Baby name consultant Colleen Slagen isn’t a fan of talking about names she doesn’t like. Friend and fellow baby name consultant Jessie Paquette is not afraid to share the names that simply “do not work” for her.
“I thought it was a very important conversation in a long form video format because we can give backup to what we’re saying,” Paquette tells TODAY.com.
The women were not interested in simply throwing a video titled “Names We Hate” on TikTok, even though they expect that doing so would get a lot of views. Instead, they opted to have a longer, more nuanced conversation on their new “Name 911” podcast.
Interestingly, the women almost never dislike the same name.
For example, Slagen says that there’s a fine line when using last names as first names. They can either lean “country bumpkin” or “preppy lacrosse player.” She adds, “It totally depends on the user. It depends on where you’re from. It depends on who you’ve met with that name.”
Paquette thinks you shouldn’t take people disliking your baby name too seriously.
“Someone not liking your baby name is like someone just having a different interior decorating style than you,” she explains. “You might not like farmhouse, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with you because you don’t have to live there.”
Above all, make sure that you like whatever name you choose because “you’re the one that has to say that name literally every second of your life for the next 50 years,” she says.
10 Names 2 Baby Name Consultants Dislike
(Read on for their reasons why.)
- August
- Beau
- Porter
- Keegan
- Griffin
- Maverick
- Olivia
- Sophia
- Eliana
- Lydia
For her part, Paquette dislikes the names August and Beau for boys. For girls, she dislikes “most” of the top girls names — including Olivia and Sophia — simply because she hears them too often and has grown tired of them. Eliana also made her list because it feels like the name is “trying too hard.”
On the flip side, Slagen dislikes Porter for boys because she can’t ignore a potential “Porter Potty” insult. She also doesn’t like Keegan or Griffin.
For girls, Slagen does not like the name Lydia. “I just think ‘Crazy Aunt Lydia’ and I just can’t get past that,” she laughs.
Both women have Maverick on their list, not because they don’t like the name, but because they don’t like how “gimmicky” the name has become. Otherwise, each woman tends to like the names the other doesn’t.
“There are names that I borderline almost named my child that actually give Colleen a visceral reaction and vice versa,” says Paquette.
“You might not like all the names I chose for my kids, and that’s OK,” Slagen says. And in case you’re wondering, Slagen is mom to Rory, 6, Janie, 4, and George, 1. Paquette is raising Pierce Elio, 2, and Darcy Dove, 8 months.
Both naming consultants have the same warning for parents-to-be searching for names: don’t value the opinions of Redditors. “That’s people’s downfall,” says Slagen.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
