Top 10 Worst Baby Names – is your name on the list?

Mumsnet users held no prisoners as they dissected the names given to thousands of babies across the country. Even one of Britain’s most popular baby boy names has come under criticism

Naming your baby is one of the first and most difficult decisions new parents have to make.

The popularity of names changes from year to year, and just as names like Deidry and Mabel have gone out of fashion, so have many of the names that are all the rage today.

The Hive Mind users of the popular forum Mumsnet have been debating names, asking each other which names they would avoid and why.

Debate raged, with some moms vowing to avoid “dated”-sounding names, while others stayed away from anything with the -den suffix and ruled out Jayden, Kayden and Hayden.

They ended up making a list of the 10 “worst” baby names, they reported Indy100.

Here you are:

1. Mia – In military circles it is an acronym for “Missing in Action”
2. Cameron – One of the names that could also be a surname
3. Claudia – Lovers of the classics will know that it means ‘lame’ in Latin
4. Alexa – Tech giant Amazon used this for its digital assistant
5. Lana – anagram of something much ruder
6. Fanny – according to users, “for obvious reasons”.
7. Flora – It Makes a Mom ‘Think About Bacteria’
8. Luna – Sounds more like “a pet name”
9. Graham – Because it sounds like “gray ham.”
10. Mercedes – Make everyone think of the car brand

To keep it personal, one user wrote: “Any name too strongly and negatively associated with another person or event or memory. I would only ever make comparisons in my mind.”

Others expressed their distaste for anything double-barreled that ends with May or May.

Old-fashioned names were slammed in the frenzy of criticism. One user wrote, “Mabel, Ethel or Alice…still sound incredibly dowdy to me despite their recent popularity.”

“I don’t like it when people give their child a ‘unique’ spelling, and I don’t like last names as first names. So Jackson is bad enough, but Jaxon is even worse,” said another.

Names associated with historical figures have been avoided. Adolph for obvious reasons, but Oliver was also hit for connotations with Oliver Cromwell.

Despite this, Oliver is one of the most popular names for newborn boys in the UK.

Muhammad was the most popular name for the fifth year in a row, with Noah and Oliver holding second and third place respectively.