Choosing a baby’s name is serious business, even if it can see as though some parents take it pretty lightly these days.

Names are important, and your child will have it for a long time, if not forever.

OP’s parents had a good friend with an unusual name.

Before I (31M) was born, my parents had a friend who was blind and had a very original name. A variation of an actual name, which is pretty rare in the literature of my country.

But, because it was very uncommon, people tended to think it was a mistake when they saw it in writing (the actual name is very close to another name) and scraped it to replace it with the “legit” name.

Honest mistake to be fair.

When they wanted to honor him by naming OP the same thing, they modified the spelling a bit.

My parents’ friend was an absolute treasure and gave me his name in his honor, but he advised my parents to do a little modification to it for my own sake.

So my father decided to add a silent letter at the end to make sure people didn’t  think it was a spelling mistake. That choice took place 2 months before i was born.

The recording office wasn’t sure they could use the name – and the mayor happened by as the deciding vote.

After i was born, my father came to the town hall in order to state that i was born that day (classic procedure here) and state my name.

When the agent saw my name he asked if it was “legal”. Keep in my that it was a very small town, pretty conservative.

My dad knew, sometimes officials tends to freak out a bit with new names but, as long as it’s not something like “Google or Kingslayer” they let it go.

The mayor of the town passed by and took a look on the paper and said that this name was not possible to my father and added something like, “If it is not on the calendar (christian name day tradition), I won’t sign this paper”.

As i said very conservative town.

At least, he thought it would be the deciding vote.

My dad responded: “It has to be on the calendar? Fine, my son will be named “Fête nationale” (counterpart of independence day or Thanksgiving).

The mayor: You can’t do that, you will destroy that child’s life…

My dad: Watch me

My dad proceeded to fill another paper with the name “Fête national” and handed it to the mayor who, according to my dad, sighed and signed the first paper.

Dad doesn’t always win, but this time he did.

Today, unfortunately, I don’t talk to my dad anymore for various reasons. But I really like that unique name.

So, thank you for that dad and thank you for that story you told every christmas before we took separate ways.

I bet Reddit has opinions about kids’ names!

Determined parents will find a way.

This person thought of another way around the rule, too.

See what I mean?

It wouldn’t be Reddit without Dad jokes in the comments.

Sometimes parents just know.

This is a tough one.

It’s the parents’ choice, but you want to protect the kid!

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.