Choosing a baby’s name is a monumental task, and for most couples, it’s not one they take on lightly.
It can be hurtful, annoying, and a whole host of other emotions when the people who love you don’t support your choice.
OP and her husband chose a different – but not weird – name for their son.
My husband and I welcomed our son into the world in November. We chose the name Reid for him after some searching.
Neither of us got our first choices but we love the name and it fits our son beautifully, we believe.
Her family tends toward tried-and-true baby names, and didn’t care for hers.
I knew my son’s name was a bit of a standout among my family. They like to reuse the same names that are popular and always seem to float pretty high in naming charts.
For boys the top three in our family are James, Benjamin and William. But Reid isn’t a weird or unheard of name.
My family were all very quiet when we announced the name and almost immediately they started dropping comments about “people making weird naming choices for their children” which never directly mentioned my husband and me but we both felt it was aimed at us.
Then they commented a few times how there’s nothing wrong with good, solid, classic names that everyone knows and loves and reuses.
But then they started to say Reid was an “odd choice” or that they had no idea where we found such a name, even though it’s in the top 400 choices.
My parents accused me of trying to be trendy and not thinking about my son’s future.
When she confronted them about it they were nasty.
I decided to confront my family without my husband present because I felt like it wasn’t fair to drag him into it more. I asked them what their problem was and why they were being so mean about the name.
They told me they HATED Reid and they felt it was a very unattractive name and we did not think it through at all. They told me we should have reconsidered and given him a real name, not something trendy that came up in the last 20-30 years.
They said we had so many beautiful names to choose from and we made a horrible decision. Then they said they had tried to gently show us the light but we ignored their efforts.
But OP gave as good as she got.
I told them if their comments about my son’s name were supposed to make me regret the choice then they failed, because all it did was make me regret them, because they were being rude and hurtful.
My family did not take my comment well and told me I was being rude and I was behaving like a child who can’t accept the truth.
AITA?
Does Reddit think she should have taken the high road? Let’s find out!
The top comment pointed out their choice was not “new” at all.
This person says it’s fine to go against tradition.
Oh yes this is much better. Ha!
This commenter thinks she could mess with them even more.
One person’s weird….
I don’t understand why anyone thinks they have a right to weigh in on a baby name.
Especially not one that’s already decided on.
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.