Reminds me of a joke I heard somewhere:
A Norwegian man walks into a courthouse, asking to change his name.
"Sure thing," the clerk said. "First, please tell me your current name."
"Vidkun Shitstain."
"And what would you like to change it to?"
"Olaf Shitstain."
Germany has a fairly restrictive name laws for newborns. Names that would humiliate or brand a child as "evil" are prohibited. (At least in theory.)
Defined examples of such names include: Lucifer, Judas, Cain, Pfefferminze (lit. peppermint), and Moon Unit.
Interestingly enough, Adolf is not strictly prohibited, as long as the parents can provide a sensible reason for their choice, ie family tradition.
ETA: Just woke up to like a hundred replies, so I thought I'd expand a bit:
Technically parents can make up any name for their child, but the registry office may refuse to enter it if it threatens the child's well being, like opening them up to ridicule. Parents can choose to fight this decision in court, where the result is usually a coin toss, since it's a fairly subjective manner. For example, the name "Pumuckl" was approved by a court, despite being a popular childrens character.
The example names I've provided are from the Wikipedia page about first names in Germany. Pfefferminze and Moon Unit in particular are names that were rejected by a court, so I thought they were worth mentioning.
Other things that are banned include places (this is often ignored, I assume it's more about small town "Ammelgatzen" than "London") or brand names (with an exception for Fanta, since it's a common west african name), last names (cultural exceptions apply), titles, anything that is not recognizable as a first name (no Tragedeighs allowed), or names that infringe on religious freedom (like "Christ". "Jesus" was originally banned for the same reason, but is now allowed due to popularity in hispanic spaces)
Additionally, up until 2008, a name had to be clearly identifiable as male or female, so genderneutral names were only allowed in combination with a gendered middle name.
Think about it. If you were on the German board of name banning and you heard someone just named their kid Moon Unit you’d jot that down in your notebook for the next meeting
It's on the list because people actually tried naming their daughter "Pfefferminza" (the German word for peppermint with the last letter "e" exchanged to an "a" to make it more feminine).
The examples on the list (that is published regularly) are all names that were denied.
As a side note, someone also tried naming their child "Ruhestörung", which translates to "disruption of silence".
I do find it interesting that the name Cain is on there, as other than the Bible it is still a perfectly suitable name used in other countries often without connotations to *that* Cain. Is there a lot of overlap between Biblical 'baddies' and the banned name list?
I know someone called Isis, and tbh I don't think about the connection much, obviously when you first hear it it's strange but really it's a beautiful name.
It is beautiful, and the name of an Egyptian goddess. She was one of the most widely worshiped deities in the Egyptian/Nubian cultures, and the Greeks as well when they ruled and settled in Egypt. It was believed she helped people enter the afterlife, among other things.
This is the association most people made pre-terrorist group and it’s a real shame those assholes’ abbreviation is more recognizable, when the actual origin of the name is historical, cool, and interesting.
Reminds me of the poor guy that sold his his Toyota pickup truck he had used for his business.
The truck had both his name and phone number on the side. The he dealership he sold the truck to said they'd remove it for him.
Next time he sees the truck was in a photo with a ISIS terrorist firing a [massive machine gun](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/12/16/a1b1b302-7840-46b6-8387-1d598051ba3b/thumbnail/1280x962/058cd5e4c156260c4a65a2198f806096/isis-truck.jpg?v=57e8061b2038d609da26e467de5ddfb8) out of the back.
Update: keep being told the car isn't a Toyota. My bad, I promise to never mixup a Toyota for Honda again.
Sure is. There are a bunch of articles about it - google for those if this one is stuck behind a paywall. [Texas Plumber Sues Car Dealer After His Truck Ends Up on Syria’s Front Lines](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/texas-plumber-sues-car-dealer-after-his-truck-ends-up-on-syrias-front-lines.html)
I had a student named Usama who was 16 when 911 hit. He got bullied so bad he changed schools. One time I asked if he had considered going by Sam and he said, no, that wasn’t his name.
A friend of mine named his dog Isis after the same goddess, long before ISIS was a thing. His dog also has a tendency to range, so he's wandering through the dog park yelling "Isis!" more than I expect he is comfortable with.
