I happen to own the top Google search results ranking for the phrase “worst baby names ever”. As such, people occasionally come by and leave a comment on the related post with stories of bad baby names.
A good portion of these have geeky connotations, so I thought I’d generate a little list using that entry, the site it linked to, and a bit of creative searching. There’s no way to verify if these are all legit, but they’re all from reports I found on the web–I didn’t make any of them up.
Here’s the list thus far, feel free to offer additions:
- Strider – It could have been worse, he could’ve been named Pippin.
- Arwen – Again, it could have been Eowyn. Plus, it’s quite a pretty name.
- Lestat – “I can’t understand why junior keeps wearing all that white makeup…”
- Neo – You might as well name the kid “Jesus”.
- Keanu – See above.
- Nikita – Apparently from the Elton John song, not from La Femme Nikita, but we can hope.
- Nero – “Son, you’re named for a a Roman Emperor. No pressure.”
- Maximus – See above.
- Cosmo Ranger – I got nothing.
- Eaton – Last name Seamen. Not so much geeky as just plain cruel.
- Cleopatra Evita – Presumably she’s the daughter of drag queens.
- Corran – Apparently a character in the Star Wars books.
- Mara Jade – Another similarly non-movie Star Wars character.
- Anakin – Bound to be a mouth breather.
- Luke – Climbed the charts from 228th in the seventies to 42nd today.
- Ada – Destined to work in a cubicle among smelly coding boys.
- Wesley – Fairly common, but geeky when inspired by Star Trek.
- Jadzia – Apparently in 1998, there were 27 baby girls named after Deep Space Nine’s Dax.
- Ryker – In that same year, 80 baby boys were making Number One in their diapers.
- B’elanna – Well, at least the apostrophe will simplify things.
- Kirk – Apparently Kirk Cameron was named after the Shatnerian one.
- Moon Unit – Thank you, Papa Zappa.
- Amadeus – Retro geeky.
- Mars – I know, it’s also a Greek god. But it gets dodgy when his sister is named Venus. And what if you named a kid Pluto and he got downgraded to a mere dwarf planet?
- Ripley – Likes her machine gun with a flamethrower chaser.
- Dade – This one’s pretty obscure (but apparently legit). I mean, how many people saw Hackers?
- Damien – You know, like the Prince of Darkness? Rose in popularity thanks to The Omen.
- Version 2.0 – Obvious, and apparently true.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Nice thing about “Arwen” is that it is geeky to those who are geeks, and flies under the radar for others. (Usual question after I introduce myself: “Is that an Irish name?”) I thought that the movie that ate the box office might change that. Nope. I don’t say I’m ARrrrrrrWhen like the elves did, and so no one makes the connection (who isn’t already a LoTR’s fan).
I to do not pronounce the over exaggerated “AR” The question I get all the time is “Arwen’s you first name?” My last name is Courtney.
Sure beats naming the child LaVodka, Velvetta or Kraft.
I know a family of five in which all of the children have names related to characters or actors from Star Wars. (Luke, Ewan, Liam….) I don’t know if the mother is aware of this, but I suspect the father is.
If you’re naming your kid ‘Nero’, be prepared to ante up for violin lessons.
Also – I’ll nominate the following for really geeky baby names:
Avro (yes, after the Avro Arrow)
Reagan (after Ronald. I know another couple that seriously considered naming their kid Trudeau)
past the baby making age, but I was thinking ‘beta’ would be a good ‘un.
lol Obi-won, ryan howell, these are the geekest names
and Jay Wilhelmy
Thirstun Howell the Fourteenth
“warsta” comes from “star wars” sorry bout all teh comments, i keep thinking of funny ones, also Runescape would be pretty geeky, gimli, and Macintosh are the last i have
For me, on my real baby name list is the name “Jackson Carter”. Oh, boy, I’m bad. I’m not a Daniel, but Samantha did make our list for girls too! Of course Jackson doubles for daniel and Jack too.
This list is great, though. As long as I don’t name our boy Teal’c I don’t think anyone would be the wiser!
😉
I named my 7 year old daughter Ripley and have had nothing but compliments. It is a different name for sure…but what fun is it to have a name like 60% of the population D-A-R-R-E-N??
No offence…but Karen is pretty common as well. I got over it. It’s about setting yourself apart from the crowd, right?
We named our daughter Ripley, too, born in 2006. After the Alien(s) character. I agree – everyone loves it,including her. Great to hear that there are other great minds! Lol – her middle name is Karen!
Please consider adding Cyrus or Syrus.
