Humiliating names

Although the sound is pretty, "my" is too common of an English word for My to be usable as a baby name in Anglophone countries.

Permanent property of that devilish little Simpson kid.

World War II stamped a permanent verboten on Adolph.

As a Biblical name, Nimrod appears in the Old Testament as a great-grandson of Noah, a founder of Babylon, and a famous hunter. In popular culture, its image was altered after the dopey Looney Tunes villain, Elmer Fudd, was called "nimrod" by Daffy Duck in a 40s cartoon. It since became associated less with rebellion and hunting, and more with being a fool.

Zero has been documented as a given name before, but it's largely familiar as a stage name (such as Zero Mostel, born Samuel Joel Mostel) and comic book and anime characters. Seven boys were called Zero is a recent year.

Pansy is an early floral name that lost credibility when it became a derogatory slang term for gay people. Better these days: Posy or Poppy.

The meaning of this word flipped from "cheerful" to "homosexual" during the twentieth century, and it's now almost certainly too loaded to sit comfortably as a baby name. Which is a shame as sound-wise it's very appealing, just a short step away from Gray, Gale and Guy.

Dieter is a classic German name that got lots of satiric exposure via Mike Myers on "Saturday Night Live" a few years back. If mispronounced, it could conceivably be read as someone on a diet.

Stalin is a name to immediately strike from your list. The connections to the former leader of the Soviet Union, under the rule of whom many suffered and died, make it a choice in poor taste for an American baby.

Best left on the old southern plantation, sipping his mint julep.

Modesty is a virtue name dating to Roman times, but never widely used, except for hot 1960s movie spoof heroine, Modesty Blaise, based on a comic strip.

Better yet, find a name with the same meaning: Belle, Cosima, Indira, Uilani, Zeynep.

Boo may have started out as a nickname for the male character Arthur "Boo" Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird and these days may be closely associated with another male Boo, the "world's cutest dog" or with the adorable little girl in Monsters, Inc.

Although this name literally means disaster, the use of Calamity as a descriptor of Martha Jane Cannery, aka Calamity Jane, was meant to signal that she was a good person to have in troubled times. Calamity Jane was well regarded as a frontierswoman and nurse, someone who was said to be extremely generous and compassionate to the sick and troubled.. Calamity's connection to the American West gives this a roguish name a sort of windswept charm about it. Indeed, the most controversial aspect of this name is its connection to the frontier wars that led to the dispossession of Native American peoples.

Both Currency and Kurrency appeared on the charts in 2020, following the bold trend of money-related names for babies.

Flash Gordon makes this a superhero name, but Flash might just appeal to modern parents looking for one of the new active boys' names, ala Ace and Breaker and Ranger. We'd recommend something more pulled-together as a proper name with Flash as a nickname or middle name.

If it's royalty you're after, stick with Earl or Prince -- this is too deified.

Tuff, a corruption of "tough," has been given to approximately 50 baby boys each year for the past few years. Tough, on the other hand, has never charted as a baby name.

Yet another noble name to join King, Prince, Princess, et al. The name Empress was given to over 100 baby girls in the US last year.

We think, probably, most parents who name their sons Alias are using it as a variation of Elias.