UPDATE: And just when you thought we’d reached a critical mass of ridiculous, Levi Johnston has revealed what he intends to call his unborn daughter.
Breeze Beretta Johnston.
Breeze is, er, interesting enough but Beretta? That’s a type of gun, for those playing along at home.
You might remember Levi from such roles as former boyfriend to Sarah Palin daughter Bristol and father to their child Tripp, so the boy’s got form.
Here’s our original post:
Kimberley. Adrienne. Jennifer. Kayla. Hope.
Don’t worry. They’re not the names on the ‘Most Hated Baby Names’ list published this week. Nope, not by a long shot. No, those names are the ones I decided – when I was 18 – that I’d call my future daughters. It’s possible I was *cough* somewhat addicted to Days of Our Lives at the time. (Because that’s what you want to do right? You want to name your child ‘Hope’ after a character who got amnesia, was taken hostage on a deserted island, impersonated a European Princess while her husband married a crack-head, ex hooker police officer before becoming a serial killer. Bad omen, anybody?)
No, by the time I actually had my children Ava, Georgie and Fin, Brad and I had thought long and hard about their names. Which really means that after mocking each other’s suggestions for eight months we settled on those names out of sheer exhaustion. I’m joking. Okay not really but the point is we liked those names and frankly we didn’t care if nobody else did.
Until, well, right about now.
This week Yahoo Shine published a list of the world’s most hated baby names. Here’s what they said …
The list comes from Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby. She conducted an “informal” study and came up with the list. In general she found people hate “gender-bending” names in which a masculine name becomes feminine — like Addison or Madison.
As well, people despise trendy names … though obviously not everyone does or they wouldn’t be trendy, right? Also on the list of hate are names that are difficult to spell (Kaitlyn) and those that are similar versions of other names (Jayden, Brayden, and Kayden).
Here’s the full list (with notes from Live Science) … brace yourself:

10. Bertha (author's note: duh!)
I find that list baffling. I mean, how did Na-A (Nadasha) not make it on there? And what’s wrong with Madison and Mackenzie? I like all those names except maybe Bertha.
At the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, in the end who cares what the world thinks of your name or those of your children? List shmist, I say. And now that I think of it, Hope Sparrow has a nice ring to it.
Is your name or are your children’s names on this list? Are you happy with your own name?







Comments
607 Comments so far
My name is ugly. I hate being called Shaz, Shazza, Shazy etc.
I was at a petrol station once and a guy asked for my name, number etc. When i told him my name, he turned around and said “Oh Shazza, I’m Gazza” (His name was Garry). Ugh. Most horrible conversation ever.
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Do what I do. Stare at them and say, “my name is Sharon.” no smile. Stare.
Works a treat!
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Hahahahah Oh I love it. When Shazza met Gazza. Creased!
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I have a Molly, Harrison and James. As someone who has a name which is constantly misspelt (Carli), I was determined to have names people could spell. Amazingly, someone has actually spelt James as Jaymze!
We live in a small coastal town now and were surprised to find our kids names are now considered unusual.
My kids go to school/kinder with kids with names such as Ocean, Reef, Arden, twins Kennedy (girl) and Indigo (boy), Zephyr, Allianya, Kaidyn, Sari, Chilli, Vader…. I could go on for days!
My grandmother was names Florence Mabel and made me swear to never give my children her names as she felt they would be a burden to a small child.
The 3 names I could never name my child are Felix, Desmond or Keith. Who could look at a tiny baby and think they look like a Keith!
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I know …. but Keith Partridge was the biggest spunk EVER
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I named my midde child Felix.
It means happy and lucky in Latin and funnily enough he has turned out to be a super happy little guy. Every now and then someone from my Mum’s generation sings the Felix the Cat theme tune to him but it’s a pretty rare occurance.
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My pa is a Felix – my sisters middle name is Felice in honour of him. The Felix the cat connection is cute
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Vader! Seriously? Like Darth Vader?
I’m torn between how kinda awesome it is, but at the same time feeling rather sorry the poor child! They’ll almost certainly get teased a bit.
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I know a Vada!
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like Vada Sultenfuss from My Girl! terrible name, but she was a cute kid
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I have a Felix! My husband choose it for one of our twins at the time I wasnt sold on it! Now Felix is nearly 2, and I love his name, so glad I didnt protest too much.
Now, what to name Number 5, due in 2 weeks?
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Gee must love being a teacher theses days all those names – give me a head ache. It’s not clever it’s annoying!
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How/why people feel the need to focus of negative things is bizarre to me.
I could largely care less what some “expert” thinks of my kid’s name. I just want to be able to raise my kids without needing to have 5000 experts telling me what I’ve done now to ruin their lives.
As long as they are happy and healthy that is good enough for me.