You forgot Xena… No pressure, you’re just a HAWT warrior princess and all
i was in a resturant one day and the waitress came to my table and her name was spelled S H I T’ H E A D i was lauhing for a week straight
my physics teacher actually named her son wilber-zeus and i remember asking her “is it going to be wilber hyphen zeus or wilber and then middle name zeus” and she said ‘oh wilber-zeus wilber on it’s own would be just silly’ of course cause wilber-zeus is normal! we also had an re teacher who’s surname was lord and he named his son noah. hence ‘do you no-ah lord’ we used to luv takin the mick out of that one.
hey i happen to be a big star trek and star wars fan.i love these names(star trek,star wars at least)
I work in a school and one of the kids is called Cleopatra Evita and his pairents are totaly sraight. (I think)
yeah, well, try living with the name Gay for a while!! im a teacher and my students make fun of me 😦 Grrrrr
Bleh!
My son’s name is Dade…people usually ask if it is like Dade County…this is the fist time anyone has made the Hackers connection!
Heather
I so hear you about the name Dade…..I have a Dade too and I get the same question….”is it like Dade county?” Otherwise people will say “Dave??” Ugh..how difficult is it??? I actually had someone ask if his name was pronounced Dad….what is up with that??? I picked the name from the Hackers movie….funny that someone else realizes that too!! 🙂
My son’s name is Dade too, and I have to agree with the Miami-Dade comments and Dave and I’ve even gotten “Is it Dah-day?” Wtf really? The sad part is that his doctor AND his dentist office both call him by his generic middle name and completely “forget” he has a first name. And yes, I too got it from Hackers. Gotta love that movie. I didn’t want him to get an average name like Elizabeth or his dad Ricardo (or Richard as his family calls him).
I have a few. One lady went into an Italian restaurant and saw Lasagna on the menu. yep she named her daughter Lasagna. One lady, when told she had Gonorrhea decided that was a pretty name to name her baby. And let not forget sisters Matress and Pajama (pronounced Ma-treese and Pay-zha-may. )
QUINLIN IS THE GEEKIEST NAME OF ALL TIME
Printice and Dexter are very geeky names. Oh and the name Dade is not a geeky name or so I have been told by hundreds of people who have met my son. His name is Dade Devlan and everyone I meet think his name ROCKS.
Oh and my other son is named Harley but he has his fathers very normal middle name of Chistopher. There is nothing wrong with having a name that stands out. 🙂
i think damien is a sexy name! its not geeky. And grrrr to the post above me, my real name is Harley and i hate it. Its not geeky but i hate it >.<. And Kirk is cute 🙂 and i like Luke 🙂
What About
Quasar Or Zenith ,
But Mara Jade ❤ Is Lovely
Quinn
I named my son Darth Xander…it may be geeky, but how many people have kids that could potentially grow up to rule the galaxy…
I actually know of a child whose name is Shithead. It’s pronounced /shi-th-ed/. An other child was named, and I kid you not, 5/8, jr. Really! Five eighths! What is even more disterbing is the fact that he was a JR! Meaning the father was Five Eighths, Sr!
An other one that’s just wrong is a girl named Kandi Apple. Not so much geaky as–well, let’s just say that there will most likely be a pole in her future career path.
Oh, thank you so much for regurgitating every urban legend about names. Very enlightening!
(and it’s ‘disturbing’ and ‘geeky’)
Thanks for takin the piss outta my surname, twat.
Dade is my 2nd name, and it comes from the traditional surname ‘mcdade’ (nothing to do with mcdonalds)… been a dade looong before hackers came out mate.
I would name a child after a character from a book, especially if that book fit my definition of a ‘classic’ (which is a loose definition to be sure). I’d have a harder time using movies for inspiration, though.
Most names are inspired by biblical characters, and as I am an atheist, it makes the whole (hypothetical future child) naming deal a bit more perilous.
My English teacher knows someone who gave their child the middle name “42”. If that’s not geeky, I don’t know what is
What about the name Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica? I love this name 🙂 And its a lil bit on the geeky side!
I wanted to name my daughter Jadzia before I een knew who she was on Star Trek. And I ‘m a HUGE trekker.
I noticed there were no Harry Potter names on the list. Hermione is my second choice for a girl. Severus is good, too. Or Albus. But not together. poor albus severus.
Bobby DropTables…http://xkcd.com/327/
We named our daughter, Ripley,born in 2006 after Sigourney Weaver’s character from the Alien movie franchise. As with the other Ripley parent, we have received so many positive reactions to her name and she LOVES it, which I guess is the most important thing.
I love the name Jadzia!
I love Arwen, but I’d use it as a middle name because it’s a guilty pleasure. I also love the name Viggo (after Viggo Mortensen who played Aragorn in the LOTR movies, he’s done heaps of other good stuff though), but I’m not Scandinavian… hoping to marry a Scandinavian man though 😉
I am preggo now…and if I have a girl we WILL be naming her Arwen. I decided this LONG ago and everyone seems to love it. Yes, I am a huge LOTR fan, but I won’t pick a name if it sounds silly or would get my kid picked on. If we have a boy, our choices are names like Neo, Apollo, Luke, Viggo, Bowen, Draco…so yes, we are leaning toward the nerdy-but-not-TOO-nerdy names….though my husband would LOVE if I agreed to Kal-El.