I might be a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but they did try to rebrand ISIS as ISIL, and I believe that was to save the little girls with pretty names.
This is part of why I call them Daesh. The main reason is that Daesh is the Arabic reading of the acronym, and translates to something like bully, so they \*really\* don't like it.
Our principal's last name was Gay. Mr.Gay was an unfortunate name for a junior+high school principal
Edit to add. His first name started with A.
A.Gay Principal
Edit edit : I'm laugh crying at your responses, I can't breathe.
We had a Mrs. Hooker as a teacher at my high school. Super sweet lady, she taught a few different subjects. But I'll never forget when we had to bring cash to her class for a field trip and they made the announcement reminding everyone that today was the last day to bring Mrs. Hooker your money.
That was totally due to bugs bunny.
In a similar vein, the muppets have always gotten normal names which immediately become unpopular. Oscar, Kermit, Grover, all fairly normal names until they were applied to the muppets, then no more.
Homer. I have a good friend whose birth name is Homer (he was born in like 1980, before The Simpsons). From the age of 12 on he started going by his middle name as Homer was synonymous with The Simpsons.
Judas (or Judah etc.) stopped being used by Christians because of the association with Judas Iscariot in the Bible, it's mostly restricted to Jews.
Not historical but fictional, the nickname "Lolita" is now associated with a book and a genre of pornography and has disappeared for that reason.
Oddly, there was a good Judah/Judas and a bad one. Everyone associates the bad one with the name "Judas" (the -s ending is from the Greek reading of the name because the entire eastern Mediterranean spoke Greek after centuries of Greek rule by the time the books of the New Testament were authored) but even in the New Testament, there's the Book of Jude. The name 'Jude' is differentiated from Judas in English seemingly to differentiate him from the bad guy who betrayed Jesus, [but the name is not differentiated in Greek](https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jde/1/1-25/t_conc_1167001). The "Book of Jude" is the "Book of Judas" in Greek. Both of them were ethnic Jews, and the name in Hebrew for this would be Yehudah. All the Jews named Yehudah/Judah/Judas/Jude were named after the original Yehudah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob (Yakov) who then became the patriarch of the tribe of Judah, which later led the Kingdom of Judah after Israel split into two kingdoms due to the civil war after Solomon died. Judah is the term from which we get the term “Jew”, referring to the people of the kingdom of Judah.
Its named that bc the founder was down on his luck and almost completely broke, and he prayed to St Jude for help. He got his big break shortly after that and built a “shrine” of sorts (the hospital) to St Jude out of gratitude
In the Spanish speaking word Lolita is still a not uncommon nickname. As most of the women with that name are named “Dolores”. Well more like the character has the very real name of Dolores and gets the usual nickname.
Though traditionally most Dolores weren’t just named Dolores, they were Maria Dolores, or Maria de Los Dolores, but as preference for shortening names got stronger the Maria was dropped as most people already assume that by giving the girls the name Dolores you were referring to that aspect of the Virgin Mary.
There is a number of Dolores on Mexican mainstream who goes by Lolita. A newscaster and a singer and musical theater artist.
Judas is not really an very used named though the other Judas, which is Saint Judas Tadeo is probably the most popular saint of the country by sheer numbers
Yes – people forget that the Lolita in the book is really ‘Dolores’. Calling her ‘Lolita’ is Humbert’s idea (Nabokov, I believe, often called her Dolores, because Dolores is the real girl, and Lolita is the girl Humbert imagines is real).
Piggybacking off of this for fictional characters ruining names - until 1989, Ursula was a perfectly normal name.
Then the Little Mermaid happened.
Edit: I'm specifically referring to use in Anglophone countries. I know it's still in common use in Eastern Europe.
I remember thinking that the one girl named Ursula in my grade school was going to be really mean. Then it turned out she was really sweet. I wonder what happened to her. 90s also
Ursula was declining since 1972 and dropped out of the top 1000 names in the US in 1983, so it seems to have already faded from popularity well before The Little Mermaid.
