Picking a name for your baby who’s going to wear it like a badge for the rest of their life is no easy task. According to BabyCenter, half of soon-to-be parents fight about it, while 25% admit to having second thoughts about their choice of a name.

Recently, u/nfjs74839 shared how this exact conundrum got him in his sister’s bad books. After hearing that Katie is planning to name her twins after her and her husband’s Ivy school names – Stanford and Yale – the author felt like he had to speak up before it was too late. Of course, Katie wasn’t pleased about this, encouraging u/nfjs74839 to ask what the all-knowing Am I The [Jerk] community has to say about this.

Choosing baby names can be a very complicated matter

Image credits: hwilson8 (not the actual photo)

After hearing what “ridiculous” baby names the author’s oldest sibling is thinking for her twins, he spoke up, causing a falling out

Image credits: Prostock-studio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: nfjs74839

Image credits: Victoria Rain (not the actual photo)

If you’ve ever gotten a tattoo or wondered if he/she/they is the one, you’ll understand how tricky naming your baby must be. You have one chance and you won’t want to get it wrong or even worse – ruin your child’s future from the get-go by naming it something like X Æ A-12 (hi, Elon) or Apple (hi, Gwyneth Paltrow). You know a mother just loves their pick of the name when she says, “My husband named her.”

The main reason why 1-in-4 parents regret their child’s name, Laura Wattenberg, the author of ‘The Baby Name Wizard’, explains is what she calls “baby-name hostility.” Basically, it all comes down to us wanting to differentiate ourselves, more often than not leading to the public raising their eyebrows. “People write in to us raging against what their neighbors name their babies. Everyone wants to be different. That’s the No. 1 thing we all have in common,” Wattenberg told NPR in 2011.

One of the more surprising things about baby name trends is that it gradually continues to steer away from the all-time favorites. According to a 2014 BBC article, in the 1950s, only 5% of babies had a name outside the top 1000. In 2012, that figure was up to 27%. A couple of years down the line, it rose to 30%, resulting in names like Kulture (hey, Cardi B) and Raddix.

And while Victorian baby names like Elizabeth, Olive and Edward are still all the rage, don’t be surprised to hear that your friends landed on Snowdrop or Paityn. Don’t worry, the kids will be fine – they’ll get used to it.

A few comments summed up the OP’s point quite brilliantly

Most people thought the author was in the right to call out “ridiculous” baby names before it was too late

ADVERTISEMENT

Don’t want to see ads?

Some people, however, had a different opinion on the situation

Games

View all games

Anyone can write on Bored Panda. Start writing!

Follow Bored Panda on Google News!

Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda!