Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Anyone ever recovered from a "stolen" baby name?

194 replies

bee2121 · 19/10/2024 11:08

I did the biggest mistake of my life by giving a true answer when a co-worker asked what baby names I like. I was caught off gard and I am a terrible liar. She is not going to have children so I was like whatever, better just say it as it is. Unfortunately another co-worker where closer than I though, she walked in just seconds later, my guess is that she overheard us because a few months later she announces she is pregnant and guess what name her baby got? My name!

If it where to be a common name I wouldn't have batted an eyebrow, but knowing she overheard us and the fact that it's a very uncommon name (but still old/classic, not a weird name) makes me believe she "stole" it.

I know the fault is mine for sharing in the first place, but it was hard not to feel a jab in the heart when I heard the name for the first time. She spelled it slightly different but it is pronounced exactly the same. I didn't confront her but man did it sting in my baby-longing heart.

I no longer work there, but I did for about a year after her baby arrived.

Thing is I love this name, it was a name from my heart really. But having someone else reference their kid as that name over and over it just feels so weird naming my own that name. I love names that are somewhat unique (but not weird, I'm not that tragedeigh mom!) and probably couldn't name a baby something really common. It's like I want them to have their "own" name that no one else has, at least not someone we know.

Did this happen to anyone else? I wonder if it's possible to overcome this feeling or if the name is "ruined" forever for me? It feels like it's ruined but I don't want it to be.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
KateDelRick · 19/10/2024 18:15

What can I say. I have form for name theft.

viques · 19/10/2024 18:25

KateDelRick · 19/10/2024 18:15

What can I say. I have form for name theft.

Clearly!

KateDelRick · 19/10/2024 18:27

viques · 19/10/2024 18:25

Clearly!

😂

Carnationstreet7 · 19/10/2024 18:29

Total non issue

MeowCatPleaseMeowBack · 19/10/2024 18:38

TooBigForMyBoots · 19/10/2024 14:15

I'm so sorry to hear that.ThanksSad

I dealt with it by conducting a campaign of terror and intimidation against the thief. Eventually she left the county. I'm not proud of myself but it had to be done.

Do you think something like that could help you @MeowCatPleaseMeowBack?

I kidnapped the filthy bitch and made her eat her own feet but can anything repay what she did to me?

OVienna · 19/10/2024 19:03

KateDelRick · 19/10/2024 17:58

😂

That thread should have been in classics

OVienna · 19/10/2024 19:19

Seasmoke · 19/10/2024 13:24

my guess is that she overheard us because a few months later she announces she is pregnant and guess what name her baby got? My name!
Our builder called his son after my DH ( unusual spelling and all) because he heard it and liked it. My DH tore down our new Conservatory in the end and had it rebuilt by someone too old to have children. So traumatised was he about the name stealing. He cried every teatime.

🤣

TheShellBeach · 19/10/2024 19:22

OVienna · 19/10/2024 19:03

That thread should have been in classics

Yes! It was hysterically funny.

Especially when the OP jumped the shark by saying that some of the suggestions other people made were chavvy.

Grin
SunriseMonsters · 19/10/2024 20:06

Was it Luckey-Buoy?

But you can't! I am aghast. This is my son's name and totally UNIQUE, and has a very special meaning to us because we conceived him during a midnight swim. I won't go into details.

How dare anybody copy it? Appropriation! Tell me where they live and I will hunt them down. I am in shock. I don't think I'll ever recover.

SunriseMonsters · 19/10/2024 20:13

Unfortunately another co-worker where closer than I though, she walked in just seconds later, my guess is that she overheard us because a few months later she announces she is pregnant and guess what name her baby got? My name!

So the evil barely known acquaintance didn't even actually name her child a word that she may or may or not heard you utter in a barely audible nearby conversation, that you happened to like... she actually named her baby after YOU!

One should take such a thing as a compliment, really.

Jen880 · 19/10/2024 20:32

SunriseMonsters · 19/10/2024 20:06

Was it Luckey-Buoy?

But you can't! I am aghast. This is my son's name and totally UNIQUE, and has a very special meaning to us because we conceived him during a midnight swim. I won't go into details.

How dare anybody copy it? Appropriation! Tell me where they live and I will hunt them down. I am in shock. I don't think I'll ever recover.

slim shady eminem GIF

Would the Real Author/Namer of Lucky Buoy please stand up?

I often dream they are still here, among us on the name threads of Mumsnet.

TheBirdintheCave · 19/10/2024 21:36

Neveragain35 · 19/10/2024 12:43

Both my DC have relatively uncommon names, I get really excited when I meet another one!

Yeah mine too!

My husband and I went out to a museum for my birthday and took our baby daughter with us. The ticket lady asked what her name was and nearly fell over when I said Marcella. Turns out her daughter is also Marcella and she hasn't met another one for 23 years!

We spent about ten minutes geeking out over how much we love the name and how cool/unlikely it is to have met another considering how rare it is in the UK 😂

TheShellBeach · 20/10/2024 10:56

Jen880 · 19/10/2024 20:32

Would the Real Author/Namer of Lucky Buoy please stand up?

I often dream they are still here, among us on the name threads of Mumsnet.

She spelled it "Luckey" allegedly so that people didn't think she meant "lucky".

🤣🤣🤣

Jen880 · 20/10/2024 11:33

TheShellBeach · 20/10/2024 10:56

She spelled it "Luckey" allegedly so that people didn't think she meant "lucky".

🤣🤣🤣

How could I forget... 😂

TheShellBeach · 20/10/2024 11:43

I'm going to ask MNHQ to reinstate that thread.

Entertherubicon · 20/10/2024 11:48

People like the OP and Luckey buoy mum shouldn't be allowed to continue the gene pool. People like this need to be bred out for their common name choices! Kidding - not!

TheShellBeach · 20/10/2024 11:56

Entertherubicon · 20/10/2024 11:48

People like the OP and Luckey buoy mum shouldn't be allowed to continue the gene pool. People like this need to be bred out for their common name choices! Kidding - not!

Nooooo!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5191512-luckey-buoy-thread

Luckey-Buoy thread | Mumsnet

Hello MN and I don't know if you ever reinstate deleted threads, but the 2022 thread about a baby who was about to be named Luckey-Buoy should have go...

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5191512-luckey-buoy-thread

Fruhstuck · 20/10/2024 12:07

Sorry to be blunt but you are being ridiculous. You would soon get used to that name meaning your daughter rather than the other child. Teachers have this problem all the time - unless they choose a completely unique name for their child, they will nearly always have taught a child with the same name as their own child, and to begin with will associate the name with past students. But that soon passes as the new association becomes stronger.

Unless the name you mentioned is a one-off, it’s quite possible that your colleague didn’t hear it at all and just liked it herself. Even if she did hear it and thought "Ooh, that’s a nice name, I’d like to call my baby that!", so what? It’s not even as if the children are likely to meet, but did you think your child would never ever meet anyone else with the same name?

I feel sorry for any child landed with a name so "unusual" (outlandish) that people won’t be familiar with it or know how to spell it. Their parents are setting them up for a lifetime of annoyance.

viques · 20/10/2024 12:46

Anyone else having thoughts of the ex co worker frantically working out her fertile days, highlighting them on the calendar in scarlet before dragging her other half into the bedroom and in the throes of passion shouting out “Give it your all big boy , tonight we are making ( insert name that has caused all the upset) and devil take @bee2121 and her imaginary baby, we are going to get there first and claim the glory of her unique name.”

New posts on this thread. Refresh page