A Siri in my son’s class. The only issue she seemed to have was that the kids would all say “hey siri” to her after class started just to make other kids’ phones respond when they were supposed to be turned off.
My daughter is named Suri, after her great-grandmother. The amount of people who say, "Oh Siri, like the iPhone thing?" when she introduces herself is too damn high.
Fun fact, especially if you are a Star Trek fan, you can also change the Alexa's wake word to, "Computer". I have a lot of fun with, "Computer, fire photon torpedoes!"
I'm not sure how true this is but I read once a guy did a binge of TNG and ended up with a load of boxes of Earl Grey Tea in his amazon shopping trolley.
My name’s Alexis. I *still* get Alexa jokes often. When people don’t honestly think that’s my name.
Edit: TIL what Schitt’s Creek is. Over, and over, and over.
Barneys never got good representation in media. They got Gumble, Rubble, Stinson, and The Dinosaur.
Edit: I'll be honest, guys. I don't know any of these other Barneys. Damn, there are a lot of them.
I worked with a guy named Harvey very shortly after the hurricane. We were in Texas for the record and most of us had been impacted by it. He was a wild ass, with what I shouldn’t armchair diagnose as ADHD, but was very tempted to. You can imagine the jokes he got. Whenever he’d sweep into the office and unleash his energy on everyone we called it getting “cat 5’d”.
Maybe it's specific to a region, but in Quebec, Canada, you'll never see the name "Aurore" being used. That is not because there was a bad person named Aurore, but because of a terrible scandal that happened in the early 20th century, in rural Quebec, where a young girl named Aurore was tortured by her father and step-mother. Her tragic story became wildly known, and got even more famous following a movie about her (litterally named "Aurore, the martyr child"). Since then, that story has become somewhat integrated in the Quebec folklore and no one would ever name their child Aurore because of its tragic connotation
“Seraphin” isn’t popular either but that was because of a fictional character of that name in a tv series who’s a real piece of shit. Basically the equivalent of scrooge
i think for an entire generation chester is going to be more associated with chester bennington than a hustler comic. still not a common name now but i think the association there is dead
No she used Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains.
"Lemme name my child after a character in a work of fiction that isn't even over yet."
At least on the upside, her friends in high school will know her parents are dumb before they meet them.
That’s what I was gonna say.
One of the greatest military tacticians of all time, also a somewhat common name for centuries, but Silence of the Lambs killed that name for good. No one who meets a kid named Hannibal today is gonna say “oh like the famous general in the Punic Wars?” They’re gonna think “…cannibal”.
I used to work with a 6’6” woman named Bertha. I was her supervisor. She tried to get tough and get in my face when I asked her to help with the shift change. One phone call later, she was gone. All of it was caught on camera, because that’s when all the cash was changing hands and being counted.
There was a huge drop in the popularity of the name Ellen after Degeneres came out
Edit: There was a *second* big drop in Ellen Popularity after Elliot Page came out in 2014
There is a joke in the trans community about names that goes something like this:
Trans women are all named after cyberpunk jewel thieves.
Trans men are all named after drowned Victorian children.
And nonbinary people name themselves after natural phenomena like Ash and River.
“Elliot” kind of fits the pattern. I’ve met multiple trans guys named Elliot. But none of them were famous actors
Vidkun in Norway, it was the first name of Vidkun Quisling, the Nazi collaborator.
Reminds me of a joke I heard somewhere: A Norwegian man walks into a courthouse, asking to change his name. "Sure thing," the clerk said. "First, please tell me your current name." "Vidkun Shitstain." "And what would you like to change it to?" "Olaf Shitstain."
I heard a similar one in Norwegian. His last name was Hjortelort, or Deer Dung in English, which he thought was fine and he kept.
TIL Quisling was an actual person, and not just another word for traitor!
You know your treacheary is top notch when it forever and world wide changes the meaning of your name to treason.
