Many women have the names of their children chosen from the moment they’ve decided to have kids. Some people find that baby names are something very special and meaningful for them. They don’t want to tell others because they fear that someone will try and “steal” their baby names.
However, some people believe names are “universal.”
While some soon-to-be moms are territorial over baby names, others feel that they don’t “own the rights” to that name entirely.
RELATED STORIES
For example, this one woman on Reddit who recently opened up about some drama she and her sister, Mindy, are having over baby names.
The Reddit user shared that she is a twin and she’s been having some problems with her sister.
“Mindy is pregnant with baby 3. She has 2 sons Ryan and Dave, who were named after her husband’s grandfather and father. She’s having a girl and is ecstatic. They planned on keeping their name a secret until the birth,” she said.
After what was a “hard year,” the Reddit user’s fiancée surprised her with a cat.
“She had planned on surprising me over the holidays but a lot of shelters were tapped out due to pandemic adoptions. The shelter had named her ‘Ellie’ and I teared up cuz that was my nan’s nickname. She died two years ago and my life still feels empty without her.
Ellie’s sweet demeanor and loving spirit made me feel as if she were a gift sent by Nan herself. We decided to keep the name as it was as a tribute to her, which Amy [the fiancée] thought was sweet and that Ellie was perfect,” she added.
She posted a photo of her cat and fiancée on social media to share the good news.
However, her sister then texted her.
“Mindy called me yesterday and started screaming at me for being a coward and ignoring her. Turns out she planned on naming her daughter Eileen after our nan and having everyone call her Ellie.
Apparently she unleashed her fury on my private post and berated me for not responding later in the night,” she shared.
Her sister then began texting both the Reddit user and her fiancée.
“I called my mom. Sadly I knew that she wouldn’t listen to me. She told me that she knows I was close to Nan but the name is better suited for a baby. I told her that’s ridiculous, she said Mindy is hormonal from the pregnancy and ‘to be a good sister,'” she added to the post.
Obviously, the Reddit user was angry and hurt.
“I snapped and asked her where Mindy’s compassion was when I learned that I could never carry my own child. I called her up crying that day and she brushed me off, saying I was being overly dramatic.
I asked her if she knew what a hysterectomy was. She went quiet. We didn’t speak again until after I had recovered from the surgery and tried to act like nothing happened. I still resent her for this,” she said.
Her mom did not agree.
“I swung low and asked her where Mindy was when Nan died? In Vegas with her friends even though she was told Nan wouldn’t survive the weekend. Mindy wanted the name for the glory, I loved Nan and won’t rename MY fur baby,” the Reddit user said.
She asked if she was wrong, as she only had her fiancée and dad on her side.
The majority of Reddit users sided with the OP and her cat.
“1. You can’t steal something you didn’t know about.
The cat already had the name.
Your sister should’ve asked you nicely, in private.
If you’re sister already had announced the name and you decided to name the cat the same name, then yeah, I’d say that was a jerk move… but that was obviously not the case here,” one person said.
Others said that both the sister and mother sound “awful.”
“You mother and sister sound awful. I am so so sorry that you have to deal with that. When you decide to keep baby names a secret, you run the risk of someone else using the same name. On top of that, the way that they went about it is just unacceptable. The fact that your sister didn’t call you to talk about it but instead berated you through social media AND then went after your fiancée is a sign that she is a terrible person,” another said.
Whose side are you on for this one?
