Cameron
Scottish Gaelic for 'crooked nose;' James Cameron sank the Titanic again on film and Ferris Bueller's pal Cameron sent his dad's Ferrari through a window - maybe hide the keys.
18802024
A Namesake list
Popular baby names that secretly mean something terrible
Most baby name sites give you one word per name and move on. Strong. Beloved. Gift of God. Then you look up a few of the most popular names in America and find a crooked nose, a bald head and some very bad luck.
None of this means you shouldn't use them. Plenty of these names have been top-100 picks for decades, and nobody at the playground is checking the Latin. But it's worth knowing before the birth announcement goes out.
Calvin
French for 'little bald one,' a theologian's surname redeemed by Calvin and Hobbes and Calvin Klein.
18802024
Mallory
An Old French nickname meaning 'unlucky;' Family Ties named Michael J. Fox's TV sister Mallory, and in 1986 the name climbed to 83rd - the luckiest break an unlucky name ever got.
18802024
Campbell
A Scottish clan name, Gaelic for 'crooked mouth;' Campbell's printed it on a red-and-white soup can, and Andy Warhol painted that can until soup counted as art.
18802024
Claudia
Feminine of the Roman name Claudius, from the Latin word 'claudus' (lame) - an odd fit for supermodel Claudia Schiffer, whose entire job in the 90s was walking beautifully.
18802024
Leah
Hebrew for 'weary' or, less flatteringly, 'wild cow' - the rare name that is honest about parenthood up front.
18802024
Kennedy
From an Irish surname meaning 'helmeted head' - apt for the name on Florida's Kennedy Space Center, where people in helmets get launched into space.
18802024
Cecilia
Latin, from a root that means 'blind' - which has never once stopped it from being one of the prettiest, most musical names on the roster.
18802024
Every name in Namesake comes with a meaning like these.
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