Naming a child can be incredibly difficult. You have to somehow find a name that you and your partner both love that neither of you associate with people you’ve known in real life. The name of an ex? Nope! The name of your middle school bully? Vetoed! And of course, any names associated with memes, cruel historical figures or brands are also off the table.
Redditors have recently been discussing formerly common names that have been ruined by one person or event, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts below. Enjoy reading through this list of unfortunate names, and be sure to upvote the ones that you’d never give to your children! Image credits: Atom1cThunder
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Adolf.
Not a single person, but I'm told there are simply no babies being named "Karen" at all anymore.
The nicest, most generous and kind person I ever met is named Karen. What a shame that the name has been destroyed.
Apparently Kermit used to be a popular name. I don’t wanna say it was ruined, persay, more froggified.
Not one person, but I know a lot of women in my community named Isis (after the Egyptian goddess of fertility).
Then THAT ISIS came along, and long story short, they’re all now unemployable.
Donald.
Trump is the death knell for many, but we can probably thank a Disney duck for a lot of it.
There are two Donalds that come to mind. One doesn't wear pants and screams a lot of things that are hard to understand. The other one is a cartoon duck.
No Donald makes me think of Donald Duck. Trump is mostly known as Trump.
And there were (and are) some great Donalds in the world. But the orange twit ruins everything.
For people in Hong Kong, Donald was already a problem name because a former leader of the former British colony now in jail had the name
Scotland, where the name Donald comes from, has a lot of Donalds. This name will continue in Scotland, especially on the west coast. Despite the best efforts of that hate-filled orange halfwit.
The duck is the reason my son's name is DON. (And the fact, it's his father's and late grandfather's name. They all have different middle names.)
Have we all tried calling him Donny T.? I get the feeling he wouldn't like that.
My uncle is a Donald and he is the total opposite of the Orange One - a complete, vegan, sprout eating, living on a houseboat, artist hippie. Until this moment I never even clicked that they had the same name. I’m not American but I don’t think the name is quite ruined forever.
Trump reminds me of John Goodman's line in The Big Lebowski: "Shut the fück up, Donny! Life does not stop and start at your convenience, you miserable piece of shít."
The popularity of this name declining isn't because of Trump though. If you look at the graph of the popularity of the name, you see it has been steadily declining for many decades. There is no strong drop since Trump became president or anything, in fact it follows the standard bell curve pretty perfectly (it is still declining but the decline has been slowing down)
As a Norwegian the name Anders is ruined for me because of terrorist Anders Behring Breivik. It's a common name but I never hear anyone call their babies Anders anymore.
Alvin. Ruined by the Chipmunk.
My friend started going by "Al" as soon as he could.
Let's just say there's a very good reason why the founder of Adidas went by Adi and not what was written on his birth certificate. (His name is Adolf)
I read Judas was a popular name back then. Thanks to THAT Judas, it's no longer popular today.
Weird because he was good enough to be a disciple of the Son of God. An alternate view has it that as Jesus knew who all his disciples would be, he specifically chose Judas to fulfill the required acts to ensure his crucifixion and resurrection, Judas agreed to enact Christ's plan and accepted that he would be hated for it.
Kevin
After Home alone, many families with low socioeconomic background in some European countries named their son's Kevin. When this boys hit Kindergarten or school, they oftentimes where seen as the troublemakers of the group (probably bc of a mixture of the Kevin from the movies and their families status and the resulting problems in their upbringing ) In the years after that, the name got associated with poor background, bad behaviour and overall stupidity. Alpha-Kevin is used as a semi-funny insult to this day in the German speaking part of Europe.
Madonna
My Aunt Madonna tried to call her husband at work to inform him that his father had died. The secretary hung up on her for being a crank caller, so he didn't get the news until he got home that evening (despite Madonna calling back several times).
In Germany it's Chantal, Jaqueline, Mandy and Kevin, besides Adolf of course. "Kevin is no name, but a diagnosis!"
They have the stigma to be names for stupid people. There is even a study for that! And names: Kevinismus (Kevinism) and Chantalismus (Chantalism).
My cousin always said if she had a girl, she'd name her Amber. 3 weeks ago, she named her newborn daughter Emily. When I asked why she didn't use Amber, she said she didn't want anyone to call her daughter Amber Turd.
Eileen - Was fine until a guy wrote a song called Come On Eileen. Now parents can never name their child that knowing that child would suffer from teenage jerks making every p**n comment possible.
Myra (in the UK).
