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Michael is a lovely name. Lucas I don't like. When people say that about normal names, I think they are just playing around.

A lot of comments are left by a certain type of person that comes to this site. Usually very young people that run around commenting on the names and make a few polls, and then disappear. I am guessing that the names they leave hateful comments on are the names of people they know and don't like. So it's just childish lashing out.

On this site, the vast majority of people leaving strongly negative comments about nice, common names do not post on the Opinions board. I've always suspected that they prowl the Internet looking for places where they can show off in happy anonymity, and find insulting a name or several is a good way to show off and still keep their identities a wonderful secret! And if it floats their strange boat, well, they could be doing worse things. But I do feel for the innocents who look up people's opinions of their own names and find a bunch of insults. I hope they don't take it all seriously.

I’ve seen people with common names say they hate the confusion of hearing their name referring to someone else. In fact, the SSA lists were created by a guy named Michael who didn’t want his child to have such a common name.

Michael's the name of someone very unpleasant I knew growing up. When names get very common, there's bound to be a lot of unpleasant ones (the opposite is also true, that there's lots of pleasant ones, but the negative association is still going to be strongest for some people).

This message was edited 5/17/2025, 10:20 PM

I think with some names, they become overused and that irks people. With some names in some eras (and some locations), names have been monocultural, eras where it seemed you couldn't see a school group and not encounter multiple kids named Michael or Ashley or Jennifer or Jessica, or in earlier eras Susan or Mary or John. Familiarity and overexposure breed contempt and then boredom.

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I also think that when a name becomes overused, the possibility of a negative association increases significantly.

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Beyond that, I wouldn't assume that the most strongly worded reactions on here are representative of mainstream attitudes towards these names.

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I like Michael a lot, for example. I don't think I'd use it, but I like it as a name. Lucas I'm a bit more ambivalent towards but I see nothing wrong with it.

Some people hate common names

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I do not like Lucas, but I do not hate.
Micheal is nice!

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Favourite common English names: Henry and Mary

Here's where I stand: I don't like common names, but I would never say it's worse than naming your kid something awful.
I have a common name. It's affected my self esteem and I've felt negatively about it for a while. I strongly feel that unique names are much better.
But really, there is no need for hate comments. In fact, common names are common because people like them. I wouldn't listen to those voices- they're not worth hearing.

Where are you seeing these comments?