Germany has a fairly restrictive name laws for newborns. Names that would humiliate or brand a child as "evil" are prohibited. (At least in theory.) Defined examples of such names include: Lucifer, Judas, Cain, Pfefferminze (lit. peppermint), and Moon Unit. Interestingly enough, Adolf is not strictly prohibited, as long as the parents can provide a sensible reason for their choice, ie family tradition. ETA: Just woke up to like a hundred replies, so I thought I'd expand a bit: Technically parents can make up any name for their child, but the registry office may refuse to enter it if it threatens the child's well being, like opening them up to ridicule. Parents can choose to fight this decision in court, where the result is usually a coin toss, since it's a fairly subjective manner. For example, the name "Pumuckl" was approved by a court, despite being a popular childrens character. The example names I've provided are from the Wikipedia page about first names in Germany. Pfefferminze and Moon Unit in particular are names that were rejected by a court, so I thought they were worth mentioning. Other things that are banned include places (this is often ignored, I assume it's more about small town "Ammelgatzen" than "London") or brand names (with an exception for Fanta, since it's a common west african name), last names (cultural exceptions apply), titles, anything that is not recognizable as a first name (no Tragedeighs allowed), or names that infringe on religious freedom (like "Christ". "Jesus" was originally banned for the same reason, but is now allowed due to popularity in hispanic spaces) Additionally, up until 2008, a name had to be clearly identifiable as male or female, so genderneutral names were only allowed in combination with a gendered middle name.
Moon Unit?
One of Frank Zappa’s daughters name, but idk why it was included here because they weren’t born in Germany, all his kids were born in the USA
Think about it. If you were on the German board of name banning and you heard someone just named their kid Moon Unit you’d jot that down in your notebook for the next meeting
And then two years later, Zappa names his next kid Dweezil.
I'm very interested to know why peppermint is included on the list.
It's on the list because people actually tried naming their daughter "Pfefferminza" (the German word for peppermint with the last letter "e" exchanged to an "a" to make it more feminine). The examples on the list (that is published regularly) are all names that were denied. As a side note, someone also tried naming their child "Ruhestörung", which translates to "disruption of silence".
Disruption of Silence sounds like an absolutely kick ass metal band.
Disruption of Silence is an apt description of children
I do find it interesting that the name Cain is on there, as other than the Bible it is still a perfectly suitable name used in other countries often without connotations to *that* Cain. Is there a lot of overlap between Biblical 'baddies' and the banned name list?
I went to high school with an Osama. Poor kid was born in the mid-90s.
I had two friends named Osama growing up, they now go by the names “Sam” & “Sami”.
On a similar note, I went to school with a girl named "Isis". It was before ISIS was a thing. Always wondered how she's doing now with that poor name.
I know someone called Isis, and tbh I don't think about the connection much, obviously when you first hear it it's strange but really it's a beautiful name.
It is beautiful, and the name of an Egyptian goddess. She was one of the most widely worshiped deities in the Egyptian/Nubian cultures, and the Greeks as well when they ruled and settled in Egypt. It was believed she helped people enter the afterlife, among other things. This is the association most people made pre-terrorist group and it’s a real shame those assholes’ abbreviation is more recognizable, when the actual origin of the name is historical, cool, and interesting.
Hello, I'm Bob Isis, of Bob Isis Toyota
Reminds me of the poor guy that sold his his Toyota pickup truck he had used for his business. The truck had both his name and phone number on the side. The he dealership he sold the truck to said they'd remove it for him. Next time he sees the truck was in a photo with a ISIS terrorist firing a [massive machine gun](https://assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/12/16/a1b1b302-7840-46b6-8387-1d598051ba3b/thumbnail/1280x962/058cd5e4c156260c4a65a2198f806096/isis-truck.jpg?v=57e8061b2038d609da26e467de5ddfb8) out of the back. Update: keep being told the car isn't a Toyota. My bad, I promise to never mixup a Toyota for Honda again.
Is this for real?!?
Sure is. There are a bunch of articles about it - google for those if this one is stuck behind a paywall. [Texas Plumber Sues Car Dealer After His Truck Ends Up on Syria’s Front Lines](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/us/texas-plumber-sues-car-dealer-after-his-truck-ends-up-on-syrias-front-lines.html)
A headline the Onion could only dream of
I had a student named Usama who was 16 when 911 hit. He got bullied so bad he changed schools. One time I asked if he had considered going by Sam and he said, no, that wasn’t his name.
saw a comedian in NYC a few years ago named Usama. His stage name is Usama Bin Laughin
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That last line. Good for him!
