Yahoo News Top 10 'worst' baby names revealed as parents explain their distaste for them
A group of mums have come up with a list of 10 baby names that they have ranked as the 'worst' you could choose for your child.
Naming your baby is an extremely important decision that should be considered for quite a long time. Those who are expecting a new child can spend hours and even weeks agonising over what to call their newborn to make sure it is just right.
There are plenty of names to consider and names come in and out of fashion all the time - with Sharon, Deirdre and Mabel all dipping in popularity in the last couple of decades.
But what makes a name good or bad? Users of popular forum Mumsnet have been looking for the answer to that question and asked each other which names they'd avoid and why.
The debate raged with some mums swearing they'd avoid 'frumpy' sounding names and others not enjoying names that have suffixes - such as Hayden, Jayden and Kayden.
Overall, these mums came up with a list of the 10 'worst' baby names they could imagine with explanations for each one, reports the Mirror.
Read on below to find out more.
The top 10 worst baby names according to mums
Mia - In military circles it’s an acronym for “missing in action”
Cameron - One of the names that could also be a surname
Claudia - Classics lovers will know it means “lame” in Latin
Alexa - Tech-giant Amazon have used this for their digital assistant
Lana - Anagram of something a lot ruder
Fanny - “for obvious reasons” according to users
Flora - It makes one mum “think of bacteria”
Luna - Sounds more like "a pet name”
Graham - Because it sounds like “grey ham”
Mercedes - Make everyone think of the car brand
The mums discussed this list as one wrote: "Any names that are too strongly and negatively connected to another person or an event or memory. I'd always just be making comparisons in my mind."
Others expressed their distaste for anything that is double-barrelled that ends with May or Mai. Old fashioned names were also criticised, as one said: "Mabel, Ethel or Alice.... still incredibly frumpy sounding to me despite their recent popularity."
Another said: "I don’t like when people give their child a 'unique' spelling, and I don’t like surnames as first names. So, Jackson is bad enough but Jaxon is even worse."
Names that are connected with historical figures were also slammed - such as Adolf, for obvious reasons, but Oliver was also called out for its connotations with Oliver Cromwell.
Despite this, Olivia was the most popular name for a little girl across the UK with Oliver the 5th most popular in 2023. The BBC reported that Muhammad is the number one most popular names for little boys with Noah sticking to second and Theo, Leo and Oliver bringing up the rear.
Luna, the name of the Roman moon goddess, now regularly tops lists. According to baby name experts, unique names are rising in popularity.
