Choosing a name for your child is no small task. It’s the moniker they’ll carry for the rest of their life, and most parents want to make it at least somewhat memorable or distinctive.
A journalist and mom who named her son an unconventional name is clapping back at the haters.
How would you choose a name?
Many parents-to-be buy a name book and try on a few different names for size. Of course, after reading through a few thousand names, they all kind of start to feel the same after awhile.
“I’m constantly trolled for my son’s unusual name — people say he will KILL me after years of bullying.”
This is the dramatic headline for an article about journalist Sophia Waterfield, who recently gave birth to a son.
“It’s not every day someone says your son will ‘commit matricide’ when they’re three years old,” wrote Sophia.
What’s her son’s name?
It’s pretty clear that the baby’s name wouldn’t cause an uproar if he was named John or Jack or something similar.
Sophia named her son Amyas. It may be unusual, but it’s short and it’s easy to pronounce: “Am-yas.”
Where does it come from?
It wasn’t invented out of thin air — search Facebook for ‘Amyas’ and you’ll see a few results.
“In all seriousness, the name was always in the back of my mind,” wrote Sophia. “I am a big Poirot fan and Amyas is the name of a character in one of my favorite Agatha Christie novels.”
Online commenters have been harsh.
Sophia says that, after writing an article about her son’s name, one commenter said her son would get bullied for his name and eventually murder his mom.
“While this is one of the most extreme responses to my son’s name, it’s not the first and I know it won’t be the last,” she wrote.
People seemed to take it personally.
“You’re pretentious enough to think you’re ‘above’ more commonly-used names, give your child a ‘unique’ name with an unbelievably ambiguous spelling, then have the gall to get upset when people can’t pronounce it,” one commenter said.
Why did she choose the name Amyas?
Sophia answers this question definitively.
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“Others bluntly ask me: ‘Why would you call him that?’ Because I liked it, obviously,” she said. For what it’s worth, ‘amyas’ is also an Anglicised version of the Latin word for ‘loved.’
People misspell and mispronounce it all the time.
Sophia writes that people seem to treat her son’s name with disdain, misspelling and mispronouncing it even after they’ve been corrected. They judge her son and they judge her for naming him.
“If people want to comment on his name, why not tell me it’s ‘beautiful’ or ‘unusual?'”
Sophia raises a fair point.
“If you don’t have anything nice to say or anything constructive to add to the coversation, then don’t say anything at all,” she concludes.
What do you think?
It’s tough to choose the ‘right’ name for your child. Parents, what do you think of Sophia’s story? Is Amyas a good name? What have you named your kids? Make sure to share your thoughts in the comments!
