Names to avoid

Bluebell is one flower name that is used very quietly. Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell joined her former Spice Sisters in creative baby-naming with this adventurous -- some might say outlandish -- choice. Distinctive and charming? Or better suited to a farmyard animal? Your call.

Dallas is a cowhand name that perhaps surprisingly has always ranked among the Top 1000 names for boys in the US, since records began in 1880, but has only been a Top 1000 girl name for the past decade (along with brief periods in the 1990s and in 1910).

Now the best-selling version of this infinitely varied name, Makayla incorporates the also-popular Kayla. Makayla and Mikayla have now left the original Michaela far behind.