Use this name, please. It's lovely, and based on a lovely flower. Being afraid of it is allowing those psychopaths to win, and inspiring other would-be terrorists and murderers to feel like they could make a lasting impact if they were to do the same. Even more than 20 years down the road people are afraid to use it. It is NOT good to hide from names with bad associations, people! Better to change them for the better.
I live in the U.S. and I've heard of some school shootings - but never of the Columbine! Maybe in 50 years, all of the young people would've forgotten about it? I wish they'd stop naming bad events after people/locations/or other things by accident/coincidence because then the names become risky to bestow on our children. (Hurricane Katrina, Operation Ellamy, I.S.I.S., Corona Virus, Big Bertha, etc.) It happens all the time. And other names get ruined by literature or slang.I personally don't like the sound of Columbine, but do I love flowers! And I want parents to have the freedom to name their children after beautiful things in nature. Columbine is really not a bad name at all. The only problem aside from the bad association is that people, much like myself, may mispronounce the name if not corrected. I thought that it was "Kuh-lum-BEEN", like a feminine form of Columbus, when it's actually "Kah-lum-bien." Excuse my ignorance! You learn something new everyday.
This is a beautiful name, but the most I could ever use it is as a middle name, since as a first name it has, as other users pointed out, too many negative connotations (especially in America). It would make a great name for a character, though--especially if the story is historical.
― Anonymous User 1/8/2010
4
All I can think about is school shootings but this might actually make a cool name for an evil character in a book or movie.