Family Feuds·
THE NAME FEUD
A family feud over baby names escalates as a sister pressures for both the unborn son's name and the earlier daughter's, while boundaries crumble and tensions flare.
Keep the name secret or share it?
Be one of the first to vote.
The fight started with a baby name theft, and now it was headed for a second round.
Three years ago, the poster's sister was pregnant with her daughter at the same time her best friend was expecting a baby girl. For eight months, the sister complained that the two of them still did not have a name picked out. Then, right before birth, she suddenly did.
After the niece was born, the name was announced. That's when the blowup hit: the sister's BFF said it was the name she had chosen for her own baby, and the sister had used the same first and middle name. The sister brushed it off with a shrug and the line that still hung over the family: "first come first serve." In her view, her friend had time to find another name.
Now the sister is pregnant again, this time with a boy, and due just a few weeks before the poster, who is expecting her first child. The poster and her husband have already picked a name for their unborn son. And after what happened with the niece, the poster wants to keep it to herself.
The sister starts asking anyway. First she asks for the boy name. When that clearly goes nowhere, she pivots and asks for the girl name too, apparently assuming there must be a backup. The poster refuses and throws out a couple of fake names instead. The sister sees through them immediately.
The questions keep coming. Not just once, but over and over, including in front of family. The poster says she does not want her sister to do the same thing to her that she did to her BFF. In the family's telling, the poster is "holding something against her that she never did to me," but the poster is not willing to trust the situation.
Then the brother jumps in with a joke that turns the room. He says nobody should tell the "baby name thief" the name they've chosen. The sister gets upset and asks if that is really why the poster will not tell her.
Their mother sides with the sister, saying the poster should just share the name and that if the sister used it, "everyone would know my husband and I chose it first." The poster still refuses.
The sister keeps pressing, upset that she is being shut out of what she calls "name sharing being the fun part of pregnancy." The poster is left standing by the choice, wondering whether she is the asshole for refusing to give her sister the name of her unborn son.