolo883 said:

chibiyui said:

levioosa said:

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

Fucking this man.

And syllables. Don't tell me that "Juniper" is a nick name for "June" It doesn't fucking work that way. (There's been some more egregious ones, this is just the most recent that I can recall)

Oh. And I hate the name Holden. Catcher in the Rye was a shitty book. Fuck you hipsters.

Nickname doesn't mean it's shorter, it just means it's a different, familiar form of your real name. Diminutives are short forms of a full name. So Kate is the diminutive of Katherine but KareBear can still be a nickname for Karen.

Though I'll agree that Jack as a nickname for John doesn't make any damn sense. That's like "my name's Bill, but you can call me Bob." But... why?

I have never understood "Jack" for John either. Bill for Bob just made me think of my uncle - I just found out that my Uncle Reggie's real name is Robert. My whole life I thought his name was Reginald and then collecting addresses for the wedding I find out it's Robert. Still don't know where the nickname came from.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

lavenderfields13 said:

lolo883 said:

chibiyui said:

levioosa said:

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

Fucking this man.

And syllables. Don't tell me that "Juniper" is a nick name for "June" It doesn't fucking work that way. (There's been some more egregious ones, this is just the most recent that I can recall)

Oh. And I hate the name Holden. Catcher in the Rye was a shitty book. Fuck you hipsters.

Nickname doesn't mean it's shorter, it just means it's a different, familiar form of your real name. Diminutives are short forms of a full name. So Kate is the diminutive of Katherine but KareBear can still be a nickname for Karen.

Though I'll agree that Jack as a nickname for John doesn't make any damn sense. That's like "my name's Bill, but you can call me Bob." But... why?

I have never understood "Jack" for John either. Bill for Bob just made me think of my uncle - I just found out that my Uncle Reggie's real name is Robert. My whole life I thought his name was Reginald and then collecting addresses for the wedding I find out it's Robert. Still don't know where the nickname came from.

H's step-grandpa goes by Ed, but his given name is Adolph. Didn't want to go by his full name for obvious reasons, and there isn't really a good diminutive for Adolph, so he picked Ed. Alrighty, Ed it is.

sophhabobopha · January 2015

I just skyped with my four year old brother who told me about his best friend 'Gallaway'. Bahahahaha.

ohannabelle · January 2015

bethsmiles said:

lolo883 said:

bethsmiles said:

charcoalandblush said:

Wow this thread got long....

A few more/comments on stuff other people posted/followup

I also hate -leigh instead of -ly. I went to school with a girl named Ashleigh who we all hated and behind her back we all called her "Ash-LAY" like immature third graders (this was literally in grad school).

I'm on the opposite side as some people re: nicknames. I hate hate HATE when NICKNAMES are used as given names. My cousin named her son Liam. Liam is not a name. William is a name, for which Liam is a nickname. That is the entire point of nicknames.

I also went to middle school with a girl named Unique. Literally.

Also, a girl from college who I cannot stand. She embodies all of the negative stereotypes about southern sororities - super rich and pretentious, overly concerned about her appearance, always decked out on Lilly Pulitzer and Jack Rodgers, very vaguely racist, etc. She named her daughter Ellora. I figured it wasn't a real name and googled it. For SO long I was tempted to comment on one of her posts about the baby "That's awesome, I didn't know you and your husband were such huge Star Trek fans!"

I'm pretty sure Liam is totally a name on it's own. I've literally never heard it as a nickname for William.

Nope, she's right. http://www.behindthename.com/name/liam

Liam as a free-standing name only goes back to the 1970's.

Interesting, I've never seen it used as a nickname.

Definitely farther back than the 70s. We have an Uncle Liam (full given name) who's in his late 60s, and Liam Neeson must be in his 60s. A Mac Liammóir is on record in the 16th century. mac Liam móir = son of Big Liam. So I'd be willing to bet that while it started as a nickname, it's more of a derivative name. That's like saying Lisa is not a name, because it started as a nickname for Elizabeth. Nope, now it qualifies as a stand alone name.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

ohannabelle said:
Definitely farther back than the 70s. We have an Uncle Liam (full given name) who's in his late 60s, and Liam Neeson must be in his 60s. A Mac Liammóir is on record in the 16th century. mac Liam móir = son of Big Liam. So I'd be willing to bet that while it started as a nickname, it's more of a derivative name. That's like saying Lisa is not a name, because it started as a nickname for Elizabeth. Nope, now it qualifies as a stand alone name.

Sure it does, but isn't it important to know that's where it came from, so you don't name your kid Liam William Lastname? So he doesn't end up like my friend's sister Lisa Elizabeth, who was really embarrassed to grow up and learn that her name was Lisa Lisa?

Also, just gonna leave this here.

beethery · January 2015

chibiyui said:

levioosa said:

I don't get nicknames that are the same length or longer than their formal counterpart. It makes zero sense to me.

Fucking this man.

And syllables. Don't tell me that "Juniper" is a nick name for "June" It doesn't fucking work that way. (There's been some more egregious ones, this is just the most recent that I can recall)

Oh. And I hate the name Holden. Catcher in the Rye was a shitty book. Fuck you hipsters.

Holden Caulfield can suck a dick. I FUCKING HATE THAT BOOK.

ohannabelle · January 2015

I never knew Liam Neeson was a William. I also didn't know he was from County Antrim.

I think he's hot as all hell.

[Deleted User] · January 2015

I know I'm late to this party but I got a resume today from someone named Knee-kole. Seriously. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'.

hellosweetie1015 · January 2015

ohannabelle said:
I never knew Liam Neeson was a William. I also didn't know he was from County Antrim.
I think he's hot as all hell.

No lie. Liam Neeson was my very first actor crush.

I actually like diminutives and the history behind how they became "legitimate" names in their own right.

theartistformerlyknownas · January 2015

ohannabelle said:

I never knew Liam Neeson was a William. I also didn't know he was from County Antrim.
I think he's hot as all hell.

He's on my Over 50 list.

sophhabobopha · January 2015

FeeleyToBe said:

I know I'm late to this party but I got a resume today from someone named Knee-kole. Seriously. If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'.

Cookie Pusher · January 2015

ohannabelle said:

I never knew Liam Neeson was a William. I also didn't know he was from County Antrim.
I think he's hot as all hell.

He's on my Hall Pass list. I'm a sucker for his brogue, too.

jenna8984 · January 2015

Wow I definitely never would havemade the ccorrelation of Liam and William!! But I was also shocked when I learned that Tori was short for Victoria. So I'm not too bright hahah

natswild · January 2015

@charcoalandblush, Liam is a proper Scottish name, and quite common, also fairly common Irish name

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