When Name Hate Turns to Love

Updated Tue Oct 23 2012

I used to hate the name Raymond.

Hate, as in hate hate hate. Maybe it was that creepy kid Raymond from 8th grade. Maybe it was….oh, who knows.

The point is, if I’d made a list of all 50,000 names on Nameberry in order of how much I liked them, Raymond, would have been down there at number 49,999.

And then, something happened, something equally mysterious. I began to like Raymond. Then even to love it.

The nickname Ray is so cute! Raymond itself classic and distinguished, yet not overused!

I can think of other names for which my former dislike turned somehow to love — Vincent and Leonie, for example — but I’m more interested in knowing which names you once hated that you now love.

And why?

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

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Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.

Introducing the Nameberry App

Find your perfect baby name together with our new mobile app.

Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
Names you match on are saved to your shared list
Get personalized recommendations that learn based on your and your partner's preferences
Partner with friends and family to find names you all love
Backed by Nameberry's 20 years of data around name preferences.

Introducing the Nameberry App

Find your perfect baby name together with our new mobile app.

Swipe through thousands of names with your partner
Names you match on are saved to your shared list
Get personalized recommendations that learn based on your and your partner's preferences
Partner with friends and family to find names you all love
Backed by Nameberry's 20 years of data around name preferences.