Stupid woman. Magical Method for finding a Perfect Baby Name. How about Magical Method for duping insecure hormonal women who have enough to deal with without worrying about benign rubbish that has absolutely no bearing on becoming a well rounded, person capable of being a member of society?
That would be a more accurate description.
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My daughter was going to be Hayden if she was a boy. I love that name!
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Me too I love some girls names for boys including Hayden, Austin and Cameron. They may not be classic but they make me think of strong woman.
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I like my name, Lana, but hate what it spells backwards!
Started going by Lani as soon as I figured that out!
Why, mum, just why?!
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Yep our name backwards is a killer….. but I’ve embraced it. It’s a nickname my close friends call me
Cracks us up…..
I get called Lani by my parents too – people who don’t know me and have just met me seem to always call me Lara, Laura, Lauren, Alana etc but I tell them that’s ok – I’ve been called worse things in my life!
I like my name now because I’m starting to get into the world of pin up photography and pin up modelling and ‘Lana’ is already a classic pin up name. Suits!!
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I hope to embrace it one day, but I’m not quite there yet! But I do think it sounds more sophisticated then Lani so when I inevitably marry into a high standing family I’ll switch back…ha!
Yes! whether people are calling me Lana or Lani everyone assumes it’s a shortened version of Svetlana or Aliana or something similar!
I swear I’ve been called a thousand variations of my actual name.
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Yep, I get asked if mine is a shortened version of Svetlana… That’s when I pipe up with ‘Nope. Just Lana’. It’s nice and short and simple but does had a decent standing in the name stakes I like to think!
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what about Neville? surely Neville’s got to be on there!
Just try saying it multiple times…Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville Neville
atrocious!
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I think Neville Longbottom has saved it.
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I have to agree I don’t disagree with any of these.
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I deliberately chose names that could be other names because I never liked my name and I wanted my kids to be able to have some choice.
I’m a bit sad though, my son is Michael! At the time I called him that it had dropped off in popularity (there’s only one other Michael at his school of 900) but it’s made a comeback in the US.
I don’t like baby names that don’t translate well into adulthood, or really outrageous spelling, not that it really matters because my name is Helen and no one can spell that anyway!
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No one can spell Helen??
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That says nothing about the name Helen, but plenty about their lack of intelligence.
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I get Helan, Hellen, and Ellen.
People usually spell Michael wrong too. Micheal, Mickael, Michel, Michal.
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My Nanna’s name was Bertha and my brother’s god-daughter is Destiny. I love both those names, as per most other names on the list except, perhaps, Gertrude. On the other hand I HATE my first name! If I hear one more person sing “Lucy in the sky with diamonds” to get my attention I may just flip my sh… ah, *cough* Lid.
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I love hearing about Grandma names. Mind were Maisy and Minnie. Gorgeous names.
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My grandmother and sisters middle name is Mazelena, a name I intend to use for my first girl. I love different names!
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Mazelena. What an awesome name! Have never heard it before but I love it.
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My great gandmothers name was Ruby, Love it! Would love to use it when I have my own children, too bad its become so dam popular at the moment
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Ahh I’m with you on the ‘Lucy in the sky with diamonds’ thing. The best one is when someone sang ‘Our lips are sealed’ to me, thinking the words were ‘I like Lucille!’.
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Hate to hear this…I’m pregnant and Lucy is my first choice for girl name. I think it’s a strong and beautiful name.
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I have Lucille…after my nan…I hated it as a child and now I love it…because it is different without being pretentious/ it does not put me into any social category/ it does not disclose roughly when I was born/ and it is can be abbreviated to Luci if that is what you like.
Names do say so much about the parents and the socio- environment from which that child came….and you cannot get away from that. Your child won’t thank you later in life for your little trip in self indulgence.
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What I find bemusing is how names that positively reek of old money- Sebastien, Xavier, Rafferty etc tend to be used hard and fast by families that balk at honoring the mothers side of the family by using a hyphenated surname. Because that would be poncy, naturally.
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I knew a guy called Xavier with a really hot french canadian hyphenated name. Yum
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Whenever I hear the name “Bertha”, I’m reminded of an old Raquel Welch movie called “Kansas City Bomber”, about the roller game.
There was this nasty old character in it called “Big” Bertha Boglioni.
Sadly, I once had a boss named Bertha. Only once did I slip up !
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My youngest is Kayla & another daughters middle name is Kimberley so I love those names, must have lived many years under a rock because I didn’t know they were Days…. names!
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The made up spelling names annoy me no end. Change the spelling of a reasonably common name so your child is unique. Really? Aren’t we all unique human beings regardless of how our name is spelled?
Not a big fan of the surname-for-first-name trend either. Surnames/family names are that for a reason.
And just think of how tiresome it will be for these kids as they grow up having to repeatedly spell out their name – eg: Jaxsyn (= Jackson) and Makayla??? just silly.
Having said that Gertrude and Bertha are very old fashioned and really not terribly attractive as baby names in this day and age. And poor Michael! lovely name, don’t know why it’s on this list!
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Yeah – this.
Although you’d be surprised at the million different spellings of “Renae” people come up with all by themselves without me even trying to spell it for them…
Why couldn’t my parents have just gone with Renee? Sometimes I’m really tempted to change it just to make it less annoying.
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I hear you! Although I quite like my name, my parents thought it was fun to spell it differently to the mainstream ‘Karen’. As a result EVERYONE misspells it or mispronounces it, or both. Grrrrrrr.
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the spelling of names are not set in stone. perhaps the parent like the way it is spelt? my father spelt my name like this because in australia this is phonetically correct. spell it heidi (according to you the not made up way) and it is pronounced hee-di. germany pronounce the vowels in a different order. i like the way my name is spelt. i like the way others spell it heidi. neither is wrong. just different.
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Pronunciation of German vowels is determined by the latter of the two vowels, not the former. Therefore, Heidi spelled that way is pronounced hide-y. It is a common German shortening of longer traditional names, and that is how it’s spelled.
Hiedi would therefore be pronounced hee-di.
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I know a girl named Bexleiy! Looks really stupid like a spelling mistake!
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SO agree!!! it’s actually beginning to make me feel violent toward the parents on behalf of the poor child who will FOREVER be spelling their name.
new child in extended step family ‘Jaxzyn’ UGH
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My two favourite spellings that I’ve recently had at preschool- Jacin (yes- Jason!) and Niceisha (Say Nik- key- sha)
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Bertha being on the list made me smile. It is quite an old-school name proven by my nan’s decision to call her staffie Bertha. I think old names go in cycles and come back and it’s a beautiful piece of history.
I was named after my great-grandma (Ingrid) and now it is the name of the future queen of Norway so I don’t think it will go out of style but I don’t mind either way – I like my name.
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I don’t hate my name…I just think it’s really boring…
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When I first started reading this site your name popped out at me…. I thought it was your chosen screen name and ‘john james’ just seemed soooo biblical to me (I don’t know why, is James even in the bible?). Without even realising it I assumed you were a religious fanatic….. imagine my shock when a couple of weeks later you were the author of a post about atheism. An eye opener for me…. gee I can be judgemental sometimes and oh so wrong!
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Actually, just between you and me, I actually think it’s cool that three of the disciples were named after me
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I hate my name and I really believe that it’s stopped me from putting myself out there. Keep the names classic and classy.
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I’d probably be upset too if my name was “Anon”.
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Love your work, Odette!
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I have friends that have now been married for 20 years.
Him: Camille
Her: Adrianne
Confusing much?
Needless to say the kids have ‘regular’ names.
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Camille is a French male name. Oooooh la la !
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Correct.
He’s French-Canadian.
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My son is called Shannon. He is part Irish, which is good because it’s a gaelic/Irish boy’s name. After the series 90210, there was a rash of people naming their daughters Shannen/Shannon and I got very tired of explaining to strangers that it was my son, not daughter.
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There’s lots of bad names on that list, but each to their own when naming their kids.
I like that my name is spelt differently. I hated it as a kid and just wanted it to be spelt “Karen” like was normal. It also probably didn’t help that on my birthday cards my grandma spelt my name with an “e” until I was about 10 or so. I’m in an academic research career, so having an individualistic name is good, so there’s no confusion as to who you are and what papers you’ve published. So go Mum and Dad for that reason!
Although I hate to think how many times I’ve said in my lifetime “Karyn… that’s Karyn with a y not an e”
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As a Carli with and ‘i’, I hear your pain…
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As a Phillipa with two L’s and not two P’s, I hear u too.
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I like the spelling of your name Karyn and if it was spelt Karen you would have probably have had to say Karen with an e just as many times. Just the same as people with Catherine/Kathryn will always have to spell it because there are so many variations, even if you go for the classic spelling people will still ask.
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The names of my BIL and a nephew made it on to the list.
Always knew that there was a reason why we weren’t “close”.
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My son is Tristan – it has always been one of my favourite names. Surely it’s not THAT bad! I think some of the names make the list because of ‘creative’ spellings, rather than sheer hideousness.
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My best mate’s name is Tristan and my Mum would also ways call him Tristrum. Took quite a while to educate her otherwise.
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That happens to my some all the time! Tristrum or Tristian (like Christian).
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Tristan’s a lovely, classic-sounding name. I’m not sure why it made the list. Likewise, Aiden.
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My sons name is Tristan too..we always get comments about how cool his name is and whether we named him after Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall!
