Minorly Offensive Names You Love (but can't use)

Have you ever found a beautiful name but were unable to admit that it was your favourite to other people because you'd seem like a racist/sadist/bigot/insert-unpleasant-name? Here you can share your love of tainted names with other people who appreciate that names should always be given a second chance.

I personally love Columbine. It's floral without being prissy, French without being frilly, a little Catherine and a little Lillian. And the upside is, no one else would have it!

steerthestars wrote:Have you ever found a beautiful name but were unable to admit that it was your favourite to other people because you'd seem like a racist/sadist/bigot/insert-unpleasant-name? Here you can share your love of tainted names with other people who appreciate that names should always be given a second chance.

I personally love Columbine. It's floral without being prissy, French without being frilly, a little Catherine and a little Lillian. And the upside is, no one else would have it!

Hm...well, it's not racially offensive, but I love the name Emilia Nicole but I feel I'd never be able to use it as my cousin has two daughters, one is Amelia and the other has the middle name Nichola.

well it is a bit drastic but you could emigrate to the UK and then Columbine would be fine! What about Celandine instead?

I thought of the name Mary Columbine many years ago. It's good that I didn't name my daughter that. Place names can be a problem if a tragedy happens in that place.

I love the name Jemima, but would never use it because of the syrup.

Love the name Benedict, but there's Benedict Arnold who is an unpleasant memory.

Barbie is a cute name that has been overdone by the doll.

It's not one I wanted to use, but my BIL and SIL were considering Myra at one point, but here in the UK it's a HUGE no-no because of a child killer called Myra Hindley. The crimes she committed (in the late 50s/early 60s), alongside a man called Ian Brady, are some of the most horrific and notorious in UK history.

The fact a woman could be involved in such horrific crimes against children, it shocked a nation to its core, and although I and many others weren't around at the time, we all know about the Moors Murderers, and in particular 'evil Myra Hindley'.

I would say Myra is on a par with Adolf here in the UK.

NB: Eventually my BIL and SIL accepted the name is unusable and scrubbed it off their list.

I love the name Madeleine, but in the UK it's too evocative of a little girl who went missing. The same goes for the name Holly - I loved this, but it was the name of one of two beautiful little girls who were murdered a few years ago (the other was Jessica, but somehow it didn't stick in my mind as much), and now it would just feel wrong to use it. I suspect stats on both names have dipped massively in the last few years because of the tragic associations, especially since they're to do with children.

I like the name Jezebel, but it has too bad of an association.

This is sort of different, but I love the name Juliet, except it was painful for me to read Romeo and Juliet. Did not like that play at all!

Yeah, I love the names Desdemona (Desi-cute nn) and Ophelia (nn Lia), but both of those have such tragic connotations as well, that I could never use them. Same goes for Juliet as the pp mentioned.

I actually don't worry about using Juliet and Ophelia, as they were both good persons at heart and that makes them worthy namesakes... I really really would want to use Iago though, but EVERYONE thinks of the villain in Othello, and he wasn't a worthy namesake you could say... It's one of the few names Shakespeare actually ruined by using IMO... It's so beautiful!

dearest wrote:I actually don't worry about using Juliet and Ophelia, as they were both good persons at heart and that makes them worthy namesakes... I really really would want to use Iago though, but EVERYONE thinks of the villain in Othello, and he wasn't a worthy namesake you could say... It's one of the few names Shakespeare actually ruined by using IMO... It's so beautiful!

That's funny b/c when I hear Iago I think of the parrot on Aladdin!

Anyway, I really like the name Arian/Arien but when you say it aloud it sounds like Aryan, and I feel like a lot of people would take offense to it.