Naming a baby is one of those subjects that has this weird ability to get everyone upset, when really, they should be tremendously excited about the little human who will be fulfilling that name soon.
That said, parents are attempting to make names more and more unique, and some of those names can be really inconvenient for kids, stressed the “Am I the A**hole?” (AITA) subReddit.
Redditor No-Bite7711 and his future wife were interested in having “C” names throughout their entire family as a way to uniquely symbolize their being together.
But when the Original Poster (OP)’s family openly criticized the name they had for their future daughter, they questioned if they should have chosen another name.
He asked the sub:
“AITA for shutting down my sister’s opinion about our baby’s name?”
The OP and his future wife had picked out the name for their future daughter.
“I (25 Male) am expecting a daughter in November with my fiancee, Clair. My name is Cody, so we’d like to keep the C theme going.”
“If we have a boy later, he’ll be Charles after Clair’s grandpa.”
“My fiance and I really like the name Keelee, but we’re spelling it Ceelee or Cheelee with a hard C to keep the theme.”
The OP’s sister was adamantly against the name they had picked, however.
“The problem is my sister Angie (28 Female). She’s child-free, but she’s still very opinionated and judgemental about names.”
“She strongly prefers traditional common names like Emma and Madeline, and she’s been very p**sy about the names we picked.”
“Last weekend, we went to her and her boyfriend’s place for Memorial Day, and she took my fiance Clair aside, supposedly to ‘help cut vegetables.’ Actually, Angie just wanted to rip into my fiance with her name opinions.”
“She said we should forget about Cheelee. She said she’d already talked it over with our mom (Clair’s MIL), and ‘they’d decided that we should go with Catherine or Catie instead.'”
“Clair, of course, said h**l no to that and called me.”
A family feud began.
“I came in, and I told Angie we needed to go. In the car home, we called my mom, but she wouldn’t admit to ‘agreeing’ with Angie about belting the name.”
“I don’t think my family has veto power; it’s our choice as a couple, and they should mind their own business.”
“However, Angie has Asperger’s, and she’s the person in the family who says what everyone is thinking but no one will say. If multiple people in the family hate this name, I worry that the negative vibe will impact our daughter.”
“AITA (or, are we the a**holes) for not taking family feedback into consideration?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
Some said the OP was NTA but strongly advised against his name choice.
“NTA. But, please don’t do that to your kid.”
“It will be mispronounced by every single person that reads it until the day she dies (and probably after) just so that it could begin with a ‘C.'” – beentherealmostdid
“NTA for the name situation. It’s no one else’s business. For a litany of reasons, I always suggest keeping the name to yourself until it’s time to introduce Baby.”
“As a former high school (and college) teacher, Y-W-B-T-A (you would be the a**hole) if you saddle your child with a name that pretends that phonics work however you want them to work. Pick a different C name, please. Your child will never have a day’s rest with Ch pretending to be a K.”
“The most memorable of all the crazy names I came across was Kashmoney, pronounced koj-mō-nā. (I’m not a linguist, so please forgive my attempt here.) I taught her at the collegiate level. Thankfully, a coworker’s child had graduated with her and knew how to pronounce her name.” – mrspascal
“NTA, but OP, please, if you must go with Ceelee, maybe name the kid Cecilia or Cecille and use Ceelee as a nickname. Otherwise, they’re gonna spend their whole life trying to teach everyone around them how to spell and say their name.”
“As someone with a very slightly weird spelled name, with a slight variation on typical English pronunciation, it’s a little annoying, but for them, it will be absolutely horrible. That name looks like it’s pronounced ‘sea’-lee. Almost everyone will go wrong at first. Use a more typical name, and make Ceelee a nickname.” – bury-me-in-books
“NTA because it’s your kid, and you get to choose what to name them.”
“But honestly, if you go with Ceelee or Cheelee you are saddling your kid with some rough school years and a lifetime of hating her name. It will be a CONSTANT battle for her to get her name spelled and pronounced correctly. I say that as someone who has a name similar to that (including the c pronounced as a k).”
“Please choose a different name, think of your daughter, and save her the pain. Seriously.” – Ok_Whatever_Buddy
“NTA, but Callie Chloe Casey Camilla Carlie Cameron Clover Codie Carissa Cassandra Colleen Carlotta Carina Candice and more all have the sound you’re looking for without the old-fashioned flavor of Catherine/Catie but none of the issues that come with Ceelee/Cheelee.”