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You can usually tell by the names of children if they live in a affluent area or a working class area. Schools in affluent areas have the WIlliams, Charlotte’s, Francescas, Avas, Olivers, Sebastians, Emmas, etc. Classic names.. However Working class tend to stick with names that can be spelt 100 different ways, Kaylas, Shaylas, Jaydens, Epponnee Rae, Tyronne….etc…
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I completely agree. The working class tend to go towards the ‘blokey’ and ‘rough’ masculine names as well, they seem to really reinforce that gender and steer away from anything that could be perceived as ‘poofy’. Hence why you see a lot of Craig, Ethan and Jamies in the working class. I also find they go for ‘occupations as names’. Tyler, Cooper, Hunter or Tanner. Each to their own, but I’d rather have a classical, strong name.
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They? Lucky we westies have classy ladies like you to set us straight
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What a load of cr*p. I grew up in a very working class area and I have never once hear anyone say ‘poofy’. And plenty of my old school friends now have Charlotte’s, Ava’s, William’s, Olivia’s etc.
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Epponnee Rae – tee hee
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I love the name Epponnee, it reminds me of Les Mis
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Isn’t that Eponine?
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Except these names trickle downwards. I promise you: the outer suburbs are FILLED with babies named Ava, Oliver, and Charlotte.
Read Freakonomics for more info. It tends to take about 15 or 20 years for ‘classy’ names to become mainstream.
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I actually dislike most of the name from your “affluent” areas list. Sebastian and Oliver just seem like poncy names. Charlotte is so overdone and so is Ava. That is why names are a personal decision and everybody has their own opinion on what they like and don’t like. Since you know so much you must have done some sort of study to come to such an amazing conclusion. In reality my children go to a private school and the names there are very varied and a lot from different backgrounds which I think it great because frankly I’d hate to live in a world full of only Williams and Charlottes. (if you’re children are called those names then no offence as I said earlier that is MY opinion)
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Really, there is nothing wrong with most of the names on that list, although Bertha and Gerturde aren’t exactly nice. The rest seem fine to me
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Ha ha, I relate to the “mocking each other’s suggestions for 8 months before settling on the names out of sheer exhaustion”!
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In general, I find that there is a close correlation between how much I like a name, and what I thought of people with those names through school, particularly primary school.
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After teaching for the better part of a decade before having children, choosing a name that didn’t belong to a child I wasn’t fond of will be no mean feat!
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I agree with you, Bec. Providing they’re not cruel names (and some exist) then who cares what names are on what list?
It seems like a really mean-spirited list to put together, attempting to be divisive on an issue that is understandably close to most parents’ hearts.
Thanks for putting a Pollyanna spin on it – the world needs less haters and more Pollyannas.
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I have always hated the names Pam and Bruce. No idea how you could name a baby that – but each to thier own I suppose!
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Ohhh my son’s name is on there!! Although I spell it Jaden so that makes it ok right?!
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Don’t worry, Kelly! I was sure Ava would be on there. I keep reading lists about how “uncool” the name Ava is.
I don’t care! Cool-shmool!
It’s what you think that matters!
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I LOVE the name Ava! I think I first heard it from you Bec or from Karl Stefanovic…now it’s number 1 on my list of baby girl names.
I think it’s beautiful, little different but still easy to spell. Unlike Siobhan…
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My son’s name is on there too. Luckily I don’t care what other’s think. Whenever I tell anyone my son’s name they always tell me how nice they think the combintation is so I’d say that real people rather than anonymous people on yahoo have more of an idea of what is a nice name.
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Sounds like an episode of toddlers and tiaras
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Oh dear. My son’s middle name is Bentley, which is a family name dating back to the 1700s when an Elizabeth Bentley married into my husband’s family. She named one of her sons Bentley, and it’s been given to a boy in each sucessive generation since then.
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Your history pre-dates the Bentley so I think you’d be exempt!
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Cool name and a cool story. I think Bentley’s great.
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Bentley rocks, and so does my Aston!
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Bec, I love the comment “after mocking each other’s suggestions for 8 months…”! We have just found out that we are having our second son. My husband went to an all boys school and was bullied so has a hatred for lots of names. I was actually hoping that we were having a girl as I think that girls are easier to name as girls don’t seem to mind having a non-common name. We still have 4 months so let the mocking continue.
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I can think of waaaaay more horrendous names than these ones (okay, maybe not ‘Bertha’). It’s a really tame list.
Poor Michael. What did he ever do to get on it?
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I was thinking the same, poor Michael :/
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What did Michael do to get on the list ?
Apparently he bored too many people, and did so with much aplomb.
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I thought the same! OK it’s a common name although not as common as it was with kids nowadays, but annoying? Hated? Why on earth?!
LOL my best friend and I both married Michael’s and we think they are AWESOME!!
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Obviously your best friend didn’t marry my BIL !
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Did Beau become a serial killer? Say it isn’t so
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