Have you ever encountered a pet with a “human” name? Perhaps even your own (!) name? Isn’t that just the best? I mean, you’re namesakes with this cute creature of pure bliss and happiness. If only you could swap places and sleep for 75% of the day instead of going back to your 9-5…

Turns out, though, sometimes people take offense to this! In this story, a parent clashed with a SIL, because auntie wanted to usurp their son’s hamster’s name – Amy – for her own soon-arriving daughter.

More info: Reddit

Sharing a name with a carefree pet is definitely cute for most people, but it turns out that some think it’s “embarrassing”, to say the least

Image credits: Jannes Pockele (not the actual photo)

A parent took it online to ask whether they’re a jerk for refusing to make their son rename his hamster “Amy”

Image credits: Acceptable-Sun-3953

Image credits: cdrussorusso (not the actual photo)

Soon after they got the hamster and named it (after Sonic’s girlfriend), their SIL became pregnant and decided that her daughter’s middle name will be Amy

Image credits: Acceptable-Sun-3953

Image credits: Sofy Marquez (not the actual photo)

After considering the issue, the parent got back to the SIL, saying that they’ll stay firm on the name and she simply exploded

Image credits: Acceptable-Sun-3953

The parent caught flak from family, but their mom probably summed it up best – the whole thing is just childish

Sometimes parents are really particular about names. If you gave me a dollar for every time I heard about two parents dueling it out whose baby name will prevail, I’d probably have… like 10 bucks. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s just enough to get a soda and chips in today’s economy.

And trust me, with a name like Larsas (with apparently only 2 more people of the same name in Lithuania) I’m your trusted authority on unique names.

Which means that I’ve never encountered a pet with my name, at least so far. For me, it’s a source of infinite despair, but it’s a clashing point for others, or so it appears.

In the original poster’s (OP) story, their sister-in-law decided that her upcoming daughter’s middle name would be Amy. It’s set, the name is Amy, so that means that OP’s son’s hamster can’t be named that same. Obviously.

The parent and son duo wasn’t going to back down as easily, especially as the SIL pretty much demanded that the poor hamster’s name be changed. It doesn’t help that Amy is Sonic’s canonical self-appointed girlfriend so you just know that the name has special meaning.

So when OP came back to the SIL, it didn’t go down well. She allegedly “blew up”, saying that it’s “embarrassing” to have a hamster share a name with her daughter. I think she kind of has it backwards – it’s not the hamster sharing, the daughter will be.

It’s only natural, the hamster is the original here, it got the name first.

Image credits: Lo (not the actual photo)

The idea that sharing a name with a pet is embarrassing is also pretty shallow. I mean, are you gonna get upset about every single thing that shares your daughter’s name? What about them being Sonic’s girlfriend? Amy from Futurama? Where does it start and where does it stop?

Besides the admittedly childish argument, the poster came under quite a lot of fire for dropping this emotionally-charged decision on their child. Especially the implied “you upset her” comment.

How could an 11-year-old upset anyone by naming their pet one or another way? The only person upsetting anyone really is the SIL.

If the association to the hamster’s name is going to live rent-free in her head if the name isn’t changed, wouldn’t it already be forever tarnished by this whole thing?

It’s also really silly to think that (middle name) Amy may ask her mom someday “how did you choose this name?” and get a “we stole it from a hamster, honey” reply. Plus it’s only a middle name! The whole situation is just ridiculous, no matter how you spin it.

If you’re similarly having troubles picking a name for a family pet, you could refer to How To Do That’s guide. Some good suggestions are to take a vote or sit in a circle around the dog, calling out a name until the dog comes to a person, meaning that name wins!

Don’t take the guide to heart though, as it suggests taking three suggestions for names, Arya, Skye, and Melania, and mashing them up, getting Skarlanya.

That’s a name for some kind of demon prince or Frankensteinian monster, not a pet.

The poster’s story collected over 16 thousand upvotes in mere days, with a 96% ratio and nearly 9k comments to boot. The community judged the poster not to be a jerk, but many did say that burdening the kid with adult emotions was uncalled for and could have been done better.

What are your thoughts about the story? Make sure to share them, along with your pets’ names in the comments, “human” or no!

The community judged the poster not to be a jerk, but many said they should never have burdened their child with such an “adult” emotional decision

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