February 28, 2024 at 3:49 pm

Father Broke Family Tradition And Didn’t Name His Son After Himself. Now His Family Is Upset And He Doesn’t Know How To Feel.

by Matthew Gilligan

Source: Reddit/AITA/Unsplash/@jakobowens1

Some people sure do get worked up about names.

Yeah, that’s right, NAMES.

And this story from Reddit’s “Am I the *******?” page is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.

So did this guy do the wrong thing?

Let’s see what the heck is going on here…

AITA for refusing to name my son after me?

“My family have a tradition going back six generations in which the first-born son is named William. My father and I go by our middle names to avoid confusion, whilst my grandfather is known as Bill.

It’s not that I don’t like tradition, it’s just that my middle name, James, is the name I’ve always been known by and I never liked being made fun of when I was younger, especially at school when a new teacher would inevitably call out my actual first name when taking the register, and all of the other kids would laugh at me for trying to explain that I didn’t want to be called that.

It is what it is…

Now I am an adult, I know that if I wanted to, I could legally change my name by deed poll, but I guess I’ve just got used to the inconvenience.

At this stage of my life, it’s more of a conversation starter if anything else.

I also understand that of all of the things to be made fun of when younger, it’s pretty low down on the list and some people would just say I’m being petty.

Anyway, I have recently become a father to a beautiful baby boy and to my family’s horror, we have named him Ezra, which both me and my partner love.

His family isn’t happy…

We’ve still given him the middle name William, but this is not good enough for my family who have practically not acknowledged my sons name at all.

He’s three months old now and whenever they interact with him, he’s referred to as “Junior or “the child”.

He has his reasons.

All I really want for Ezra is for him to feel like he’s his own person when he grows up, to not feel like there is some kind of burden on him to live up to any expectations we might have for him like I suppose I’ve always felt somewhat, and to feel comfortable knowing that any decisions he makes, me and his mum will always support him.

This is what makes me stand by our decision, but I can’t help but feel guilt for breaking the tradition, and that there is now a slight rift between me and my family, especially my dad.

AITA for not naming my son William?”

Check out what folks said on Reddit.

One person said he’s NTA and laid out some further steps.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Another individual said he should stand his ground.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This Reddit user said their brother was in a similar situation.

Source: Reddit/AITA

This person said he’s NTA at all.

Source: Reddit/AITA

Sounds like he’s not budging.

Hey, to each their own, right?

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.