Pretty name but it was the name of a female serial killer of children in the 1960s, Myra Hindley.
Might be due a comeback when Gen Z or Alpha have kids as they won’t have the same associations with it. Serial killers are relatively rare in the UK so even though she is from the 60s she’s still very well known to people born in the 80s, 90s and probably even 2000s due to media coverage around her death.
For those who don't know her and a man called Ian Brady killed children and buried them on the Yorkshire moors.
Ebeneezer, used to be fairly common until a certain author wrote a book with the protagonist named that...
Benito.
Everybody talks about the Austrian painter, and forgets the Italian bald journalist.
not journalist, Newspaper Editor. He got his political start as the editor in chief of Avante, Italy's most prominent socialist newspaper and one of the most influential socialist publications in the world. He was considered one of the defaco leaders of Italy's socialist movement. He however began to turn on the internationsim of the socialist movement and started promoting that socialism needed to be blended with nationalism. Then he one day quit Avante and a year later is the editor in chief of the brand new publication for a tiny political movement called the Fascistii , and over time he took over the movement and the rest is history.
Ellen. Dropped in popularity in the 90s when Ellen DeGeneres came out as gay, slowly rose in popularity again as gay people became more accepted, then dropped again when she came out as a terrible boss.
Fun fact: "ellen" means "ugly" in Luxemburgish. Not a popular name there either, I guess.
Einstein. Have a friend named Einstein, everyone thinks he's smart until you get to know him.
Kinda in this category, I heard Daenerys was a popular name for a bit there.
*smirks*.
I no longer like the name Logan.
Somewhere, Wolverine is shaking his head at the WWE US Champion...XP
Joran. Used to be a popular name but I don't believe many parents will name their boys that anymore.
I just learned Joran van der Sloot is a Dutch murderer.
Cristina (if you are from Argentina).
I need some enlightening on this, more so because that's me mum's name... -_-"
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At least half of these are nonsense. It takes more than one unpopular person having the name to ruin it. The first name itself has to have some inherent part of their identity AND it has to have broad awareness. Adolf was heavily used to refer to him. Benito not so much. Karen has a known heavy connotation. Logan not so much.
Not a lot Attilas running around. It only takes one bad person to permanently ruin the taste for the name in a lot of people's mind. I'm prejudiced against Ronald.
Load More Replies...
Well, this was mostly stupid. With the exception of a few obvious names which will never regain popularity, name popularity ebbs and flows due to many factors.
It was interesting to hear what names are unpopular in other countries though
Load More Replies...
No-one named Ken? (Not 100% sure whether Barbie was ever used as a girl's name.) But then: Mercedes and Porche used to be.
Barbie's full name is actually Barbara. "Barbara Millicent Roberts"
Load More Replies...
I can't think of anyone named "Sauron" since J.R.R. Tolkein's book came out. Not that I can think of anyone BEFORE the book, either. Kinda surprised no-one's been named "Voldemort" just in spite of J.K. Rowling. "Ya know what, who are you to decide who shouldn't be named what?"
My grandparents and their siblings and in-laws had names like Jobe, Francis, Clyde, Dorothy, Ralph, Bernice (pronounced like Berniss), Warren, Peg and the like. So many names have faded away.
strange, I didn't see bouche, audi, or shyla on the list.
Load More Replies... I knew three girls called Gay when I was at school. You never hear that as a given name anymore.
In reality we're all only one meme away from becoming a bad name...
There is a famous Croatian singer whose first name is Adolf, though most people don't know that. He was born in Yugoslavia, in 1949 and he was named Adolf. His parents had some guts.
Sugismundo is a very Iberic medieval name, but nobody more is named after this because it sounds like the words sujo and imundo (dirty and unclean) together. And just now I discovered that in Brazil they made short animations about a dirty guy called Sujismundo to learn children to be clean.
My cousin always told me when she was growing up she always wanted to have a daughter named Heidi. She grew up in a very German family. Then she married a man named John Fridy and realized that wasn't going to work. She named her Tami.
I had a cousin who named her son Elvis. Not necessarily any negative connotation, but you know he probably got teased. Elvis Presley owns that name for all time.
I can almost believe this, my husband happens to have a male name that starts and ends with a D, since the 2016 election, he has hated saying his own name.
This is Czechia specific: .There's very popular classic book (and movies) called Babička (Grandmother). One of characters in book is mentally ill woman named Viktorka (Viktoria), who's often seen wailing and screaming. It kinda ruined this name, because people sometimes use the phrase 'screaming like Viktorka'- being very loud.This name is still used, but it's not like people forget about that book character anytime soon.
