Woman who gets paid to help parents name their babies reveals which names she doesn't like

There are all kinds of peculiar professions out there nowadays. You really can apply to be anything your heart desires, from a cat behaviour consultant to a penguinologist.

One California woman, for example, has opened up on a somewhat bizarre job that she managed to bag, professing now to be a 'name consultant'.

Amongst the many duties that fall under TikToker Steph Coffield's jurisdiction, first and foremost, is the responsibility of naming other people's children...

Yes, you read that right. She gets paid for choosing baby names.

But Steph's profession is significantly more complex than you might first believe, being that she often has to break it to doting parents that she doesn't like the name they had initially planned for their newborn.

In fact, there are a number of names that Steph - who goes by @nameswithsteph on TikTok) has admitted she can't stand.

Taking to TikTok, the stay-at-home mom from Apple Valley - who herself has three children - has recently disclosed the names she'd never turn to when naming a baby.

And some of them aren't as unusual as you might expect - including the likes of Mary and John - leading us to wonder why exactly Steph hates them.

"I have to be careful because my father-in-law's name is John, my husband's name means John," she joked whilst speaking to viewers on the video-sharing app.

She also explained why exactly the name Mary isn't one she's a huge fan of in a previous video, giving it a harsh rating of just 2/10.

"We all know Mary gotta be one of my least favourite classic names. I know great people named Mary, but the name is boring to me."

"It has zero whimsy and if you've been following me for a while you know we love whimsy here," she went on, adding that the name is 'just very forgettable and common'.

But Steph also takes issue with many non-traditional names, as well as those with unique spelling, including Jaxon, or Payton and Nevaeh.

"Those are not my vibe," she quipped online. "I also used to not like vintage-y names like Edith, Edgar, Florence and Felix."

But she claims these old-fashioned names have grown on her in recent weeks.

"Please don't be hurt," she previously told viewers after giving her verdict. "I love all names but of course I have ones that aren't my favourites!!"

She's a big fan of classic English names, like Elizabeth and Margaret for example, both of which she describes as 'stunning'.

When it comes to which names will begin trending in 2024, Steph says parents are bound to become 'more mysterious', suggesting the likes of Fisher, Huxley and Ridley as popular.

She adds that the gender neutrality of these names will contribute to their popularity next year, adding: "I'm seeing a lot of whimsical, gender neutral surnames being given as first names."