“You Can’t Use That”: Best Friend Explodes Over Pregnant Woman’s Choice of a Similar Baby Name

Matthew Gilligan

16 minutes ago

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Oh, boy, here we go…

If there’s one thing that gets parents-to-be all fired up, it’s what they’re going to name their kids.

Which is understandable!

They’re giving their babies a name they’ll have for life, so they want it to be special and meaningful.

But what happens when two best friends who are both about to have babies are fighting over baby names?

Well, let’s just say it isn’t pretty…

Check out what’s going on between these two ladies…

AITA for naming my son “Rome” when my best friend wants to name hers “Romero”?

“My best friend and I have been friends since high school. We’re both pregnant with boys, and our due dates are only about a week apart.

Several weeks ago, she told me that if she had a boy, she wanted to name him **Romero**. The male version of “Rosemary” her grandmas name.

Separately, my husband and I had been discussing names. I really liked the name **Jerome**, but my husband didn’t. His older son is named **Cairo**, and we liked the idea of continuing a place-name theme.

Eventually we landed on **Rome** as a compromise because it felt connected to Jerome while also fitting with Cairo.

You never know how people will react to certain things…

When I told my friend, she became extremely upset and said I had “stolen” her baby name. She called me selfish, accused me of lying about how my husband and I came up with the name.

I tried explaining that:

I’m not asking her to change her baby’s name.

She can absolutely still name her son Romero.

Rome and Romero are different names.

I liked Jerome before this and never hid that from her.

We chose Rome because it fit our family’s naming theme and because it was a compromise between me and my husband.

I also pointed out that people sometimes change baby names later in pregnancy anyway, and that even if we both keep the names, our children would have different names.

That didn’t help matters!

She responded:

“I’m not drinking this Kool-aid!!! Valid accusations have been made and will not be retracted. Thank you and I wish you the best of luck and health.”

Then she added:

“My other friend says buy a book of baby names and I agree.”

Now I’m heartbroken because this is someone I’ve considered my best friend for over 15 years.

So I’m looking for honest feedback:

Was I wrong to choose the name **Rome** after already knowing she liked **Romero**?

Does choosing a similar (but different) name count as “stealing” a baby name?

If you were in either of our shoes, how would you view this situation?

I’m genuinely open to hearing perspectives from both sides because right now I’m too emotionally involved to know if I’m missing something.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person had a lot to say.