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Original poster

Friends awful baby name

737 replies

ThisIcyHare · 01/01/2025 16:26

My best friend is due to have a baby soon, they are having a girl and she has been talking baby names with me, which feels super special. She has got a few very lovely traditional girly names, and a couple of more unusual choices, but not ‘offensive’. They are names I would expect from her. However, she has one absolutely terrible name, that actually just feels very cruel. It would be bad even by American standards and ‘tragedeigh’ names. It’s not that I wouldn’t choose it, it’s just crazy stupid and the child will be ridiculed by peers and adults. Some of her choices are genuinely wonderful, but I’m so worried she will madly choose this one awful name, I can’t say anything can I?!

OP posts:
Maurora · 01/01/2025 20:49

Smarties2 · 01/01/2025 20:49

I know someone who named their child Calamity. I did wonder if they knew what the word meant when they chose it.

Nominative determinism?

fitzwilliamdarcy · 01/01/2025 20:49

I’m hoping it’s Audacity.

If it’s like Integrity then with any luck it’ll be a team name chosen in the Apprentice this year and that’ll put her off.

Smarties2 · 01/01/2025 20:49

I know someone who named their child Calamity. I did wonder if they knew what the word meant when they chose it.

Gonners · 01/01/2025 20:48

Dyra · 01/01/2025 20:17

Apparently there's something about Alice and grandma's to be because mine did the exact same. However, she did come around to it a few weeks later (we were set on it as our girl name). Sure enough baby Alice was born a few months later, and Mum can't imagine her named anything more perfect.

Not read OP's posts yet, but I do wonder if the name in question is on par with Rae Farty.

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Arf at the Alice comments - sorry, I should obviously have quoted the above, or one of the other Alice-related posts.

Onlyvisiting · 01/01/2025 20:48

Oooh I know.
Is it scrumptious? Truly scrumptious???

Onlyvisiting · 01/01/2025 20:47

Is it Honesty? If it is then try and steer her to Honor instead?
If its Probity then tell her that naming a future teenage girl anything with 'probe' in it is tantamount to child abuse.

BrassyLocks · 01/01/2025 20:46

Celebrity.
Mortality.

Maurora · 01/01/2025 20:44

Rectitude it is then... Or Sincerity <<< It's that one, isn't it lol

NamechangeRugby · 01/01/2025 20:43

ThisIcyHare · 01/01/2025 17:15

No! It’s not honour, charity, faith. It’s like Integrity.

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Is it 'like a ship called D***y', by any chance Op?

In which case I agree with you.

BarbaraHoward · 01/01/2025 20:41

Abitlosttoday · 01/01/2025 20:12

Is it 'Aileen'? My mum has a friend called Aileen. It always seems ridiculous to me.

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It's an Irish name, about as exciting as Jane.

Not everyone is British.

Garlicnorth · 01/01/2025 20:41

More 'similar to Integrity' (apologies for any PP I've missed):

Incorruptibility
Indestructibility
Molecular Regularity
Undividedness
Morality
Internal Consistency
Coherence
Completeness
Robustness
Scrupulousness
Electrical Signal Stability

I quite like some of these 😄

PalmLady · 01/01/2025 20:39

Honesty
Pride
Virtue
Morality

WellsAndThistles · 01/01/2025 20:37

Maurora · 01/01/2025 20:32

Alice?

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Who the 🤐 is Alice?

ThreeTescoBags · 01/01/2025 20:36

I was standing behind someone in a queue for an ice cream a few years ago, who had her kids names tattooed on her back, one of them was Effiniti

I can only assume it was an attempt at affinity? I often wonder to myself how little Effiniti is getting on

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 01/01/2025 20:36

Gonners · 01/01/2025 20:31

My mother was an Alice, as was her mother. My sister gave her daughter Alice as a middle name, to much maternal delight, without mentioning that it was done to please her husband's very ancient granny. There used to be a lot of them about!

In the words or rather word of Manuel from Fawlty Towers
“Que”

or if you prefer Mowgli from Jungle book
“Gee Baloo I don’t even know what you’re talking about”

🤣

Jacopo · 01/01/2025 20:36

JohnofWessex · 01/01/2025 20:05

I once owned Jensen Buttons dads house.

Based in that example I wanted to call one of my children after the best thing I ever drove.

Sadly I dont have a child called 'Parsons and Marine Experimental Turbine Research Association' (Pametrada)

Builders of the turbines ion the 1955 Manxman

You win the most esoteric post of the year (so far) @JohnofWessex .

LoudDenimEagle · 01/01/2025 20:35

oakleaffy · 01/01/2025 19:37

I bet people call her ''Anty-Gone'' though.

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Only the Doctor receptionist, though some ask before trying to say it.
I've known a Good Luck, Rocket, Magpie and a Persephone as well in the school I work in. The only name bullying we had was a girl called 'lazy Daisy' by her peers.

RedRock41 · 01/01/2025 20:34

Rumpelstiltskin is a lovely name 👌

Ottersmith · 01/01/2025 20:33

She won't get picked on for her name. People have moved on. It's just idiot parents who laugh at other kids names nowadays in my experience, not the kids.

Maurora · 01/01/2025 20:32

Gonners · 01/01/2025 20:31

My mother was an Alice, as was her mother. My sister gave her daughter Alice as a middle name, to much maternal delight, without mentioning that it was done to please her husband's very ancient granny. There used to be a lot of them about!

Alice?

Gonners · 01/01/2025 20:31

My mother was an Alice, as was her mother. My sister gave her daughter Alice as a middle name, to much maternal delight, without mentioning that it was done to please her husband's very ancient granny. There used to be a lot of them about!

Jacopo · 01/01/2025 20:31

It’s Probity, isn’t it. Or Probiteigh.

Bollihobs · 01/01/2025 20:31

SoNiceToComeHomeTo · 01/01/2025 19:10

I honestly don't see why you can't say: 'Friend, I love all of these names except Varucacella, which worries me because it reminds me of the foot problem and the musical instrument, and the dear girl might get teased in school. Though I agree that the actual sound of the name is lovely and I can see why you chose it. '
Wouldn't that do the trick?

Edited

I completely agree.

OP, if it's that bad you have to say something, especially if the issue with the name just doesn't seem to have even occurred to your friend - just put it in nice terms with positivity about her other choices and hope she sees the problem.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 01/01/2025 20:28

Butchyrestingface · 01/01/2025 20:23

Even if it Makes The Mail, how would OP's pal know which of her friends had sought advice from the good citizens of AIBU?

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On the face of it you making a good point. Who’s going to know. However actual name dropping makes it far more personal and identifiable

RustyBear · 01/01/2025 20:26

Butchyrestingface · 01/01/2025 20:23

Even if it Makes The Mail, how would OP's pal know which of her friends had sought advice from the good citizens of AIBU?

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If the OP is the only person she’s told?