155+ Names That Mean Trouble

Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year..

Lithe and leonine name chosen for her daughter by singer Erykah Badu -- whose other child has the number name Seven.

Dagger is one of the new badass baby names, a sharp and scary choice that some parents may feel arm their child for battle in a cruel modern world.

There are many more appealing Irish surnames than Foley, and certainly more positive meanings. If Foley is a genuine family name, this would be all right in the middle.

Diablo Cody, self-named (she's really Brook Busey) screenwriter of Juno, singlehandedly helped popularize not just her heroine's name and her own but all o-ending names for girls. You don't need us to tell you that it takes a brave parent, in every way, to name a baby Diablo. Diablo is one of the Spanish baby names that diverges furthest from the well-paved camino.

Kessie is cute but slight.

Extremely rare yet with an on trend sound, although the meaning may put parents off.

One of the first authentically Slavic names many Americans heard (but couldn't pronounce), via 1960s to 70s former presidential advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Even after all these years, it is still problematic internationally, but well-used and familiar in its native Poland.

Asking for trouble.

This name might be too, well, triggering.

Letha is taken from Lethe, the mythological River of Oblivion. Letha now sounds as if it's missing a first syllable.

Brenner is an occupational surname for both a charcoal burner and a distiller of spirits. One of the least used of occupational surnames, it has that 'er' ending that definitely adds to its stylishness; a possible successor to Brendan. 

One of the best known early Nemos was the captain in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, while the more familiar modern one is the animated little orange fish in the Disney movie. Unusual name well worth considering. By the way, there is also a Shakespearean Nemo and one in Dickens's Bleak House. An enchanting early comic strip by Winsor McCay was called Little Nemo.

A rare Biblical name, perhaps due to its slightly gloomy meaning, Chilion was one of Naomi's two sons, referred to alongside his brother Mahlon (meaning "sickly"), the husband of Ruth. He was married to Oprah.

Debuted in 2020, when it was used for six baby boys. All the same, gambling isn't an appropriate theme for a baby name.

Hurricane is a storm, but it's also an American name, thanks to rising tennis star Hurricane Black -- whose sister's name is Tornado. There's no reason this tempestuous choice can't work for boys too, inasfar as the name can work for any child. As a name, Hurricane is definitely original and attention-getting, but is it a name you'd want to carry around for life?

The name of the hyena character in The Lion King was clearly chosen for it's villainous meaning—not exactly one you want for a baby, but if you can get past that, it's a nice name.

Cutter was an old-fashioned term for a tailor or barber that was eventually adopted as a surname. That gives it more legitimacy than many of the other aggressive boy names — Striker, Shooter, Breaker, et al. — but Cutter remains equally threatening.

Hope is one meaning of the name Amil, which sounds similar to the German Emil; it can also mean unattainable in the sense of being so exalted as in royalty as to be out of reach. While Amil may not be familiar in the Western world, it's accessible and appealing.

Invidia's meaning isn't very pleasant — as a Roman goddess, she was the personification of envy. However, Invidia has the sounds of an attractive name, not unlike Olivia.