Names

<p>The question of what to name your kids can be a controversial one. Because on the one hand, props for creativity! There are plenty of Laurens and Matts already&mdash;both perfectly nice names, but why not add a little diversity to the world? On the other hand, saddling a child with a name that is too &quot;weird&quot; can make them more susceptible to being bullied, not to mention a lifetime of people making stupid jokes about their names (something that Laurens and Matts don&#39;t have to deal with).</p><h2>One woman, who is expecting twins, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/r7ywoh/aita_for_not_giving_my_babies_normal_names/" target="_blank">asked</a> Reddit to weigh in on whether she and her fianc&eacute; are &quot;a**holes&quot; for wanting to give their sons &quot;uncommon&quot; baby names, against her in-laws&#39; wishes.</h2><p>She writes:</p><blockquote> <p>I&rsquo;m 24f and my fianc&eacute; is 27m. We&rsquo;re currently expecting twin boys after trying for a year. We&rsquo;ve never been more happy.</p> <p>My family are non-religious and his are practicing catholics. He is not. I&rsquo;m 7 months along and his family are asking what we&rsquo;re thinking of naming them. We&rsquo;ve already decided on their names. Phoenix Grey and Griffin Dean.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>The names she and her husband chose are &quot;Phoenix Grey&quot; and &quot;Griffin Dean&quot; after mythical creatures. Apparently, her in-laws hate them.</h2><blockquote> <p>We&rsquo;ve never been ones for the run of the mill names. My name is out of the ordinary and my fianc&eacute; goes by his middle name Cassius. The idea of calling our children, not that these names are wrong or bad, Daniel or Thomas or Samuel doesn&rsquo;t sit right with us. It isn&rsquo;t us.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>My in laws are furious. One: because they&rsquo;re not traditional names, two: do not bare any affiliation to family members; my fianc&eacute; is named after his grandfather, his sister is named after his aunt etc, and three: because they&rsquo;re mythical creatures from other cultures. That is apparently what they dislike the most.</p> </blockquote><h2>The couple also have a girl&#39;s name picked out for a future child: &quot;Valkyrie Lee.&quot;</h2><blockquote> <p>But we really love the names. We already have a girls name picked out too, Valkyrie Lee to pay homage to my Danish grandparents that cared for me when I was a teen. We actually came up with this name before I even got pregnant. We like that all the names match in that they are powerful beings that can fly. We want to make our children feel powerful too.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>Her father-in-law thinks they should give them family names as first names, and use their non-traditional choices as middle names.</h2><blockquote> <p>My FIL says to use them as middle names and give them family names as first names but we are already in love with the full names we&rsquo;ve given them. We&rsquo;ve even started calling them by them and bought embroidered blankets and clothes.</p> </blockquote><h2>And her mother-in-law thinks she&#39;s being &quot;selfish,&quot; especially since these will be her MIL&#39;s first grandchildren.</h2><blockquote> <p>As these are the first babies of both families, my MIL thinks I&rsquo;m being selfish by not giving them traditional family names and that not doing so will set a bad precedent for the others.</p> <p>Am I being too stubborn?</p> </blockquote><p>But she and her fianc&eacute; love the names they chose and don&#39;t want to give in to the family pressure. So she asked the internet if she&#39;s being &quot;too stubborn.&quot;</p><h2>Reactions were mixed. The majority of commenters felt that &quot;everyone sucks here.&quot;</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/firefly232/">irefly232</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>ESH. Please at least give your kids normal middle names that they can switch to if they prefer. Valkyrie has some really negative undertones to me as a European, it does not connote power or strength in any positive way.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>On the other hand, your in laws need to stop complaining, its not their decision and family names are not something that should be forced onto the next generation.</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Lesley82/">Lesley82</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>ESH. The in-laws are being absurd thinking they can pick out your babies names.</p> <p>You suck for picking names straight out of Harry Potter creature land. Those poor kids.</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/KlienKravis44/">KlienKravis44</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>valkyrie? griffin? phoenix? they will be made fun of by everyone. ESH</p> </blockquote><p> </p><p>And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/justlookinaround20/">justlookinaround20</a> writes:<button></button></p><blockquote> <p>ESH. Your inlaws don&#39;t get to name your children. But they will always have an opinion, listen to them and be courtous. Then name your children what you want.</p> <p>Word of caution from a parent who gave her a child a unique name. DON&#39;T DO IT! It&#39;s not cute or fun for them spending their entire existence explaining a stupid name. I don&#39;t have many regrets in life, but that childs name is probably my biggest. I am making it my mission for the rest of my life to warn parents everywhere of the stupidity of doing this to an innocent child.</p> <p>Get a dog and give it a stupid name.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>A lot of people really, really hate the names she chose.