What Not to Name the Baby Part IV!

Some people don't realize that when they are naming their kid they are sometimes naming him or her after a celebrity or even the top name for a pet currently. Here is the conclusion to my four part blog series on what it means to call a kid a name!

Madonna – This name belongs to such a superstar that it will be ridiculously hard for your child to attach this name to her own identity. It is a name that has basically been branded.
Maggie – It's a lovely name but it is the top name chosen by dog owners for their female pets in 2011.
Olivia – This is a hip retro name that actually means 'an army of elves.'
Oprah – Oprah is a noble woman to name a child after but whenever we hear this name we do not think of anyone else. This name might play havoc with your child's sense of identity.
Paris – Paris Hilton is a bright woman but her bimbo antics have made this more of a shallow name than it need be.
Portia – This is one of those Shakespearean names that sound very intellectual but its real meaning is 'little pig.'
Rasputin – This fine Old Russian boy's name is also the name of a Russian sorcerer who helped lead the last dynasty of Russian royalty to slaughter.
Regan – Once a beautiful name for a girl it is hard not to reference it to the possessed little girl in the movie 'The Exorcist.'
River – A beautiful name that is still associated quite a bit with River Phoenix who died of a heroin overdose outside Johnny Depp's Viper Club in the early nineties.
Ronald – This is a name that was once classic and that seems to have been taken over by McDonald's. It is hard not to think of 'Ronald' without thinking about Ronald McDonald. This is a name destroyed by corporate theft!
Sabrina – Both the television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Bewitched had witches named Sabrina on them that make it hard for people to take this name seriously.
Samara – Once a beautiful name for a girl it is now associated with the evil little girl ghost in the horror movie 'The Ring' (the one that climbs out of the well and kills people.)
Seth – This just seems to be a name associated with evil. It is used by a lot of followers of Satan.
Shakira – Your child will never be seen as herself as the name belongs to such a superstar singer.
Tabitha – Very few people think of this name without thinking of the baby witch from Bewitched.
Vlad – This majestic name is a bit too much like Vlad the Impaler who was also known as Count Dracula.

Hopefully you will refer to this list before you decide to name your child something too familiar from pop culture!