What are some of the worst names people have given their children?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around unusual and often humorous names that parents have given their children. Participants share anecdotes and examples of names they consider to be among the worst, exploring the implications and cultural contexts of these choices.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants mention names like Sh*thead, Metal Alloy, and Meconium as particularly unfortunate choices, suggesting a lack of awareness about their meanings.
  • Others share stories of names derived from hospital wristbands, such as Female (pronounced feh-MAH-lee) and Urine (pronounced yuREEN), indicating a trend of parents choosing names without understanding their implications.
  • Several participants reference the name Lemonjello ("le-MON-je-lo") and Random as examples of names that are both humorous and problematic.
  • There are mentions of names like Evil Canevial and Anus Magillicutty, which some participants find amusing yet inappropriate.
  • One participant notes the cultural context of names, mentioning that Random is an old Southern name and Lemongiello is an actual Italian surname.
  • Names inspired by herbs and spices, such as Dill, Ginger, and Cumin, are also discussed, with some participants expressing disbelief at their existence.
  • Some participants reflect on the historical context of naming conventions, referencing names like Ima Hogg and the tradition of unusual names in American culture.
  • There are anecdotes about names that sound inappropriate in different languages or cultures, highlighting the complexities of naming across cultural boundaries.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants share a variety of opinions on the appropriateness of certain names, with no clear consensus on what constitutes a "bad" name. The discussion remains largely unresolved, with multiple competing views on the implications of these naming choices.

Contextual Notes

Some names mentioned may carry different meanings or connotations in various cultural contexts, and the discussion reflects a range of personal experiences and interpretations regarding naming practices.

  • #31
While they're quite common here, some of the family names on the Stoney reserve next door probably sound weird to people who haven't been exposed to them: Shotbothsides, Rollinmud, CrowSpreadHisWings, Powderface, Manywounds, Twoyoungmen etc..
 
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  • #32
I have been watching the old Lost in Space series [turns out I never saw much of the first season!] and noticed the name of the writer of the episode "Oasis":

Peter Packer
 
  • #33
I once worked for a fellow from Japan who's name was a dirty word in Arabic. A friend of mine who was from Libya couldn't help but laugh out load each time that fellow from Japan was paged. Imagine having a name that was a swear word!
 
  • #34
Seach the white pages for Crapper.

Hopefully there is no Ima.
 
  • #35
<----

I like my name though.

EDIT: It would be "Yu" if I didn't change it. Imagin how confusing that would be.
 
  • #36
I once knew a girl called Genna Taylor. Say it out loud a few times if you don't get it.
And a schoolmate's father was called Mike Hunt.
 
  • #37
Math Is Hard said:
My mom worked at a hospital for years and saw some pretty crazy baby names come through. One woman named her baby Female (pronounced feh-MAH-lee) because it was on the baby's hospital wristband. Another couple named their child Urine (pronounced yuREEN)

Since we're necroposting...

My mom worked at a government office and ran into similarly odd names. One women named her children after ritzy Chicago suburbs: her sons were Willmette (called Will), Evanston (called Evan) and Kennelworth (called Ken), and daughters were Winnetka and Northbrook (called Brook). There might have been a Glen in there...Glencoe or Glenbrook.

I'm glad she stopped before Buffalo Grove!
 
  • #38
matthyaouw said:
I once knew a girl called Genna Taylor. Say it out loud a few times if you don't get it.
And a schoolmate's father was called Mike Hunt.

Funny, there was a guy named Mike Hawke on TV the other day. Wonder if they know each other:biggrin:
 
  • #39
Le-ah. Pronounced 'Lee-dash-uh'.
 
  • #40
I worked off and on with a highly respected paper machine engineer whose first name was Omega. He was a lanky southerner who claimed his mother named him that after declaring "No more kids!"

In high school, there was a special-ed kid named Mike Hunt that got paged frequently when he went missing or hadn't showed up for scheduled programs. His oldest sister was the prettiest girl in school, and a real sweetie, and it ticked me off that other kids teased her when Mike was being paged.
 