</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/SpecialsSchedule/">SpecialsSchedule</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>phoenix and griffin. we get it lady you like magical creatures</p> </blockquote><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/bigmoneybaby120/">bigmoneybaby120</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>Man them names f**kin goofy ah f**k</p> </blockquote><h2>And some people think she and her fianc&eacute; are a**holes for choosing them.</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Dookwithanegg/">Dookwithanegg</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>YTA it&#39;s you children who will have to suffer your choice to name them after X-Men characters.</p> <p>You don&#39;t have to pick a family name or even a top 10 common name but they deserve better than this.</p> </blockquote><h2>But many defended the couple&#39;s right to give their kids &quot;uncommon names.&quot;</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/elevatormusicjams/">elevatormusicjams</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>I have an uncommon name because my parents are Indian, and the spelling of my name is also not the most common spelling of this name. I absolutely love my name, even despite white people&#39;s inabilities to say it or spell it correctly. I just don&#39;t care - it is my name and I own it. It&#39;s imbued with important meaning to my family.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I can&#39;t help but notice that when people say &quot;normal name&quot; what they mean is something either Biblical or White. I personally hate all so-called normal western names. They are common, boring, uncreative, and people rarely even care about the meaning.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>There&#39;s nothing wrong with going against the grain. If OPs children decide they hate their names, they can decide to go by something else. It&#39;s ultimately up to them.</p> </blockquote><h2>Some people hate the names but still think it&#39;s her and her fianc&eacute;&#39;s decision.</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Orangewindsock/">Orangewindsock</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p><span style="font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Droid Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.02em;">I think your proposed names are absolutely f**king awful, but it&rsquo;s not up to me just like it&rsquo;s not up to the grandparents. As long as you&rsquo;re sure they won&rsquo;t give rise to bullying by other kids or you won&rsquo;t be upset if the children themselves grow up and wish to choose less &ldquo;interesting&rdquo; names for themselves it&rsquo;s all good.</span></p> <p>You do you. NTA!</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Accomplished-Cheek59/">Accomplished-Cheek59</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p><span style="font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Droid Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem; letter-spacing: -0.02em;">NTA.</span> Your children, your choice.</p> <p>I have an exceptionally unique name, and to be honest, I&rsquo;ve hated it all my life. My parents chose it out of love, but it&rsquo;s been a pain to manage. No one call spell it and I was bullied mercilessly for it. (I&rsquo;m also incredibly easy to track online because of how unique my name is - which isn&rsquo;t something my parents realise would be an issue as I was born before the internet became so big.) So you should definitely choose names you love, with no input from anyone else, but please also consider the impact on your child down the line.</p> </blockquote><h2>And some support her decision to name her sons Phoenix and Griffin, but drew the line at &quot;Valkyrie.&quot;</h2><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/yourlittlebirdie/">yourlittlebirdie</a> writes:</p><blockquote> <p>NTA - it&#39;s not their business - but please please don&#39;t name your kid Valkyrie.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>Well, that settles it: nobody can agree on anything except that the name Valkyrie really sucks!</p><p>Also, am I the only person who loves the name Phoenix?? Am I the a**hole???</p><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

Mom-to-be asks if she’s wrong to give twins ‘uncommon’ names against in-laws' wishes.

The question of what to name your kids can be a controversial one. Because on the one hand, props for creativity! There are plenty of Laurens and Matts already&mdash;both perfectly nice names, but why not add a little diversity to the world? On the other hand, saddling a child with a name that is too &quot;weird&quot; can make them more susceptible to being bullied, not to mention a lifetime of people making stupid jokes about their names (something that Laurens and Matts don&#39;t have to deal with).One woman, who is expecting twins, asked Reddit to weigh in on whether she and her fianc&eacute; are &quot;a**holes&quot; for wanting to give their sons &quot;uncommon&quot; baby names, against her in-laws&#39; wishes.She writes: I&rsquo;m 24f and my fianc&eacute; is 27m. We&rsquo;re currently expecting twin boys after trying for a year. We&rsquo;ve never been more happy. My family are non-religious and his are practicing catholics. He is not. I&rsquo;m 7 months along and his family are asking what we&rsquo;re thinking of naming them. We&rsquo;ve already decided on their names. Phoenix Grey and Griffin Dean. The names she and her husband chose are &quot;Phoenix Grey&quot; and &quot;Griffin Dean&quot; after mythical creatures. Apparently, her in-laws hate them. We&rsquo;ve never been ones for the run of the mill names. My name is out of the ordinary and my fianc&eacute; goes by his middle name Cassius. The idea of calling our children, not that these names are wrong or bad, Daniel or Thomas or Samuel doesn&rsquo;t sit right with us. It isn&rsquo;t us.  My in laws are furious. One: because they&rsquo;re not traditional names, two: do not bare any affiliation to family members; my fianc&eacute; is named after his grandfather, his sister is named after his aunt etc, and three: because they&rsquo;re mythical creatures from other cultures. That is apparently what they dislike the most. The couple also have a girl&#39;s name picked out for a future child: &quot;Valkyrie Lee.