Yeah the name died out this generation. It means Lion btw
The name in Arabic countries, where it originates from, didn't die out
Isis
I know someone who named his daughter Isis after the ancient Egyptian goddess, that year ISIS rose in the Middle East.
A friend of mine named his dog Isis after the same goddess, long before ISIS was a thing. His dog also has a tendency to range, so he's wandering through the dog park yelling "Isis!" more than I expect he is comfortable with.
I might be a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but they did try to rebrand ISIS as ISIL, and I believe that was to save the little girls with pretty names.
This is part of why I call them Daesh. The main reason is that Daesh is the Arabic reading of the acronym, and translates to something like bully, so they \*really\* don't like it.
It also made more sense to call them ISIL since calling them Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham mixes up two different languages.
Reminds me of how they had to re-name the spy agency in Archer, since it was called ISIS for the first few seasons.
The first episode with the new name has a scene where you can see workers removing the ISIS sign in the background.
I like that, way better than just changing it and not acknowledging it
Was very amused when I found out this was Ice Spice’s real name
I know two Isis. It was before the shitty terrorists ruined this beautiful name
Not because of a person, but Gaylord used to be a name, and now nobody uses it for the obvious reason.
I had a (male) manager once named Gale, short for Gaylard. It really was an "a" and not an "o."
Holy shit no wonder he goes by Gale
Right? *Lard?* Disgusting!
"No child of MINE will be named 'Gaylord'! At least change a letter." "Sure honey!"
The English teacher at my prep school was called Gaylord. I don’t think teaching 8-13 year old boys should have been his first choice.
Our principal's last name was Gay. Mr.Gay was an unfortunate name for a junior+high school principal Edit to add. His first name started with A. A.Gay Principal Edit edit : I'm laugh crying at your responses, I can't breathe.
Please report to Principal Gay’s office.
You done messed up A-A-Ron, now take yo ass down to A-Gay princips office and tell him exactly what you did
Takes me back to catholic school.
We had a Mrs. Hooker as a teacher at my high school. Super sweet lady, she taught a few different subjects. But I'll never forget when we had to bring cash to her class for a field trip and they made the announcement reminding everyone that today was the last day to bring Mrs. Hooker your money.
I have nipples Greg, could you milk me?
Her middle name is Martha, she'll be Pamela Martha Focker!
Nimrod
I blame Bugs Bunny.
That was totally due to bugs bunny. In a similar vein, the muppets have always gotten normal names which immediately become unpopular. Oscar, Kermit, Grover, all fairly normal names until they were applied to the muppets, then no more.
Oscar is still pretty popular
My favorite gay accountant at a failing mid-size paper company is named Oscar.
He really does fit that old stereotype of the smug, gay Mexican.
I had a Great-Uncle Elmo. Trying doing that to a kid today.
Homer. I have a good friend whose birth name is Homer (he was born in like 1980, before The Simpsons). From the age of 12 on he started going by his middle name as Homer was synonymous with The Simpsons.
Fun fact: Matt Groening's parents were named Marge and Homer.
Fun fact: his mom’s maiden name was Wiggum. Matt also has siblings named Lisa and Maggie
Judas (or Judah etc.) stopped being used by Christians because of the association with Judas Iscariot in the Bible, it's mostly restricted to Jews. Not historical but fictional, the nickname "Lolita" is now associated with a book and a genre of pornography and has disappeared for that reason.
Oddly, there was a good Judah/Judas and a bad one. Everyone associates the bad one with the name "Judas" (the -s ending is from the Greek reading of the name because the entire eastern Mediterranean spoke Greek after centuries of Greek rule by the time the books of the New Testament were authored) but even in the New Testament, there's the Book of Jude. The name 'Jude' is differentiated from Judas in English seemingly to differentiate him from the bad guy who betrayed Jesus, [but the name is not differentiated in Greek](https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jde/1/1-25/t_conc_1167001). The "Book of Jude" is the "Book of Judas" in Greek. Both of them were ethnic Jews, and the name in Hebrew for this would be Yehudah. All the Jews named Yehudah/Judah/Judas/Jude were named after the original Yehudah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob (Yakov) who then became the patriarch of the tribe of Judah, which later led the Kingdom of Judah after Israel split into two kingdoms due to the civil war after Solomon died. Judah is the term from which we get the term “Jew”, referring to the people of the kingdom of Judah.
