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Can we discuss this most hated baby name's list?
If you already have your heart set on a name for your baby, you may want to stop reading now. If you couldn't care less what anyone else thinks and won't break into tears at the sight of seeing your future child's name on the 10 Most Hated Baby Name list, then proceed. I warn you, however, that it can be brutal to see one's choice sitting there after all the painstaking debate and devotion that go into choosing just the right name.
More from The Stir: 20 Names I Would Never Give my Baby
The list comes from Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby. She conducted an "informal" study and came up with the list. In general she found people hate "gender-bending" names in which a masculine name becomes feminine -- like Addison or Madison.
As well, people despise trendy names ... though obviously not everyone does or they wouldn't be trendy, right? Also on the list of hate are names that are difficult to spell (Kaitlyn) and those that are similar versions of other names (Jayden, Brayden, and Kayden).
Here's the full list (with notes from Live Science) ... brace yourself:
Girls
- Nevaeh ("heaven" spelled backward and one of the most divisive names around, according to Wattenberg)
- Destiny (people dislike names that confer a virtue onto a child, Wattenberg said -- and many associated this name with exotic dancers)
- Madison
- Mackenzie
- McKenna
- Addison (an example of a masculine named turned feminine, which many people dislike, Wattenberg said)
- Gertrude (people said this name is "ugly")
- Kaitlyn (for its "made-up" spelling)
- Makayla
- Bertha (author's note: duh!)
More from The Stir: Baby Name Leads to Death Threats
Boys
- Jayden
- Brayden
- Aiden
- Kaden (these rhyming names struck many as overdone, Wattenberg reported)
- Hunter (too much like a last name or "too violent")
- Hayden
- Bentley (people dislike brand-name names, Wattenberg found, calling them "trashy")
- Tristan
- Michael (too boring, according to some)
- Jackson
I'm surprised to see some of them there -- especially Michael, and Kaitlyn doesn't seem that strangely spelled to me. But some of them, yeah ... "Bentley," really?
Still, if you love a name, it's your baby, and you get to decide. Don't let the haters color your opinion of a name you love ... just know that your child may be among those who hate it too.
What do you think of the baby names on this most hated list? Are your children's names on it? Do you care?
Re: Can we discuss this most hated baby name's list?
Y'all are going to be so jealousE of my boys Dooney and Bourke.
Currently Reading: Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Wasn't there a Dr. Seuss about a bird named Gertrude who thought she was ugly? Or at least not as pretty as she wanted to be?
I like a lot of "gender-bending" names, but I don't like that they largely stop being available for boys. There's such a shortage of good boy names.
I agree.
I have a secret obsession with female names turned male as well. I'm weird.
i love this, too. oh, well.
also, i love the name Tristan. and in 11 years of teaching, i have never had a single one. i knew one when i was in school, but that was it.
the names i hate are the ones i end up having three of in the same class. i could make a list of those. haha
LOL @ "Hunter" being too violent. What kind of dried-up-panty-crud-for-brains thinks that?
Other than that I agree with all the boy names especially. Mainly anything that ends in "'-en or "-on" just needs to stop like yesterday. Tristans, you're all OK, I think, if only a tad medieval sounding, like Galahad or Perceval.
I think they were a little hard on the girls.
Can vacation be now please?
Madison was a beautiful name... About 8 years ago before there were like 15 Madisons being born in any hospital at any given time. And Jayden is just uh... No. The only Jaydens I ever seen were burn to trashy teen moms. You might as WELL name your kid Bentley, in that case!
Currently Reading: Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes