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Parents should work hard at choosing a name for their child. It can impact the baby's life well into adulthood, too.

"There is a reason why baby name books are extremely popular," said David Figlio, who at the time was the Orrington Lunt Professor and Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.

"We're always trying to think about the first bit of a child's identity and so if we as a society pay a lot of attention to names it makes a lot of sense that people's names might influence how they think about themselves and the way in which people might think about them."

But things don't always go to plan. Researchers discovered that one in seven parents admit they made a "terrible mistake" with the name they chose for their child.

In an attempt to find out what they sound like, we discovered a thread on Reddit, started by a person who goes on the platform by the nickname PlsDontBanMe. They asked everyone "What name screams 'my parents don't like me?" and got over 4,000 answers.

#1

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard There was a girl in my high school named Chastity.

She didn't even know why it was ironic when she got pregnant at 16.

OwlCoffee , Kelly Sikkema Report

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Me
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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was once neighbour to a regilious youthgroup in a hostel in Nicaragua. I remember Chastity, Prudence and Charity... they partied like there is no tomorrow and gossiped nonstop when the leaders of the group where not around

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#2

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Met a girl called Constance Paine. Really had to wonder what her parents were thinking.

Tea-radactyl , Caleb Woods Report

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Snazzy Smurf
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like her mom was trying to tell her something.

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#3

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard XæA-12

stmfetty44 , grimes Report

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Lydsylou
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Their other kids are Exa dark sidrael and techno mechanicus. Surprisingly, the kids musk has with other women have pretty average names

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#5

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard I know several.

Used to work in a jail and we had a regular inmate whose first and middle names, legally, were Baby Boy. Spring Green (first name, last name) also came in frequently.

My mom worked with a doctor…Doctor First…Doctor Safety First. But don’t worry, his parents didn’t just hate him - his sister was named Ladies.

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Trillian
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

a) how is that legal and b) why didn't they change that as soon as they were able?

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#6

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard I had a neighbor with a little girl named Commodity. i dont think she disliked her kid, she was just really dumb.

quailfail666 , Ben Mack Report

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#7

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Abcde-supposedly pronounced Absidy. Some might remember that this made the news a few years back.

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Kim
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The airline staff who thought it was an error on the ticket and the mother got offended that somone could make fun of her child’s ”name”

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#8

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard I once met a little girl named Tilapia. I swear I’m not making this up.

manykeets , Codevasf Report

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#9

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard i knew three guys from school and their parents were a******s. parents had klan stuff up in their living room on display and everything. they gave all of their kids names that started with A, and middle names that started with S, so their full initials would be A.S.S. they thought it would be hilarious, and proudly commented on this often. needless to say i felt bad for those kids. who gives all three of their kids those initials, let alone one of them?

mondayeyess , Charlein Gracia Report

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Kim
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you are mentally a child yourself you should not raise kids

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#11

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard If their first name is the same as their last name.

William Williams, Michael Michaels, Daniel Daniels, Glen Glenn, John Johnson, etc.

circusmonkeybrain , Polina Zimmerman Report

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#13

Anything ending in -aiden, using an "X" in place of "cks" (Jaxon vs Jackson), intentional misspelling of names, forcing the kid into a life of correcting the pronunciation of a name that is easy to pronounce when spelled normally, and really just anything stupid that they named a kid because it's "unique".

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IvyWall
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I interviewed a young lady with Mle written as the first name. I was thinking Mm-leh Nope. It's pronounced M L. E (Emily).

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#14

Elon Musk’s kids’ names are a joke.

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#15

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard I am the third of four boys My mother really wanted a girl and when she was pregnant with me she pinned all her hopes on me being a girl. This is before sonograms were common. When I came out a boy she named me Curt. Not Curtis or Kurt, Curt. Which means rude.

theColonelsc2 , Anna Shvets Report

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Multa Nocte
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You have to stretch at this one being a bad name. I've known a number of Curt's over the years and none of them have ever had an issue with the name.

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#16

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Gunner. Not Gunnar like the Scandinavian name, or Günther like the Germanic version, but Gunner like the English word for a person who is shooting at someone.

dixiedemocrat , cottonbro studio Report

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#18

Newt Gingrich.
Imagine having a baby, looking down into its precious face, and saying deadpan to the nurse, “Newt Gingrich. Put that on the birth certificate.”

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Fred L.
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, the original is using Newt but is named Newton. And using surnames for a second name is a perfectly normal tradition. That being said, the main problem here is not the name itself but being named after this sorry excuse of a human being.

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#19

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Going with Chinese dialect of Hokkien here..

Someone named their child "Siew Kia" which isn't a bad name or anything in the language/dialect.. but the family name was Yao (and in Chinese names, the family name comes first)

This made the poor sod "Yao Siew Kia" which meant "baby beast" (or small animal not in a good way and is used as a derogatory term and swear word in Hokkien)

Poor guy

bearyken , Monstera Production Report

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SheamusFanFrom1987
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6 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I concur, because Hokkien is my mother tongue and the literal translation for Yao Siew Kia means "Demon child" aka naughty, nasty kid.

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#20

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard “First Name” Junior never felt right with me. Feels narcissistic to name your child the same as yourself. It’s like he’s never gonna carve his own identity he’s always gonna be known as an extension-sequel of you

Unamericandav , Federico Giampieri Report

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Igor914624
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am the fifth generation with the same name. It caused confusion with creditors and such for years. But I wouldn't have it any other way. It was really funny when the Army tried to digitize all the BUPERS files while I was in. Suddenly I had stuff on my service record from the battle of Gettysburg.

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FaceTime Audio
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5 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My cousin is a “The third”. I think he HAS to keep up the streak. His name allows for many nicknames, though, so that’s good. My culture doesn’t do naming after the living (it’s taboo, some consider it akin to wishing the person death), so it’s strange to me, but also can be cool.

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DrBronxx
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I disagree. Of all the people I know who have the same names as their parents, including my brother, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., none of them have ever been thought of as an extension of their parents. They are/were all their own people.

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Navel gazer
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think that this is clear to people in the family, but looking from the outside it can seem confusing

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Lydsylou
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We've got a name that's been used for 5 generations of our family. Both my uncle and brother use it as a middle name but my great grandad is both junior and senior because his son and father use the same name

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Kobe (she)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I get that - and I find it may be great to have a tradition like that - yet as a middle name. I knew a Leo sr and a Leo jr. While Leo jr. did not hate his name and had his own personality and so ... in the end, he would rather have had a different name.

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DamnBecky
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Im the 9th in a direct line. My mom, her mother, her mother etc, we all have the first name. Its special, unique and it makes me feel connected with the women in my family when their names are so rarely passed down. Yes, there has been some pressure of "You have to have a daughter to pass the name down" which is kinda refreshing from the traditional "you have to have a son" convos you normally see but not enough for me to freak out. I see nothing naracissistic about the naming convention, we are all our own people.

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Stephanie Did It
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree! I am a sixth generation Josephine. I have a portrait of the first Josephine in our line, in the 1800s, a photo on porcelain.

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Catharina Geerts
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And worse, *only* Junior as a first name. Gives the impression as if the bearer is still a child. Imagine being an old man with a load of grandkids - and still be called 'Junior'! Brrrrr

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Nightshade1972
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Years ago, I needed PT/OT for a broken elbow. The guy who was helping me introduced himself to me as David, but his business cards, and the hospital website, listed him as Firstname D. Lastname. Turned out that all the males in his family shared the identical first name and last name, only their middle names were different, so that's how they preferred to be addressed, to avoid confusion.

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Stephanie Did It
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I live in an area where there is a cultural tendency to name a child after his dad and then the kid grows up known as "Junior." Not by his first name, just Junior. My granddaughter just became Mrs Junior and I had to ask what his real name was!

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Scary Laugh
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My grandparents gave my Dad the same name as his Dad and then realised it was a dumb idea, so before he was a few months old they started calling him something else, he only found out his real name when he was a teenager and was applying for his first passport. It did make it handy to cut off salespeople who called, "Hi, can I speak to [first name]" when he NEVER used that name.

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Shelby Moonheart
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have three older bothers, I'm a girl. My dad didn't want any of the boys named after him because he didn't want a Junior. When I was born my mom convinced him to name me after him. I have the feminine version of my father's name.

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Eva-Katherine Smith
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I new a lovely girl who was named Anna-Maria XXXXX Junior by her horribly abusive narcissistic mother. Happy ending though she got excepted into her dream university 6 hours away and changed her name to Daisy XXXXX after her hero of a grandmother.

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Dane
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am a junior. It is what it is. But my father and then I were both known/go by our middle names. After a life of explaining to people, "no, I go by middle name", and having to wear name-tags or sign documents printed with a name you do not identify with, why would you do that to your own off-spring? It is just a huge, life-long, PITA!

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Sooploosh MacSchnibble
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm named after my dad but I go by another name that everyone calls me so its not that bad.

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Robert Mandeville
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm a "Jr." myself. Mailing lists keep getting myself and my dad (in the next state over) confused. The funniest part was when I was 17 and the Navy wanted to recruit me. My dad picked up the phone, and they tried to recruit him instead...but he was a Chief Petty Officer!

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Alpacas_Are_Life
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's not so bad. I know a guy whose first name IS Junior. To me that is ridiculous.

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sari swick
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Doing genealogy research with generations of this foolishness is almost impossible.

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Jill Bussey
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Or they couldn't be bothered to think of something different.

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Spittnimage
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like George Foreman and his boys named George Jr., George III, George IV.

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Effseven Six
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Haveing the same exact name as your parent can be a issue. My mom worked at a jail in booking and saw the issues with it all the time.

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Bear Panda
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

my brother is the fifth of his full name. i am the third female with the same first name. my mom said she named me after HER mom. not sure how it all works, but i'm glad i have my "old" last name!

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CG
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Like you mean their first name is Junior? I know that there are quite a few people from South America, especially Brazil, who's first name is Junior.

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Jaya
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Completely agree. It's very common in my country, and I think it's weird as hell, but no-eone else seems to mind. Although it seems to be becoming much less common nowadays, it's more a thing from previous generations.

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Cjo
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But this is very important if you are "royalty" and want to make sure everyone know this is their heir. Got to keep that myth of legitimacy/money going after all.

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Mark Stewart
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Never heard of any royals naming their child junior. A regnal name used by a Monarch during their reign is entirely different (and not always the same one they're given at birth either), plus it's usually followed by a number to differentiate them from previous holders of that name.

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#21

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Renesmee. Coworker’s granddaughter was named that.

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#23

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Any name that's written using their syllabic pronunciation. I know of a kid whose name is Kahydiynn. Like what the f**k?

DatsunTigger , Karolina Grabowska Report

#24

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Used to know a kid in school named Richard Ryder (Rider?) Not sure how the last name was spelled

poweredbyford87 , Leeloo Thefirst Report

#25

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Brand names

Irrespond , Jueun Song Report

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glowworm2
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I knew a guy in college who was almost named Avis like the car company because his brother was allowed to pick the name. Thankfully, his parents chose Chris instead.

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#26

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard A boy named Sue.

mtthwas , Monstera Production Report

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NetworkMan
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ooof Goth Demon, go digging around online for Johnny Cash, you might get the reference. 'And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him... Bill or George! Any-damn-thing but Sue! I still hate that name!'

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#27

“My Parents Don’t Like Me”: 35 People Share The Most Hilariously Unfortunate Names They’ve Heard Satan, Beelzebub, Judas

buttfook , Francesco Alberti Report

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Me
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I appreciate that you are not allowed to use names like this in germany. Poor children.

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#28

When the firstname/lastname combination does not work for a name.

Prime example-- North West (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter). She's either named after a direction on a map or a defunct airline (as if Kimye would fly commercial).

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Kim
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Rob Morrow named his kid ”Tu” do the name is Tu Morrow. Tomorrow. Why not just go to the school and pay the bullies.

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#29

Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo

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#30

Mine. My first name has an "r" in it. Both of my patents needed speech therapy to say that letter. I COULDN'T SAY MY OWN F*****G NAME UNTIL F*****G HIGH SCHOOL!!! There's a reason I use my middle name. I genuinely think it was spite because I was an oopsie baby. Bullied relentlessly for years, including by my first ex and a famous comedian's nephew.

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Rostit. .
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is a lot to unpack here. I suspect there's far more to this story

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#31

Any name that is an alternative spelling or fake-Gaelic name.

Like “Jaxon” or “Graclyn.”

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Kobe (she)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As long as it is not Jhackxsonn or Ghraeclynn , I don't have a big problem with that. Names and spelling evolve naturally. Image we would still spell our names like they did 500 or even 200 years ago...

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#32

Last name was Hunt, and they still named him Michael. The poor kid.

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Multa Nocte
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This sounds more like a Simpson's joke than something that really happened.

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#33

My aunt swears that at the hospital a woman named her child A*****e pronounced A-sho-lee

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#34

Any name intentionally given by parents that's a character from entertainment. Your kid is not a pet, car, boat, or bong.

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Tracy Wallick
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Very much depends on the name. That AITA a couple weeks ago about someone whose sister/SIL wanted to name their kid Luffy? Definitely not. People who named their kid Harry, Ron or Hermione after the Harry Potter books/movies? Not nearly as bad.

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#35

A first name that rhymes with your last name.

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NetworkMan
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'll have you know I have a very great friend in Rome named Biggus Dickus.

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