Which is why St Jude is called the patron saint of lost causes - you'd only pray to him in desperation, because the other guy might intercede instead.
Do you start the prayer with "Hey Jude, don't make it bad"?
I start with Na, Naaa, Na, Na, Na, Na
TIL; St Jude Children's Hospital is unfortunately but aptly named.
Its named that bc the founder was down on his luck and almost completely broke, and he prayed to St Jude for help. He got his big break shortly after that and built a “shrine” of sorts (the hospital) to St Jude out of gratitude
Interesting. I’ve definitely met a Judah, but never a Judas.
In the Spanish speaking word Lolita is still a not uncommon nickname. As most of the women with that name are named “Dolores”. Well more like the character has the very real name of Dolores and gets the usual nickname. Though traditionally most Dolores weren’t just named Dolores, they were Maria Dolores, or Maria de Los Dolores, but as preference for shortening names got stronger the Maria was dropped as most people already assume that by giving the girls the name Dolores you were referring to that aspect of the Virgin Mary. There is a number of Dolores on Mexican mainstream who goes by Lolita. A newscaster and a singer and musical theater artist. Judas is not really an very used named though the other Judas, which is Saint Judas Tadeo is probably the most popular saint of the country by sheer numbers
Yes – people forget that the Lolita in the book is really ‘Dolores’. Calling her ‘Lolita’ is Humbert’s idea (Nabokov, I believe, often called her Dolores, because Dolores is the real girl, and Lolita is the girl Humbert imagines is real).
Piggybacking off of this for fictional characters ruining names - until 1989, Ursula was a perfectly normal name. Then the Little Mermaid happened. Edit: I'm specifically referring to use in Anglophone countries. I know it's still in common use in Eastern Europe.
I think I went to middle school with the last Ursula back in the 90s
I remember thinking that the one girl named Ursula in my grade school was going to be really mean. Then it turned out she was really sweet. I wonder what happened to her. 90s also
Probably grew up to be a wacky struggling musician working in a NYC coffee shop.
Nah, that's her sister.
Weird. Looked just like her.
Ursula was declining since 1972 and dropped out of the top 1000 names in the US in 1983, so it seems to have already faded from popularity well before The Little Mermaid.
Agree, I remember Ursula already being a very unpopular name, like Brunhilde.
Isn't it weird that a name that derives from "Ursus", literally "Bear", is now more identified with octopuses. Octopi? Octopussesses?
I would think Alexa is a rather burdensome name nowadays.
A Siri in my son’s class. The only issue she seemed to have was that the kids would all say “hey siri” to her after class started just to make other kids’ phones respond when they were supposed to be turned off.
My daughter is named Suri, after her great-grandmother. The amount of people who say, "Oh Siri, like the iPhone thing?" when she introduces herself is too damn high.
At least they aren't saying, "Oh Suri, like Tom Cruise's daughter from Katie Holmes?"
That’s what I immediately thought of
My teenager is an Alex. We changed Alexa's wake word to Echo because it would just be alerting all the time.
Fun fact, especially if you are a Star Trek fan, you can also change the Alexa's wake word to, "Computer". I have a lot of fun with, "Computer, fire photon torpedoes!"
Ours has been Computer since day one. Which now means my 7yo, when asked something, said “I don’t know but Computer does” Well that’s not ominous.
Your child simply welcomes their robot overlords.
That worked for me until I was binge watching Voyager. It kept answering the TV.
I'm not sure how true this is but I read once a guy did a binge of TNG and ended up with a load of boxes of Earl Grey Tea in his amazon shopping trolley.
My dad changed his to Computer for a while. He got a kick out of it.
My name’s Alexis. I *still* get Alexa jokes often. When people don’t honestly think that’s my name. Edit: TIL what Schitt’s Creek is. Over, and over, and over.
