Ridiculous name for baby

[PegorySpeck]

My step son and gf have recently called their newborn a really awful pretentious name. I know it’s their choice but neither me nor my husband can bring ourselves to say it in a sentence. Every time we talk about him we say ‘the baby’ or the ‘little one’. We have been very diplomatic and said things like ‘ oh that’s unusual’ but they have started to notice we don’t use his name in conversation and it’s becoming tense.

Any advice on how to move forward?

My cousin has insane and lengthy names for all four of her kids. Not only that, she seems to think the wider world is on tenterhooks waiting for her to announce the name. No one gives a shit and frankly, us in the family are dreading it. Because their names are just so embarrassing. They’re always convoluted and when they announce them they write screeds of rationale and expect us all to bow down to their superior naming of their superior children. My sisters and brother almost look forward to it because it gives us so much conversational material on our family WhatsApp. 😂

Well it's a shit name and the the reasoning is the wankiest of the wanky. But it's his name and that's that and, this apparently comes as a surprise to some grandparents, the parents get to pick - nobody else- and they can chose whatever they damn well want and you get no say in it.
Your job is simply to say 'that's lovely' and get on with calling him Storm. You having a pantomime about it is extremely rude and takes the shine off the new baby experience. There'll soon be a post on here about a rude mother-in-law refusing to use child's name.
Would you have the same hysterics if you were introduced to a new colleague with that name? Made a new friend somewhere? Etc?

Have they mentioned any reactions? Surely if people aren’t saying anything they must be picking up on weird energy when it’s mentioned.

Could be worse. Could be Rainy Puddles.

@WizardOfAus

Covid

Omg that's it isn't it

@PegorySpeck

His name is Stormy-Water middle name cloud

Twats

Sheesh. That’s a handle. How did you not laugh?

Poor child.

Oh dear poor child.

Call him (her?) Stormzy

Ah, when hippies meet and fall in love...

...they often give their kid a sniggersome name.

But this is an epically sniggersome name.

Stormy Water indeed. Just call him Storm and then have a giggle to yourself that you never envisioned the day where Storm would be the conservative version of your grandson's name.

Oh god I thought you were completely unreasonable until you gave the name. I still think you need to just get on board with it because she’s your kid and you need to support her, but I understand your feelings round it.
You or your husband refusing to say the name won’t make her change her mind though, it’ll just push her away from you. Someone else (probably multiple people) will point out how ridiculous it is and she might rethink it.
PP gave good advice - say it out loud, write it down often, stick it on the fridge… desensitise yourself and normalise or.

Normalise IT.

Ok, that actually is a bad name.

It will eventually end up as Storm I guess which is more of a girl stripper name but not as bad.

@PegorySpeck

The reason is more about them though. Stormy represents their life before they met, water is the continuity (infinity) of their love for each other and cloud was the ‘silver lining’ when realised they were expecting.

It is totally their choice, of course. I personally think it is a bit naf. I’m just glad they haven’t directly asked us what we think because I’m a terrible liar and would feel so false saying oh that’s lovely which is why we opted for oh that’s unusual. I mean what can you say?

Vomit.

God that poor kid

@Iwantcauliflowercheese PLEASE tell me it's not Bradford or Preston

Ducking hell that's bad

It doesn’t matter what the name is. It’s his name and to not use it is incredibly rude.

For now, can the collective minds of MN come up with anything (not Storm, or Stormzy ) that Stormy-Water/ Stormy-Water Cloud can be shortened to, that sounds half decent? "SC?" Sort of like the way you'd shorten Sarah Jane?

Anyone?

Ahhahahahahahahahaha!!!! I'm so so sorry OP, I feel awful for you Create your own name to only use out of ear shot of them

Oh well, you were right, that's just embarrassing.

I'm actually GOBSMACKED that the registry office allowed that

They should just move to California it would be perfectly normal. I actually like it, it sounds poetic and has a nice cadence. However I would never do it to a child.

God that really is a godawful name

That's right up there with Moon Unit.

My family all shortened one of my kid's names, I just live with it even though I don't like it. Use a nickname, they'll get over it.