Gary - in the UK after Gary Glitter. Also James/Jim/Jimmy due to Jimmy Saville
People who look down on other people's names because *vulgar* or *uneducated* should have a hard look at their own. I also think Karen will make a comeback eventually. It's a beautiful name and the whole millennial discourse on it will vanish with time.
We were a bit concerned that our son would get some teasing about John Philip Sousa ( the march composer), when we named him John Philip, but it never happened.
I know I sound like an old man but can me PLEASE stop changing spellings because we think it makes them unique? It just makes it hard on everyone. I had a customer today named Shyann AKA Cheyenne (relatively common name in Colorado). She had to spell it twice then had a coworker tell the hilarious original joke that they know her and she doesn't seem shy.
At college I was in a class with four Nancy's. Four! Over the years at different companies there was always a Nancy. I absolutely detest the name.
At least half of these are nonsense. It takes more than one unpopular person having the name to ruin it. The first name itself has to have some inherent part of their identity AND it has to have broad awareness. Adolf was heavily used to refer to him. Benito not so much. Karen has a known heavy connotation. Logan not so much.
Not a lot Attilas running around. It only takes one bad person to permanently ruin the taste for the name in a lot of people's mind. I'm prejudiced against Ronald.
Load More Replies... Well, this was mostly stupid. With the exception of a few obvious names which will never regain popularity, name popularity ebbs and flows due to many factors.
It was interesting to hear what names are unpopular in other countries though
Load More Replies... No-one named Ken? (Not 100% sure whether Barbie was ever used as a girl's name.) But then: Mercedes and Porche used to be.
Barbie's full name is actually Barbara. "Barbara Millicent Roberts"
Load More Replies... I can't think of anyone named "Sauron" since J.R.R. Tolkein's book came out. Not that I can think of anyone BEFORE the book, either. Kinda surprised no-one's been named "Voldemort" just in spite of J.K. Rowling. "Ya know what, who are you to decide who shouldn't be named what?"
My grandparents and their siblings and in-laws had names like Jobe, Francis, Clyde, Dorothy, Ralph, Bernice (pronounced like Berniss), Warren, Peg and the like. So many names have faded away.
strange, I didn't see bouche, audi, or shyla on the list.
Load More Replies... I knew three girls called Gay when I was at school. You never hear that as a given name anymore.
In reality we're all only one meme away from becoming a bad name...
There is a famous Croatian singer whose first name is Adolf, though most people don't know that. He was born in Yugoslavia, in 1949 and he was named Adolf. His parents had some guts.
Sugismundo is a very Iberic medieval name, but nobody more is named after this because it sounds like the words sujo and imundo (dirty and unclean) together. And just now I discovered that in Brazil they made short animations about a dirty guy called Sujismundo to learn children to be clean.
My cousin always told me when she was growing up she always wanted to have a daughter named Heidi. She grew up in a very German family. Then she married a man named John Fridy and realized that wasn't going to work. She named her Tami.
I had a cousin who named her son Elvis. Not necessarily any negative connotation, but you know he probably got teased. Elvis Presley owns that name for all time.
I can almost believe this, my husband happens to have a male name that starts and ends with a D, since the 2016 election, he has hated saying his own name.
This is Czechia specific: .There's very popular classic book (and movies) called Babička (Grandmother). One of characters in book is mentally ill woman named Viktorka (Viktoria), who's often seen wailing and screaming. It kinda ruined this name, because people sometimes use the phrase 'screaming like Viktorka'- being very loud.This name is still used, but it's not like people forget about that book character anytime soon.
Gary - in the UK after Gary Glitter. Also James/Jim/Jimmy due to Jimmy Saville
People who look down on other people's names because *vulgar* or *uneducated* should have a hard look at their own. I also think Karen will make a comeback eventually. It's a beautiful name and the whole millennial discourse on it will vanish with time.
We were a bit concerned that our son would get some teasing about John Philip Sousa ( the march composer), when we named him John Philip, but it never happened.
I know I sound like an old man but can me PLEASE stop changing spellings because we think it makes them unique? It just makes it hard on everyone. I had a customer today named Shyann AKA Cheyenne (relatively common name in Colorado). She had to spell it twice then had a coworker tell the hilarious original joke that they know her and she doesn't seem shy.
At college I was in a class with four Nancy's. Four! Over the years at different companies there was always a Nancy. I absolutely detest the name.
