For expecting mothers, choosing a baby name is something that takes a lot of time and thought. For some soon-to-be moms, they already know what they want to name their babies before they’re even pregnant. Some women have laundry lists of names that they have selected from an early age, just waiting for the day they see that plus sign on their pregnancy test to use them.
For other women, pregnancy can be a surprise appearance.
Some moms get pregnant unexpectedly and aren’t prepared with names. So, they dig deep and think of what names mean the most to them to give to their future son or daughter.
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Sometimes, no matter how much we like a name for our future children, people will absolutely hate it.
Many women have gone through the struggles of dealing with friends’ and family’s opinions on their baby names. Sometimes, people just don’t like or understand the names we choose. But, sometimes, these individuals feel as though their opinions and thoughts are extremely justified.
One Reddit user recently wrote into the website asking for advice after they told their pregnant friend that her baby name, “… is the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever heard.”
“2 days ago, my [19F] friend [21F] who is about ~7 months pregnant (dad not in picture, we are all in college) told me that she has finally decided on a baby name. For context, this girl has been trying to decide a name for the past 7 months,” she wrote.
The Reddit user said that her pregnant friend is the type to like “weird, eccentric names.”
“She is the type of person who will name their kids ‘Makeighleigh’ or ‘Jeydeyn’ (she has personally expressed liking […] names of that sort to me in the past), hence as to why I was very intrigued to hear what her final decision would be as she is a very, let’s say, eccentric and naive midwestern girl,” she wrote.
The final name that her friend chose was just ridiculous in her personal opinion.
“She told me that she has decided to name her son ‘BLAC’ as in the color, but without the K since she said her son is white. I stared at her and asked her to say his full name as her last name is Greene, she did and [I] was like, are you serious? She said the ‘Blac Greene’ is intentional, I kid you not, this girl is naming her child Blac Greene,” the user said.
When she asked her friend why she chose colors for the name, her friend’s response was simple.
“I asked her why she would name her son after colors and she said something along the lines of her liking the uniqueness of the name, no ones [ sic ] gonna have the same name as him, and that if she named him this everyone would think his name is super cool and clever, and that she liked the sultry and mysteriousness of the color black etc,” she wrote.
The friend tried to give her some straightforward advice.
“I was dumbfounded and laughed out loud then told her that it was the most ridiculous name I’ve ever heard; the name ‘Blac’ itself for a white kid might also be viewed weirdly and that if she liked black so much perhaps she could name her child something less bullying-prone like ‘midnight’ or something,” she suggested.
Her friend was not happy with the answer, so she said the Reddit user was “being a hater.”
The Reddit user asked the community if she was in the wrong for giving her opinion and people said, nope, she wasn’t wrong at all.
“She’s in for a rude awakening if she sticks with this name. Is it racist to name a white boy ‘BLAC(k)’? I don’t know. Does she want to have that conversation (and doom her child to that conversation) every day of their damn lives? Probably not, yet here we are,” one person responded.
People agreed that the name would bring immense controversy.
“Can you imagine having to introduce yourself with that name? ‘Hi, I’m Blac.’ I feel bad for this child,” one person said.
“People need to stop acting like they are immune from criticism on their name choices, especially something this absurd,” another wrote.
After people overwhelmingly agreed that the name idea was not thought-out, the Reddit user shared a few updates on the situation.
The Reddit user acknowledged that she could have handled the situation better and not been so critical of the name (even though she still thinks it’s a bad idea).
Since so many other Reddit users reached out with name suggestions, the user said she is going to suggest them to the mom-to-be and see if she can sway her opinion.
“‘Blue’ is a real name she could’ve gone with. Blac could be cool but not for a little white boy. He is going to have lots of white boy jokes tossed at him just for having that name,” one user said.
A few other color name suggestions that Reddit users came up with were “Hunter,” “Vanta,” and “Onyx.”
Besides the reaction to the pregnant mom’s name idea, Reddit users said this user was not the asshole for how she handled the situation.
Many users said that her honesty was necessary to spare this child from any bullying as the result of the name.
“She needed to hear that reaction in that way. That is a terrible name, and if you were nice about how you responded she wouldn’t know just how ridiculous people are going to think the name is. I mean, a white kid named Blac? Yeah, that’s not going to go well,” one person said.
In general, Reddit users said “unique” names rarely work out.
“I remember in the ’60s when hippies gave their kids names like Starshine and Moonwind. The kids all ended up asking to be called Pete and Jane. In other words, parents who think it’s important to have unique names: Your kids are not going to thank you for it,” another user added.
The user who posted this story thanked everyone for their feedback and help.
While she did say she was doubtful that her friend would change her mind, she hoped some of the internet’s suggestions would strike a chord.
What do you think of this situation? Was the friend right to react to the name this way?
