Why do complete strangers think they know best when it comes to naming your children?

Some people are just thoughtless and don;t realize the affect their comments have. Every name rhymes with something bad or may seem like a bad choice to someone. Don't worry about their comments. Try to take them in stride, it's not worth getting upset over.

But they are ASKING. They want to hear what other people think before they give the child a name. That's the whole point of asking for opinions on a public forum...not everybody has to like the name...I have seen some truly awful suggestions on there. True, I try to keep my comments to "not really a fan of that one" or something similar, rather than "poor kid", but even saying "poor kid" if it's a truly awful name I don't think is that cruel a comment! I do agree the "hope your daughter dies" is out of line, but that happens on this site often even in non-naming questions...this is the internet, you just need to learn to ignore the deathwishes unfortunately.

People do subconsciously judge by name...they have done multiple surveys/studies on this, and in job applications etc really weird, oddly spelt made-up names don't fare as well...so it's good to ask what the public view will be before naming the child. They can ignore public opinion if they want, but if they are asking, it must be important to them.

Did you know in New Zealand a girl named "Talulah does the Hula from Hawaii" was ordered to be re-named by the jduge? He was a complete stranger to the family...in cases like that, I think it's reasonable.

I think this is the place for honesty...if you don't want to hear what people think then don't ask the question. Personally I appreciate honest answers because I don't want to give my kid a name everyone else thinks is awful. Yes, some people go too far (like the "I hope your daughter dies" comment) but if you think a name is horrible and a future parent is asking your opinion, speak the truth. If everyone lies and says it's cute to name your daughter La'Shaneekquiah then the poor child might actually end up with that name. And people who truly don't care what other people think about their choice of name won't be on here asking anyway.

I see your point but any question you ask on this site usuallly gets you attacked from some direction. It's quite funny when you look at it objectively.

To answer your last question though, you absolutely should be able to name them what you want but when you ask for opinions people don't hesitate to give them. I believe everyone deserves respect (mostly...lol.)

Well, I guess if people are ASKING complete strangers what they think of a name, then that's just what can happen. No one likes every name, and if someone loves a name to begin with, why are they asking the opinion of a stranger, if not to in fact, find out their opinion. I never answer those questions, because I picked out the names of my sons and I chose them because I absolutely loved them. I would not give a crap who else did or didn't like them, therefore, I wouldn't ask.

Complete strangers don't bother me and my sister....it's my dad we have to worry about lol. My niece is 2 years old today and my daughter will be 10 months old. He insisted we named our daughters Emily or Desiree. Anytime we told him a name we thought of it was like "Oh, that's nice. I still like (Emily) or (Desiree) better." He finally accepted the fact that my niece is Sydney and my daughter is Halle haha. My sister is now due with child #4, daughter #2, and her name will be Lily Jeannette. (Jeannette is my mom's middle name and she is battling cancer for the 5th time so it's in honor of her.) He HATES it but oh well!

youre asking a question to everyone at the bus depot..youre going to get a wide variety of responses from the avereage joe to people you normally wouldnt feel comfortable standing near or make eye contact with

Really, it depends on the name.

This one woman wanted to name her daughter a boy name because she wanted her daughter to have a tough girl personality, then she went on to say how society shouldn't be judging on someones name.

She was an ignoramus, her daughter WILL have a tough time.

Some people unfortunatelly don't even have respect for themselves!!! I know it's very rude when they answer that way since I can't control what they say I just pretend I don't see anything... IGNORE THEIR ANSWER AND GIVE THEM THUMBS DOWN FOR BEING SUCH aS JERKS!!!!

People think they know best about everything. If you ran your life based on popularity polls it would a) take a long time, and b) lead to a very boring life.

f&*k them, do whatever you want and like.