Hmm, Pig or Crippled?

I'm not much on name meanings. They're a nice bit of trivia, but when it comes down to it, the only people who really cares that Ruth means friends are people named Ruth and, occasionally, parents considering naming their daughter Ruth. In my experience, what a name means has little impact in how the bearer feels about his or her name. Some people (most guys I know, for starters) just don't care that much. And for the rest of us, personal associations with our names and a particular name's rate of occurence in our community, among other factors, matter a lot more than its etymological roots.

My sister and I are a perfect example. My name is Sara. My sister's name is Rebecca. Sara means princess; Rebecca means a snare. It's not too hard to figure out which meaning is more appealing. But my sister has always, and probably will always, like her name a lot more than I like mine. Rebecca is relatively rare-- she never had one in her class growing up-- and offers some nice, very obvious nicknames. And unless you're reading this from a deserted island, you'll know it's the exact opposite for Sara. Yell Sara in a college classroom and at least three heads will turn. (Obviously most parents wanted a princess instead of a snare for a daughter!) It's been so overused that it's simplicity and charm is at the point of fading. Meanwhile, the graceful Rebecca still has buckets of appeal to spare.

All that said, I was curious enough to compile a list of names with negative meanings. It was surprisingly hard to do. Despite the fact that the name's meaning will rarely impact the bearer's experience, most parents are reluctant to knowingly name their little boy "destruction" or "hated." So the more unlucky names die out. Most of the ones on this list are not widely used today; I have bolded all the names that appear in the Top 1000 in America, italicized the names that have appeared in the Top 1000 at one point or another since the 1890s. The names marked (poss.) have unclear etymological roots.


Abaddon: ruin, destruction
Achilles: pain (poss.)
Ajax: mourner (poss.)
Beelzebub: lord of flies
Boyko: to be afraid of (poss.)
Brennan: a descendant of Braonan [Braonan meaning sorrow] (poss.)
Caleb: dog (Hey, it's an insult when a girl gets called this, so why not a guy?)
Calvin/Calvino: bald
Casimir: to destroy peace
Ceallach: war, strife (poss.)
Cecil/Cecilio: blind (poss.)
Cillian: war, strife (poss.)
Claude/Claudius: lame or crippled
Diggory: lost one (poss.)
Duilio: war (poss.)
Ekaitz: storm
Frediano: cold
Gwandoya: met with misery
Hadad: thunder
Hashim: crusher, breaker
Job/Iyov: persecuted, hated
Kimball: chief war (poss.)
Livius/Livio: to envy or blue, envious
Loki: to break (poss.)
Mazin: rain clouds
Neoptolemus: new war
Odysseus/Ulysses: to hate (poss.)
Patton: bald (poss.)
Perseus: to destroy (poss.)
Phobos: fear
Ptolemy: aggressive, warlike
Stamatios: stop
Terminus: limit, boundary, end
Thor: thunder
Viggo: war

Acantha: thorn, prickle
Amaia: the end
Audra: storm
Bellona: to fight
Cecilia/Cecily/Cecile/etc: blind
Claudia/Claudie/Claudette/etc: lame, crippled
Etain: jealousy (poss.)
Gunhild: war, battle
Gytha: war, strife
Hedwig: contention, war
Livia/Liviana: to envy or blue, envious
Pankaja: born of mud
Perdita: lost
Persephone: to destroy, murder (poss.)
Portia: pig

All name meanings taken from www.behindthename.com.

Additions, disagreements, general rabble-rousing from the peanut gallery?