Choosing baby names is one of the first hurdles for parents-to-be - and it can feel like an impossible task at times. It's a decision your offspring will have to live with all their life so you don't want to get it badly wrong.
And once you've ruled out the names of everyone you and your partner have ever known and disliked, it can seem like there is little choice left.
Now Mumsnet, Britain's most popular website for parents, has stepped into the debate by asking its users the names they would never call a child, The Mirror reports. But opinions are likely to differ on the names that Mumsnet users dubbed the worst, and the bizarre reasons they gave for nominating them.
A lot of names on the list are actually pretty ordinary - and very popular - which means there's a chance the choices are going to offend some people.
Mumsnet, which hosts a forum dedicated to the naming of newborns along with a name generator to help out those parents who can't come up with a name, posed the question "What would you never name a child and why?".
And the mums did not hold back...
1. Mia – Because it means "missing in action".
2. Lana – As spelt backwards, it looks rather rude.
3. Fanny – "For obvious reasons".
4. Grace – Because "there are very few accents that say it gracefully".
5. Amelia – As one mum "find(s) the 'me' so whiney".
6. Graham – As "it sounds like "Grey Ham'".
7. Flora – One mum admitted: "(it) makes me think of bacteria".
8. Alexa – Because it sounds too much like the virtual assistant.
9. Mercedes – A parent said: "She’s a child not a car."
10. Luna – Because "it's a pet name".
What's most surprising about the so-called worst baby names is that some of them actually feature in the most popular recent baby names, proving that many people certainly don't share the opinions of the Mumsnet commenters.
According to the Babycentre website, Amelia was the fourth most popular UK girls' name of 2021 - doesn't sound so whiney now, does it, mums? Meanwhile, Mia was far from missing in action at No6 in the list, and both Grace (No14) and Luna (No23) also featured high in the rankings.
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