Sorry, Noah, A New Survey Found The Top Baby Names That Grandparents Hate Most

When my mom was pregnant, she and my dad couldn’t seem to come to a consensus on what I should be named. My mom wanted Danielle or Grace while my dad was gunning hard for Sharon or Brenda. (It was the ’80s.) Fortunately, my great-grandma suggested “Jamie,” which she’d apparently heard on “one of her stories” and it stuck.

But not all parents and grandparents are simpatico when it comes to grandchild names. A survey of 2,000 grandparents and parents on the website Gransnet, in cooperation with its sister site, Mumsnet, looked at grandparent involvement and opinions on their grandkids’ names.

And opinions they had...

First, some good news: while 69% of grandparents think it’s fine for them to give an opinion on their grandchildren’s names, they also recognize that it's not OK to give unsolicited suggestions.

And while 15% of parents say their parent or in-law doesn’t like their baby’s name, it appears to be something they get over eventually: only 4% of grandparents said that they have not come to accept their grandchild’s name.

For a minority, the disagreement over a name got tense for a while: 2% of grandparents say that they have fallen out with the parents over their baby name choice and 6% even say that they temporarily fell out of contact because of the disagreement. Others, however, take a less aggressive approach. Unfortunately, that means 9% are passive aggressive, responding to their grandchild’s name with a cagy “What?”

But 4% just don’t say anything and 8% simply lie and say they love the name when they don't.

Frankly, I think lying is the way to go here. I know they say honesty is the best policy, but sometimes I think a friendly lie is the way to go. Because, really, if you don’t say anything the parents will know you hate it. That’s not the worst thing in the world as long as you don’t make a big deal of it. But lying really just avoids an argument over something that’s not in your control anyway so go ahead and tell a little fib.

Of course, this raises the question of why they don’t like the names. Their answers ran the gamut and really does drive home the idea that when it comes to names it’s largely just a matter of taste...

• 6% dislike the spelling of the name rather than the name itself; are annoyed that parents didn’t use the name they’d suggested; or are miffed the parents’ didn’t choose a family name
• 11% don’t like the name because it reminded them of someone they didn’t like; are annoyed the parents chose a name related to the other set of grandparents (#GrandmamaDrama); or think the name is too old-fashioned
• 17% think the name was just plain weird
• 28% think it’s downright ugly

And what names don’t they like? Honestly, a whole lot of very popular ones (and some other that, while, not popular, are still perfectly lovely as far as we’re concerned):

• Aurora
• Charlotte
• Elijah
• Finn
• Jack
• Lindsay
• Noah
• Sally
• Tabitha

Honestly, seeing what they don’t like has us sort of curious about what names they would pick. Fortunately, according to the survey, nearly a third of them (31%) understand that, at the end of the day, the baby’s name is none of their business.