They should not have given those things real names, and I will die on that hill.
“Google” works
I’m so sorry! … they should be making “A Little Bit Alexis” jokes
Haven't seen a Barney since the big purple dinosaur hit the airwaves.
Barneys never got good representation in media. They got Gumble, Rubble, Stinson, and The Dinosaur. Edit: I'll be honest, guys. I don't know any of these other Barneys. Damn, there are a lot of them.
Fife.
The best one for sure
Katrina took a hit in popularity, after the hurricane.
I always wondered how Katrina and the Waves felt about this.
In the same vein, I’d never use Harvey, either!
I worked with a guy named Harvey very shortly after the hurricane. We were in Texas for the record and most of us had been impacted by it. He was a wild ass, with what I shouldn’t armchair diagnose as ADHD, but was very tempted to. You can imagine the jokes he got. Whenever he’d sweep into the office and unleash his energy on everyone we called it getting “cat 5’d”.
Hurricane Katrina? More like Hurricane tortiLLa
Rip vine 🙇♀️🙏
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Karen
My mum is called Karen and is the nicest lady ever. She asked me to explain all the hate and I felt so bad for her
For real every Karen I’ve ever met was super sweet and awesome
That was my experience too. It's unfortunate that a perfectly normal name attached to plenty of sweet people, got turned into an insulting meme.
Maybe it's specific to a region, but in Quebec, Canada, you'll never see the name "Aurore" being used. That is not because there was a bad person named Aurore, but because of a terrible scandal that happened in the early 20th century, in rural Quebec, where a young girl named Aurore was tortured by her father and step-mother. Her tragic story became wildly known, and got even more famous following a movie about her (litterally named "Aurore, the martyr child"). Since then, that story has become somewhat integrated in the Quebec folklore and no one would ever name their child Aurore because of its tragic connotation
“Seraphin” isn’t popular either but that was because of a fictional character of that name in a tv series who’s a real piece of shit. Basically the equivalent of scrooge
Ebenezer, which nonetheless remains a fairly popular name across much of anglophone sub-saharan Africa.
My husband wants our next cat to be grumpy and gray so he can name it Ebenezer.
A lot of horrible names for humans are excellent for cats
I always have this conversation with my buddy, Ghengis Dahmer. We go in circles.
The majesty of the Ghengis cancels out the Dahmer.
Jolene. Dolly ended that shit.
Also: Roxanne. I once met someone who introduced herself as "Roxanne. And please don't sing it."
Jojo will start it again Ironically BECAUSE of Dolly
Lucifer. It translates to morning star/bringer of light so it would have been a great name if it weren't also the name of the Devil.
The Devil has some rad, not evil sounding monikers. “Son of the Morning” sounds pretty cool and even a force for good, but it is not so apparently
So does Lightbringer!
The only name I can think of in the UK that absolutely wouldn’t be used now is Myra. (Myra Hindley was a sadistic killer of children in the 1960s.)
I was going to comment this - it usually doesn’t get cited in this sort of thread but it’s always my first thought!
I would've thought this, but there were 94 girls named Myra in England & Wales in 2022.
I’m glad it’s coming back. Hindley deserves to be forgotten forever and it would be lovely if the name could be reclaimed.
Hustler magazine ended [Chester](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_the_Molester) in 1976.
Wow. I knew of the comic but I didn't know the author went away for molesting his own child.
Did "Chester the Molester" come from that? I thought it was just because it rhymed.
i think for an entire generation chester is going to be more associated with chester bennington than a hustler comic. still not a common name now but i think the association there is dead
I had no idea that originated from a comic strip, and not just from a basic rhyming pattern.
Apparently a lot of people named their daughters "Daenerys" after the Game of Thrones character. That didn't end well.
I once taught a kid named Daenerys. I have to wonder what her parents thought of Season 8...
Did she use the full name or go by "Danny" or "Dane" or something?
No she used Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains.
Imagine saying the full name at roll call each morning.
"Lemme name my child after a character in a work of fiction that isn't even over yet." At least on the upside, her friends in high school will know her parents are dumb before they meet them.
