In September 2011, basketball player Ron Artest officially changed his name to Metta World Peace, and about a decade later, publicly announced that from now on he should be addressed as Metta Sandiford-Artest. Well, celebs are sometimes subject to desires to change their name, and insistently demand that they be called in a new way, and not, for example, ‘the artist formerly known as Prince.’ But what about us mere mortals?

Do you know how unpleasant it is when you like your name, and someone around you has the audacity not only to distort it, but also to insist on their right to address you the way they want? Well, in that case, we have every right to ignore such appeals. Just as it happened in the user’s u/Complex_Eagle5873 recent story.

The author of the post is a 16 Y.O. teen living with her mom and spending weekends with her biological dad

Image credits: Vidal Balielo Jr. (not the actual image)

The girl is named after her late grandpa. His name was Andy, so the mom decided to name the baby Andi

Image credits: u/Complex_Eagle5873

Image credits: RENE Stock project (not the actual image)

Image credits: u/Complex_Eagle5873

However, Andi’s future stepmom, for some reason, decided her name was actually Andrea and kept insisting on calling her that

Image credits: RDNE Stock project (not the actual image)

Image credits: u/Complex_Eagle5873

During a family gathering, Andi refused to answer while being addressed as ‘Andrea’, embarrassing the woman in front of her relatives

The original poster (OP) is a 16 Y.O. girl whose parents divorced when she was eight. The author’s first name is Andi. Yes, that’s right, not Andy, not even Andrea. The thing is that the OP’s grandfather passed away just a few days before her mom found out about her pregnancy, so she decided to perpetuate the memory of her dad in this beautiful way.

The old gentleman’s name was Andrew, but everyone called him Andy, and the author’s mother, knowing full well that the female version of the name should sound more like Andrea, nevertheless named the newborn Andi. Years have passed, the girl has grown up, and now she honestly admits that she likes both her name itself and the story behind it.

So, returning to our narrative – after the divorce of her parents, Andi stayed with her mom, but on weekends she often spends time with her father. A few years ago, he began dating a woman named Kate, and is now going to marry her. The OP says that she and Kate got along – but there was only one problem. The woman stubbornly calls her future stepdaughter ‘Andrea’.

The teen said several times that her name is Andi and nothing else, but all these explanations were to no avail. The girl’s mother gave her sage advice just to ignore Kate if she addresses her wrongly. This is exactly what the OP did during an extended family gathering, when Kate called her Andrea again in front of her own relatives.

When the woman indignantly asked why the teen did not respond, she calmly explained the reason and just as calmly gave her real name. Kate’s relatives were surprised, and the woman herself was embarrassed – after all, it turned out that she had previously told everyone her future stepdaughter’s name was Andrea. Later, alone, Kate tried to tell Andi off, accusing her of ruining the dinner for her, but the teen was absolutely adamant in her unwillingness to give in.

Image credits: Gary Barnes (not the actual image)

“Unfortunately, there are people who are absolutely sure they know better than anyone what is right and are always ready to ‘correct’ other people’s mistakes. More precisely, what they consider mistakes,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment on this story. “When it comes to names, it always looks pretty ridiculous – simply because people today give children any names, and there is no hard, fixed position on how this or that name should be written and pronounced.”

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“To be honest, I would also talk to the girl’s father about her relationship with his significant other. Perhaps the man does not consider this something important, but for the daughter herself it is really crucial. If a man wants to be a decent dad anyway, he should definitely support his daughter here,” Irina believes.

By the way, many commenters are in solidarity with the expert about the fact that the father did not act very well in the case described, in fact, abstracting from the problem. Moreover, people in the comments did not mince words about the original poster’s father letting his fiancée actually disrespect her. “I mean, is there a bigger red flag than not bothering to learn the name of your partner’s kid?” one commenter aptly pondered.

In fact, this story is actually far from isolated, and relatives or especially in-laws often try to impose on people the ‘correct’ pronunciation of their own first and last names. For example, you can also check out this post of ours where in-laws tried to “rename” a woman named Rynn to Katherine to no avail. And, of course, they were incredibly offended when she politely but adamantly put them in their place. In public, of course. And by the way, has something like this ever happened to you or someone you know?

People in the comments sided with the teen unanimously and some of them stated her dad should stick up for her as well

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