&quot; But we really love the names. We already have a girls name picked out too, Valkyrie Lee to pay homage to my Danish grandparents that cared for me when I was a teen. We actually came up with this name before I even got pregnant. We like that all the names match in that they are powerful beings that can fly. We want to make our children feel powerful too. Her father-in-law thinks they should give them family names as first names, and use their non-traditional choices as middle names. My FIL says to use them as middle names and give them family names as first names but we are already in love with the full names we&rsquo;ve given them. We&rsquo;ve even started calling them by them and bought embroidered blankets and clothes. And her mother-in-law thinks she&#39;s being &quot;selfish,&quot; especially since these will be her MIL&#39;s first grandchildren. As these are the first babies of both families, my MIL thinks I&rsquo;m being selfish by not giving them traditional family names and that not doing so will set a bad precedent for the others. Am I being too stubborn? But she and her fianc&eacute; love the names they chose and don&#39;t want to give in to the family pressure. So she asked the internet if she&#39;s being &quot;too stubborn.&quot;Reactions were mixed. The majority of commenters felt that &quot;everyone sucks here.&quot;irefly232 writes: ESH. Please at least give your kids normal middle names that they can switch to if they prefer. Valkyrie has some really negative undertones to me as a European, it does not connote power or strength in any positive way.  On the other hand, your in laws need to stop complaining, its not their decision and family names are not something that should be forced onto the next generation. Lesley82 writes: ESH. The in-laws are being absurd thinking they can pick out your babies names. You suck for picking names straight out of Harry Potter creature land. Those poor kids. KlienKravis44 writes: valkyrie? griffin? phoenix? they will be made fun of by everyone. ESH  And justlookinaround20 writes: ESH. Your inlaws don&#39;t get to name your children. But they will always have an opinion, listen to them and be courtous. Then name your children what you want. Word of caution from a parent who gave her a child a unique name. DON&#39;T DO IT! It&#39;s not cute or fun for them spending their entire existence explaining a stupid name. I don&#39;t have many regrets in life, but that childs name is probably my biggest. I am making it my mission for the rest of my life to warn parents everywhere of the stupidity of doing this to an innocent child. Get a dog and give it a stupid name. A lot of people really, really hate the names she chose.SpecialsSchedule writes: phoenix and griffin. we get it lady you like magical creatures bigmoneybaby120 writes: Man them names f**kin goofy ah f**k And some people think she and her fianc&eacute; are a**holes for choosing them.Dookwithanegg writes: YTA it&#39;s you children who will have to suffer your choice to name them after X-Men characters. You don&#39;t have to pick a family name or even a top 10 common name but they deserve better than this. But many defended the couple&#39;s right to give their kids &quot;uncommon names.&quot;elevatormusicjams writes: I have an uncommon name because my parents are Indian, and the spelling of my name is also not the most common spelling of this name. I absolutely love my name, even despite white people&#39;s inabilities to say it or spell it correctly. I just don&#39;t care - it is my name and I own it. It&#39;s imbued with important meaning to my family.  I can&#39;t help but notice that when people say &quot;normal name&quot; what they mean is something either Biblical or White. I personally hate all so-called normal western names. They are common, boring, uncreative, and people rarely even care about the meaning.  There&#39;s nothing wrong with going against the grain. If OPs children decide they hate their names, they can decide to go by something else. It&#39;s ultimately up to them. Some people hate the names but still think it&#39;s her and her fianc&eacute;&#39;s decision.Orangewindsock writes: I think your proposed names are absolutely f**king awful, but it&rsquo;s not up to me just like it&rsquo;s not up to the grandparents. As long as you&rsquo;re sure they won&rsquo;t give rise to bullying by other kids or you won&rsquo;t be upset if the children themselves grow up and wish to choose less &ldquo;interesting&rdquo; names for themselves it&rsquo;s all good. You do you. NTA! Accomplished-Cheek59 writes: NTA. Your children, your choice. I have an exceptionally unique name, and to be honest, I&rsquo;ve hated it all my life. My parents chose it out of love, but it&rsquo;s been a pain to manage. No one call spell it and I was bullied mercilessly for it. (I&rsquo;m also incredibly easy to track online because of how unique my name is - which isn&rsquo;t something my parents realise would be an issue as I was born before the internet became so big.) So you should definitely choose names you love, with no input from anyone else, but please also consider the impact on your child down the line. And some support her decision to name her sons Phoenix and Griffin, but drew the line at &quot;Valkyrie.&quot;yourlittlebirdie writes: NTA - it&#39;s not their business - but please please don&#39;t name your kid Valkyrie. Well, that settles it: nobody can agree on anything except that the name Valkyrie really sucks!Also, am I the only person who loves the name Phoenix?? Am I the a**hole???

The question of what to name your kids can be a controversial one. Because on the one hand, props for creativity! There are plenty of Laurens and Matts already&mdash;both perfectly nice names, but why not add a little diversity to the...