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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to feel unsettled after guessing a child's name exactly?

93 replies

Sam155320 · 24/04/2026 22:30

Just finished work and was making my way home when I saw 2 young girls with their parents selling few things for charity. Gave them money and one of the older girls said to me guess my name with a clue I give you something for free. Before she said clue I guessed her name like I was drawn towards her. They were all amazed. But it made me feel unsettled.

OP posts:
FTMaz · 25/04/2026 14:17

AntiqueBabyLoanSmurf · 25/04/2026 13:46

Surely that applies to all of us (including you and me) who chose to read and participate in this thread (and most others on MN) too?!

Possibly 😂

EnterSandfan · 25/04/2026 14:40

Father Jemima Racktool

KarminaBurana · 25/04/2026 16:58

EnterSandfan · 25/04/2026 14:40

Father Jemima Racktool

Fr. Odo Komodo

exaltedwombat · 25/04/2026 16:59

I was working with a reasonably well-known soprano. ’You’ll never guess the nickname I had at school!’ ‘Was it budgie?’ She was quite put out. But she DOES look a bit like a budgerigar. Sorry.

Doing school project gigs in East London primary schools. We needed a ‘bit of a lad’ type to take a compère role. ‘Anyone here called Alfie?’ There often was….

Wooky073 · 25/04/2026 21:06

have a look at quantum entanglement - its eye opening

Deboragh · 25/04/2026 21:38

Sam155320 · 24/04/2026 22:30

Just finished work and was making my way home when I saw 2 young girls with their parents selling few things for charity. Gave them money and one of the older girls said to me guess my name with a clue I give you something for free. Before she said clue I guessed her name like I was drawn towards her. They were all amazed. But it made me feel unsettled.

Chardonnay!!??

Deboragh · 25/04/2026 21:42

KarminaBurana · 25/04/2026 16:58

Fr. Odo Komodo

Chewie Louie

KarminaBurana · 25/04/2026 22:12

Deboragh · 25/04/2026 21:42

Chewie Louie

Johnny Hellzapoppin

PinkCatCushion · 25/04/2026 22:27

MsMarple · 24/04/2026 23:12

Was it Rumplestiltskin?!

😆

PhilosophicalCheeseSandwich · 25/04/2026 22:31

It's a ploy to get you to buy something else from them - who would ever take something for free from children selling things for charity?

NormasArse · 25/04/2026 22:38

ginasevern · 25/04/2026 13:51

Whilst shopping in Waitrose last year I saw a woman that I thought was someone I knew. I went up to her and said "hello Dorothy" but when she fully turned to look at me, I realised it wasn't Dorothy. (Although she did look and dress rather like her). The woman realised I'd made a mistake but was quite taken aback because her name was indeed Dorothy.

Something similar happened to me in Sainsburys. I saw what I thought was my friend leaning into a freezer, so waited for her to pop back up and said, Hey, Emma!

It wasn’t Emma, or anyone called Emma, so I felt a bit embarrassed.

InterestedDad37 · 25/04/2026 23:03

OP, and ideas for the next EuroMillions? 🤔

ApricotTulip · 25/04/2026 23:10

truepenguin · 25/04/2026 00:24

It wasn't really her name. They would have said yes to anything you guessed.

I agree

SemiRetiredLoveGoddeess · 26/04/2026 03:41

Did you say yes you must be the only child who is named after

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch) on Anglesey.

I think they were just having a joke Kids do that sort of thing

Mcoco · 26/04/2026 08:36

I imagine just pure coincidence OP! But incase its not how about playing the lottery!

Winter2020 · 26/04/2026 16:57

AntiqueBabyLoanSmurf · 25/04/2026 13:44

It is impressive, of course; but a lot of it hinges on whether it was the PIN as assigned at random by the bank's computer, or if he'd changed it to something more memorable himself. If the latter, many people choose significant years - and unless they're a history buff, it's probably one in their own life; so the proportion of PINs that begin with 19 or 20 must be far higher than any other two numbers.

Not quite the same thing, but a little bit like with the lottery, where people very frequently choose birthdays; so far more people will pick numbers up to 31 than the higher ones.

Also with things like 'favourite' numbers, if people asked you to guess theirs. Theoretically, there are infinite possibilities, but the chances of their favourite number being 48653215675198 are pretty slim! Almost all of them will be between 1 and 10 - with probably 80% of them being number 7.

Edited

If the man pretended the pin number guess was right and kept that pretence going for the entire time they worked together I would find that man hilarious!

Usernamenotav · 28/04/2026 07:03

🤣🤣 you got it right by chance

DespiteAppearances · 28/04/2026 12:52

NC as I'm aware this is a bit bonkers...

I have a very odd habit of guessing names correctly. The first time it happened was in 1990 when I was a child, a family member was pregnant and I said to another family member I thought they'd have a boy and call him X. It wasn't a rare name but not particularly popular at the time, and there was no familial connection to it. The family member I said this to was shocked when the name was revealed and always swore blind that she had not passed the suggestion/information on, and the new mum always confirmed this. I remember afterwards thinking it was interesting, and trying to remember why I'd come up with that name. I couldn't work it out, I just somehow knew it...

I've done it lots over the years. It became a standing joke with me and my ex - when a friend got pregnant she'd ask me to 'log it' and neither of us would tell a soul what I thought. I wasn't always right but I was right on a surprisingly high number of occasions. Friends used to laugh when they got pregnant and say: "Rev needs to write my baby's name down and hide the note and we'll see in 8 months time..." 😀

The strangest one was when my partner's colleague's wife became pregnant. I'd never met her and barely knew him. I suddenly heard myself saying they'd have a girl and spoke both the first and middle names they'd give her, the first name being relative uncommon and the second very rare. I was suddenly rather anxious in that moment, and felt the strong need to make my partner swear to not pass the info on, as if I was tempting fate about the pregnancy somehow (she swears to this day that she didn't pass it on and again the father confirms this.) Said baby was born and given both names exactly as I'd predicted. I don't mind admitting that case unnerved me.

I'm fully aware this sounds a bit bizarre, and I'm genuinely not woo at all, in any area of life, it's just an odd thing I seem to have going on...

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