  • #41
Jimmy is a nice name.
 
  • #42
Bright Wang said:
<----

I like my name though.

EDIT: It would be "Yu" if I didn't change it. Imagin how confusing that would be.
I have a colleague name Yu. I don't need to imagine.
 
  • #43
One of my friends has a chinese or Korean colleague named "Tao Lee". In my language, it means mother-f..ker.
 
  • #44
Chi Meson said:
My friend from Florida knew of a woman who looked in her cupboard and decided to name her son Lemonjello ("le-MON-je-lo").

And a long ago friend of mine gave his son a random middle name. Specifically, Random.

Twins, actually. Lemonjello and Oranjello. My mom (a doctor) knows who delivered them.
 
  • #45
Ben Niehoff said:
Twins, actually. Lemonjello and Oranjello. My mom (a doctor) knows who delivered them.

Wow...are you serious, Ben? That has to be the weirdest coincidence ever...wow.
 
  • #46
larkspur said:
More people seem to be making up names for their kids these days. The worst ones I have personally come upon are:
Sh*thead (*=i, PRONOUNCED "Shuh-theed"),

I'm very nearly positive this one's an urban legend. Until someone can produce an actual, bona fide birth certificate with this name on it, I'm calling bullcrap on anyone who claims to have come across it.

Ditto Lemonjello and Orangello.

These and other examples come up repeatedly on urban legends sites, such as Snopes but no one has ever managed to produce any satisfactory evidence.
 
  • #47
This is pertinent...


Ima Hogg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ima_Hogg

"Texas legend insists that when Jim Hogg ran for re-election as Texas governor in 1892 he often traveled with Ima and a friend of hers and introduced them as his daughters Ima and Ura. Ima Hogg maintained throughout her life that this never happened. She was frequently forced to dispel the myth; hundreds of people wrote her letters inquiring whether her name was real and if she really had a sister named Ura.The Kansas City Star even invented another sister, Hoosa."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dick_(ice_hockey )

Still none of these come close to the ridiculousness already mentioned...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #48
matthyaouw said:
I once knew a girl called Genna Taylor. Say it out loud a few times if you don't get it.
And a schoolmate's father was called Mike Hunt.

Took me a while to get those!
We had a substitute teacher in high school named Mr. Bates
 
  • #49
junglebeast said:
We had a substitute teacher in high school named Mr. Bates

I'm sure he could hold his own.

Another bad name trend: having the same first and last names. I know of a Warren Warren, just for example.
 
  • #50
there's a "Ima Cracker", "Al Kaida", and a "Ball Sak" on Facebook.

My friend was also telling me about a "Lardas Amerika"
 
  • #51
larkspur said:
... Meconium(the parents saw it on their discharge papers...

Meconium. Discharge.

Ahahaha! :biggrin:
 
  • #52
Ben Niehoff said:
Twins, actually. Lemonjello and Oranjello. My mom (a doctor) knows who delivered them.

Bill Cosby?
 
  • #53
I'll have to ask her to confirm the story. I didn't know it was a common urban legend.
 
  • #54
I know somebody called Robert.
 
  • #55
I dated a speech therapist once who told me about a patient named Psalm Siv. She asked where they got such an unusal name and they replied that they wanted to give their child a name from the bible. They had randomly opened the bible and chose Psalms IV.
 
  • #56
Harry Balzer
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_about_hbalzer.html
 
  • #57
(Sorry if this was already mentioned -- I didn't read through the whole thread) Anyone else run into this yet? A friend of mine works at a daycare and defied us to pronounce this name:

La-a
 
  • #58
One of my friends' friends had a run-in with La-a also...small world.
 
  • #59
Mortimer Titian.
 
  • #60
GeorginaS said:
(Sorry if this was already mentioned -- I didn't read through the whole thread) Anyone else run into this yet? A friend of mine works at a daycare and defied us to pronounce this name:

La-a
Hope it's not as hard to do as Nippl-e.

 
Last edited by a moderator:

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