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For a lot of parents, especially if they’re from different cultures, finding something they both like is harder than they expected.

In this case, the mom’s family is from Russia, and she wants them to name the baby after his grandfather: Vladimir.

For him it’s a no-no. But he feels bad about it.

Read the full story below.

AITA for refusing to give my son Russian name?

My wife and I are expecting a son soon.

My last name is Phillips (ain’t a real one, just really similar to it) and I’ve always thought the baby’s first name should be something simple that sounds good with that last name.

The child would have to live with this name every day.

Recently, my wife told me that her family wants to name our son after her father.

His name is Vladimir.

Uh-oh… He’s not excited about it.

As she said they have a tradition of naming their first son after his maternal grandfather.

I told her that I respect her father, he’s a good man, but I don’t want to name our child Vladimir Phillips.

It sounds strange to me, not because of the name itself, but because of the combination.

She even agreed a bit. But after, said that I sound disrespectful to her family tradition.

Her mom also wrote to me saying I was disrespectful because the name is almost decided.

Things became tense and now he’s on the fence.

But for me, it ain’t. This is our son, not a shared family project.

I suggested choosing another name connected to her family.

In the end, we chose Michael because we both like it, it sounds good with our last name and they had Mikhail in their family (a grandgrand father).

Still now my wife from time to time reminds me that I broke an important tradition just so the name would sound american enough, so do their relatives.

They don’t bear a grudge on me, but I question now whether I was correct.

AITA?

I know another Vlad who would be a little too happy that babies are being named after him.

But what did Reddit think?

A reader shares their opinion.

Exactly.

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Something to consider.

Yup.

Another commenter chimes in.

An interesting take.

There isn’t a villain in this story, just people with different opinions. Two families with different expectations.

It’s important to consider family traditions since they can carry a lot of emotional weight, but creating new traditions can be a good thing as well.

If a tradition becomes an obligation, does it even mean what it was supposed to anymore?

At the end of the day, naming a child is ultimately both parents’ decision.

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Author

Mila Cardozo