“Take some time to check out a baby book and see what else feels like someone you’ll grow up saying the name of, explaining the name of, and who will eventually be explaining to others how to say their name through every year of school and beyond.”
“No one is siding by with your sister, but we ARE siding with your baby on this one.” – sexywallposter
“ESH. Them for ganging up against you (they don’t get to name your kid). You for setting up your kid for a lifetime of having to correct anyone whoever calls her name. Don’t do that to her.”
“Nobody is ever going to pronounce Cheelee as Keeley or Ceelee as Keeley because CH = soft C and often, so does ce. When you try to mess with the rules of phonetics for the sake of having a ‘unique’ baby name, you’re fighting a losing battle because nobody else will have gotten the memo.”
“If you want Keeley or Keelee (too many e’s in my book), just go with the hard C sound.” – EvilWaterSprite
“ESH. Your sister is way out of line. It’s wild that she thinks she gets a say in this.”
“That said, please don’t be one of those people who takes a name but spells it slightly differently. I promise you that your daughter will be annoyed that her name is always pronounced/spelled wrong because you wanted to do a c letter-naming thing. If you want a c name pick one that is naturally spelled that way.”
“English is weird and you can’t just switch k and c in all scenarios. Even knowing what you were doing I still read Ceelee as Seelee in my head. And ch is not even close to a k sound.” – exhauta
But others found the name offensive enough to call the OP the AH.
“YTA. Cheelee is a stupid name. You get to pick your kid’s name, but why would you set up that child for bullying? Picture that name on a resume. It’s ridiculous.” – LowBalance4404
“I say this not as someone intent on attacking you, but as my kneejerk reaction that will be shared by thousands of strangers in the future whom your hypothetical daughter will have to interact with:”
“‘Cheelee’ is a f**king awful nonsense name. No one will pronounce or spell it correctly in her entire life. You know what sounds the letters of the alphabet make. Get real.”
“You’re not naming a baby, you’re naming a person. Be an adult and give her a name that’s f**king spelled correctly.”
“YTA.” – myBOfuelsmissiles
“YTA. I read Cheelee as similar to Chilli. Although parents have the final decision, if you are after genuine feedback, I think it will be a name that causes problems for your daughter.”
“People will not be able to spell or pronounce her name correctly, and she (or you) will likely be judged by others. I do think Angie’s ultimately doing you a favor here, even if she may not be approaching it how you would like.”
“PS. If I were you, I’d go with Claudia. It’s not common at all but a beautiful name that others will be able to pronounce.” – cloudiedayz
“YTA for naming your child Ceelee or Cheelee. Think of how long she’ll be correcting people on how to spell and pronounce her name constantly.”
“It’ll be a constant battle for her unless she either changes her name or goes by her middle name and that’s not even mentioning the potential bulling and teasing from her peers!”
“You’re naming a person; remember that.” – AnearVimesExperience
“Imagine being such a narcissistic individual that you would give your child this stupid f**king name just so you can keep a ‘c’ theme.”
“Newsflash, OP. This is a whole human who is, in fact, separate from you and your fiancé. She’s not just an extension of yourselves, so stop acting like she is.”
“You and your fiancé are seriously acting like teen parents with this bulls**t. Give the poor kid a normal name.”
“YTA.” – derfel_cadern
“ESH. No, they don’t get veto power, but you are not naming a baby. You’re naming a future adult who has to put that name on job applications forever.”
“Even Cayse or however you spelled Chase, is going to come off on a job application as redneck and poor.”
“Speaking as a mom of boys with uncommon but correctly spelled names (you want something uncommon), do that. Want something unique? You can do that without the spellings that no one will ever get.”
“Don’t bast**dize a name to fit an ego-centric naming theme. What’s more important, your theme or how HR (Human Resources) will think of them when they see their application?” – ReadyAimLaunch
The subReddit could agree that this was ultimately up to the OP and his wife, but they also wanted to remind the couple that they were naming a human, not a cute little pet or a character in a book.
As much as they might love the idea of having a theme running through their family’s list of names, they needed to be mindful of the repercussions that could occur by making all the names fit.