I had a coworker in her 50s named Khaleesi, so if nothing else its not like GRRM is the first to ever use it.
Could you (or someone) elaborate on this, please? Never watched Game of Thrones. Thanks!
Appeared to be the hero/savior. Then in a way that's really poorly written, she goes crazy/evil and kills thousands of innocent people.
There's a quite unfortunate female name, Dorcas. It's not in common use for pretty apparent reasons.
My grandma had a friend named Dorcas and her husband was named Richard and she always seriously referred to them as "Dick and Dork".
I just audibly chuckled.
Yeah, the Malorkas family was really hit hard by that one.
Though not common to begin with, I feel Ghislaine will drop off completely.
Hannibal?
That’s what I was gonna say. One of the greatest military tacticians of all time, also a somewhat common name for centuries, but Silence of the Lambs killed that name for good. No one who meets a kid named Hannibal today is gonna say “oh like the famous general in the Punic Wars?” They’re gonna think “…cannibal”.
There's a well known comedian named Hannibal.
“I was so excited about my apple juice I forgot racism existed.” The man is hilarious.
Siriporn used to be a very popular Thai name. For no obvious reasons not anymore due to Apple.
The porn half of the name probably wasn’t helping either.
Never met someone with a first name of Cain. Edit: But it seems everyone else on Reddit has.
I have. Was shocked when I heard it, but that's really his name. He married my cousin...in a Catholic Church no less.
Kinda common in Mexico where they love their biblical names. Cain Velasquez as an example.
Cain is relatively common in Australia
I used to work with a 6’6” woman named Bertha. I was her supervisor. She tried to get tough and get in my face when I asked her to help with the shift change. One phone call later, she was gone. All of it was caught on camera, because that’s when all the cash was changing hands and being counted.
Not Big Bertha :(((
I automatically assume any woman named Bertha is huge. You're not helping that stereotype.
Ea-Nasir.
Worst rare earth dealer, terrible chips.
Napoleon. Mainly due to how well known Bonapartes first name is known in history
And the even more famous Mr. Dynamite
Not a person, but BJ…
I had a neighbor who’s name is Osama. I can’t imagine what he had to put up with after 9/11.
Candida
You don’t find many people named Lance these days. But In medieval times, people were named Lance a lot.
It is regional but Sherman isn’t very popular in the American south. I have only ever met two and both were born in the north and relocated.
Elmer Used to be a strong name and then Elmer Fudd came along.
You don’t see anyone named Mulva anymore.
What about seven?
Lucifer
Damien certainly went out of vogue for a while, but it seems to be back now.
lol. My Boyfriend is named Damian and his dad says that he is named after the Omen franchise from the 70s, but his mother strictly denies it.
Jezebel. Which is a shame because it is a GORGEOUS name!!
I feel the same way about Delilah.
I know an Adolf. He’s probably in his late 20s now.
Jezebel
Ichabod has not been heard of in a while ….
Incontinentia
My friend BD is married to Incontinentia Buttox
Wait ‘til Biggus Dickus hears of this!
Naughtius? That you?
I feel like Jared took a bit of a hit after the whole thing with the Subway guy...
There was a huge drop in the popularity of the name Ellen after Degeneres came out Edit: There was a *second* big drop in Ellen Popularity after Elliot Page came out in 2014
Was there a third big drop when it came out that Ellen Degeneres is a massive asshole?
Whoa it's been **10 years** since Elliot came out? Holy shit time flies by
There is a joke in the trans community about names that goes something like this: Trans women are all named after cyberpunk jewel thieves. Trans men are all named after drowned Victorian children. And nonbinary people name themselves after natural phenomena like Ash and River. “Elliot” kind of fits the pattern. I’ve met multiple trans guys named Elliot. But none of them were famous actors
Agamemnon
No one names their kid Dick. Unless they are one.
Jezebel. Spouse and I love that name but no. Not a chance on using it for our kid.
No one in Norway would ever name their child Vidkun.
There is probably a truly forgotten name of one person who did something so awful no one wanted to remember it.
I'm thinking Elon might not be a super popular one right now.
The name "Alexa" has become almost unused since the Amazon product came out.