Name frustration with my BFF's baby.

[Anonymous]

Assuming this isn't a troll, I will never cease to be amazed by the unique and specific ways people on DCUM can figure out to avoid MINDING THEIR OWN DAMN BUSINESS. It's like a gift.

Go have your own freaking baby, OP. Name them whatever you want. No one owes you anything.

[Anonymous]

Op here: she’s not getting back together with dad by any stretch, but before, they were 100% no contact. At least now they’re talking. No idea if he’s going to actually be in the baby’s life or not. She was the breadwinner and he was always a checked out husband. I truly think he didn’t want a baby.

[Anonymous]

Maybe it will help them get a job on NPR.

[Anonymous]

OP is right. Kids can be cruel and may make fun of the kid's name. And no doubt that the teachers will continuously mispell and mispronounce his name as he grows up. It will definitely be a hassle for him. One that parents don't often realize. My kids have ethnic name based on our heritage. Although they go by more American names, their birth certificate says otherwise. They hate it as their teachers always mispronounce and mispell their names. Living in DC doesn't make a difference.

[Anonymous]

I thought I was with you OP, until I very well knew that I was not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this will be unpopular, and I don't care

My BFF left her (now) ex husband at ~3 months pregnant. I let her move in with me and have basically been her "husband" throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. I've driven her to appointments, spent SO many nights listening to her cry, bought her baby stuff, threw her a baby shower, and helped her move everything out of her old house into her mother's house right before the baby came. This is all to say, I have personally sacrificed a lot for my friend and her baby.

Early on in the pregnancy she was toying with giving her child a name that honors her husbands subsaharan African heritage, but decided against it and decided on a very lovely name from her side of the family. Until she started to patch things up with her ex a few weeks before the due date. He wasn't at the birth and met the child a week later. She swore she wouldn't give the baby an ethnic name. She is a smart lady and knows that as a biracial child in America, the child will have a hard time with a name that is unpronounceable or difficult to spell.

That is, until the baby was born! She has decided on a 8 character African name with silent syllables, repeating consonants, and a long vowel where most people would say a short. It's difficult to spell, say, and doesn't look like how it sounds.

I know I have no skin in the game but I'm pretty upset for her child. On top of daddy issues, they are also going to have to deal with a difficult name.

Anyway, rant over

You're an idiot if you believe this.

-Mom of biracial child

Also, mom of a biracial child. I KNEW THIS WAS TRUE, so I intentionally gave my kids easy names, similar to John.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course OP is right, unfortunately.
Are you not aware that no one at Fox News and half the US senate properly pronounces the first names of the Vice President of the US or the newest Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And?

Cute? You conveniently cut off the bolded quote in this string.

This is true: as a biracial child in America, the child will have a hard time with a name that is unpronounceable or difficult to spell.
Evidence includes: no one at Fox News and half the US senate properly pronounces the first names of the Vice President of the US or the newest Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And yet they are Vice President of the US and a Justice of the Supreme Court.

This proves that everyone at Fox News and half the US Senate are idiots, not that a non-Anglo name guarantees a child a hard time.

Unfortunately thay is still 100s of millions of people vs your small child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP is right. Kids can be cruel and may make fun of the kid's name. And no doubt that the teachers will continuously mispell and mispronounce his name as he grows up. It will definitely be a hassle for him. One that parents don't often realize. My kids have ethnic name based on our heritage. Although they go by more American names, their birth certificate says otherwise. They hate it as their teachers always mispronounce and mispell their names. Living in DC doesn't make a difference.

Each and every one of you can f*ck right off with this racism disguised as concern, on the same board that gushes over Aoife and Caoimhe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it will help them get a job on NPR.

Lol!! Only if the child comes out with a truly obnoxious monotone smug voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this will be unpopular, and I don't care

My BFF left her (now) ex husband at ~3 months pregnant. I let her move in with me and have basically been her "husband" throughout the remainder of her pregnancy. I've driven her to appointments, spent SO many nights listening to her cry, bought her baby stuff, threw her a baby shower, and helped her move everything out of her old house into her mother's house right before the baby came. This is all to say, I have personally sacrificed a lot for my friend and her baby.

Early on in the pregnancy she was toying with giving her child a name that honors her husbands subsaharan African heritage, but decided against it and decided on a very lovely name from her side of the family. Until she started to patch things up with her ex a few weeks before the due date. He wasn't at the birth and met the child a week later. She swore she wouldn't give the baby an ethnic name. She is a smart lady and knows that as a biracial child in America, the child will have a hard time with a name that is unpronounceable or difficult to spell.

That is, until the baby was born! She has decided on a 8 character African name with silent syllables, repeating consonants, and a long vowel where most people would say a short. It's difficult to spell, say, and doesn't look like how it sounds.

I know I have no skin in the game but I'm pretty upset for her child. On top of daddy issues, they are also going to have to deal with a difficult name.

Anyway, rant over

You're an idiot if you believe this.

-Mom of biracial child

Also, mom of a biracial child. I KNEW THIS WAS TRUE, so I intentionally gave my kids easy names, similar to John.

If you believe that a name like John has a protective effect against racism, you are also an idiot. Ethnic names don't cause "hard times," racism does. Republicans weren't any nicer to an Anita than they were to a Ketanji. Assimilate harder!!! is not the answer, or if it is it's to a question no one should be asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course OP is right, unfortunately.
Are you not aware that no one at Fox News and half the US senate properly pronounces the first names of the Vice President of the US or the newest Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And?

Cute? You conveniently cut off the bolded quote in this string.

This is true: as a biracial child in America, the child will have a hard time with a name that is unpronounceable or difficult to spell.
Evidence includes: no one at Fox News and half the US senate properly pronounces the first names of the Vice President of the US or the newest Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And yet they are Vice President of the US and a Justice of the Supreme Court.

This proves that everyone at Fox News and half the US Senate are idiots, not that a non-Anglo name guarantees a child a hard time.

Unfortunately thay is still 100s of millions of people vs your small child.

[Anonymous]

I love to judge baby names but you should just remove yourself from this drama, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is right. Kids can be cruel and may make fun of the kid's name. And no doubt that the teachers will continuously mispell and mispronounce his name as he grows up. It will definitely be a hassle for him. One that parents don't often realize. My kids have ethnic name based on our heritage. Although they go by more American names, their birth certificate says otherwise. They hate it as their teachers always mispronounce and mispell their names. Living in DC doesn't make a difference.

Each and every one of you can f*ck right off with this racism disguised as concern, on the same board that gushes over Aoife and Caoimhe.

Yes, I agree that the many Black educational and medical professionals and kids who would constantly mispronounce my kids Middle Eastern names and joke about it were indeed racist. It wasn't just White people who were rude.

If my husband and I had a chance to redo, we would've changed their names on their birth certificate. I spent hours having to submit and redo paperwork to prove my kids identity because staff kept misspelling their names so their IDs and medical/educational records didn't match.

[Anonymous]

How is the stuff you did to help during her pregnancy at all relevant to her choice of baby names?

[Anonymous]

She’ll regret it when she’s trying to teach her 4 year old how to write her name