Are their names you wouldn't use? As a teacher, a mum and a colleague, there are some names that I know I just couldn't bring myself to use. One of my favourite names actually falls into this list. What about you?

Oh, thousands! All names I rather like, but can't use for various reasons.

For girls: Mary, Emma/line, Emily, Elaine, Allison, Rachel, Virginia, Ellen, Elizabeth, Grace, Briony, Bryn (might be able to sneak in as a middle name), Anna/Ana/Anne, Gemma
For boys: Tyler, Bryan, Jason, Benjamin, Joshua, Matthew, William, James, Wesley, David, Patrick, Mark/Marcus, Beau

Probably lots more, but those are the ones I can think of, off hand.

While I like many of the names in the top 100 popular baby names I wouldn't use them. My preference is for less common but normal names for my children; both DH and I's first names fall into this category and we wanted the same for our three children.

The names I wouldn't use, even though they are usually NMS, are those associated with notorious child abuse or murder cases for example Jayden, Azaria, and more recently Kiesha.

Lots of names yes.

Love Millicent NN Milly but couldn't use it becaue it doesn't go well with DS name.

Love Esme but the Twilight connection ruined it for me.

Love Jonathan but its my husbands name so can't have a DS and DH with same name!

Love Isabella and Amelia but they are in the top 100 names so wouldn't use them.

Chloe is a huge one for me. Perfectly nice name which has been completely ruined over the years by negative associations. Likewise for Isabella/Bella/Isobel.

Love the name Mary but can't use it as DS is Joseph!

I also couldn't use any name associated with crimes against children.

There's stacks of names I wouldn't use.

Mainly anything in the top 100.

Tons I wouldnt and couldnt use. I had a name I loved so much since DS was born but now gone completely off it due to it being so popular now.
If a name also reminds me of someone else I wouldnt use it either.

When I worked in vacation care there was a boy called Ethan, which was an unusual name at the time, who had some issues and used to run around telling the other kids he was Satan. I now forever associate the name with him.

I wouldn't use any name ending in 'ella'. Isabella and Stella, for example.

There are hundreds of names I wouldn't/couldn't use.

I love Valentina but wouldn't go with our surname.

I've loved Ruby since listening to 204 Bell St on Triple J.

But it's top three now...

Lily and Bella are out too.

Well, there are far more names I wouldn't use than I would use.

Loads of different categories of names I wouldn't use:

Anything that doesn't have a history of usage, so no made up names for a start

Names that are strongly linked to one person if that person is a d***head or idiot or other very negative image

Names that sound ugly

Names that don't suit a person throughout their lifetime eg a cutesy name, or alternatively a name that sounds way too old on a young person

Pretentious names that would gather lots of raised eyebrows if I used them

Overly popular names, especially if that popularity is recent


I could go on and on.

This about sums it up for me too.

Also I won't use names beginning with M as I don't like firstname-surname alliteration and our surname starts with M. Shame because I love Max and Madeleine but they are out.

This.

And then when DH doesn't agree with the 4 names I like, it makes it even harder!

A few names I love rhyme with my DH's name or our surname, so I couldn't use them. Further to that, any names that remind me of b*tches at high school or the naughty kids from primary school (luckily most of those names are out of style anyway).

Ditto. I think Chloe is a really nice name but a girl I went to high school with is named Chloe and she was a cow, so it's out.

And anything common. My BIL is David. I know sooooo many Davids. And Matthews.

Claire, I love the name and considered it for dd but just couldn't bring myself to use it (know an evil Claire).

DH would say Jack which is my fave boys name, but he hates it because of a certain somebody.

Yep, there is alot of them. Shame though, because some are great names.

I love Naomi but it rhymes with DH's last name, terribly poor planning on his part I thought!

I won't name after live family members so anything belonging to our parents or siblings is out, which means my sister is camping on one of those tried-and-true middle names that goes with everything ever.

If we named a child Kristin/Christopher/Kyrie anything like that my mom would be heartbroken. Some of those names are quite pretty but its not worth family drama.

Always loved the name Lachlan, but I know 5 Lachlan's in one grade all with Learning Difficulties so I just couldn't do it...

Nothing common - so boring.

I used to love the Irish boys name Fiachra.

That was until I discovered that St Fiachra is the patron saint of, among other things, sufferers of venereal disease and hemorrhoids.

Another teacher. Names I would never use because of the darlings who bore them...


William
Jacob
Zain
Cain
Beau
Matthew
Jack
Jake
Jackson
Errol
Liam
Jeremiah
Josiah
*ETA Evan


Charlotte
Chantelle
Grace
Hunter

And a good dozen more that I can't think of at the moment. Tell you what, let's rule out any boy's name starting with a J and that's a good start. It's a fantastic teacher rule that seems to ring true at every school I've taught at, which is 7. Boys whose names start with J need to be watched!!

DH and I's main restriction was that we didn't want to use any biblical names. I love Eden (one of Quixote's girls ) but wouldn't use it because of the biblical connection.

Freja. Love it to death but cannot get past the person from my past who shares it.

Anything used in Twilight. Which is a shame as there are some really nice names in there. Who wouldn't want to call their kid Renesmee?

Ava. So boring, so overused. Anything a similar popularity level like Mia, Ruby, Lily, Sienna etc. HATE Sienna.

Hermione. Beautiful name, but you couldn't name a kid that now, even though I love Harry Potter and the character.

Again with the HP thing, Severin. Quite a cool name, but I just think Severus Snape.

Anything with a K where there should be a C. Kris, Katherine, Kody, Karly, Kloe, Kourtney... you see where I'm going with this.

Again with the child related crime ones. But only really unusual ones. I could probably still name a kid Madeleine, or Jamie. But yeah, Azaria or JonBenet, not so much.

ETA Oh, and Ryan. Negative associations.

This is a biggen for me. Also Jayden, Hayden, Brayden, Scayden, Frayden, Mayden or any of the other yden names.

I'm also not big on unisex names.

But I think I'm done in the baby name department - so there are TONNES of names I'll never use.

Names that I love but that don't go with our surname:

Raphael / Rafael
Dashiell
Gabriel
Marlowe
Misha
Beatrice / Beatrix
Bebe

Names I love, but that DP hates:

Anaïs
Aurelie / Aurelia
Aurelien
Etienne
Florian

Names I love, but that other friends have already used:

Sybilla
Pearl
Ivy
Astrid
Olive
Meike
Theodore
Wolf

Names I love, but that are too strongly associated with their celebrity parents:

Harlow
Maddox
Knox
Ever
Aerin
Honor
Hero
Valentina
Cosima
Aurelius

Names I love, but that are too strongly associated with TV or movie characters:

Esme
Hermione
Satine
Maximus

and lots more...

LOL, that's how I ended up with an unusual name - both my parents were teachers and every name one of them liked reminded the other one of some horrible kid they had taught.

For me, apart from names that were NMS, we didn't pick anyhting ending in a "lee" sound, because our surname does.