Baby names are pretty subjective. What one person thinks is classic and pretty might come off as old and dowdy to someone else. Likewise, a cool or trendy name could mean different things to different people. That certainly seems to be the case in one story on Reddit, told by an anonymous woman who's trying to make her sister see that her favorite baby name is … well, kinda weird. And maybe even a little unfair to the kid.
The story was shared on Thursday in the popular subreddit "Am I the A--hole?"
In it, u/No_Marzipan_8558 explains that her sister is "obsessed" with the Peacock show Yellowstone, which stars Kevin Costner and follows a family of ranchers living in Montana.
Because of this, her sister wants to name her unborn son after the show in some way. But instead of choosing a character name, she decided to go with something a little more unique.
So, she's naming her baby Cowboy.
(Yep — cowboy.)
Apparently, her husband has already agreed to it
But according to the Reddit poster, that's not necessarily because he likes the name. Instead, she claims that her brother-in-law is "willing to do anything" to make her sister happy — even if that means naming his kid something he'll live to regret.
"I know I should have kept my mouth shut," the poster explained, adding that, "It's not my circus or my monkey."
But she insists that she's just thinking about her nephew's future.
"I just know the absolute sh-t that kid will go through," she concluded.
After giving it some thought, the woman broached things with her sister
Instead of being harsh, she tried to discuss it diplomatically.
"I told her to consider that she was naming a person who would eventually be an adult," the Redditor shared.
After all, she has some experience in this area, since her own parents gave her the middle name "Danger," which gave her a complex for years.
Unfortunately, the chat didn't go over too well
Her sister got offended, things were misinterpreted, and now she doesn't know what to do.
"She thinks I'm an asshole for calling her name choice stupid," the poster shared. "I think I'm trying to save him from a lifetime of bullying until he legally changes his name."
A wave of responses soon flooded the post
And, as the poster soon learned, most people appeared to agree with her.
"NTA (Not the A–hole)," one person declared. "Cowboy is a stupid name."
"Imagine being an employer and getting a resume submitted by Cowboy Johnson," joked another.
"I'm surprised she didn't want to throw some flair on the spelling," said someone else. "Maybe like Khaowbhoy."
Some people used the post as an opportunity to vent about "made-up" names in general
"I'm so f-cking tired of these crunchy granola moms making the dumbest spelling or 'unique' baby names," one person went off. "If you want a rare name just go back 50+ decades."
"As a veteran teacher, I thought I had heard all the awful names," said another. "Nope, this one makes it to the top 5."
"Also a teacher, you're 100% correct," added someone else. "I feel badly for the child named 'Princess' every time they have to announce her over the loudspeaker."
In fact, a lot of similarly "terrible" names were shared in the comments section — including "Absidy", "Stove," and even a girl named "Crystal Shanda Leer."
While some people encouraged the poster to speak to her sister again, explaining that her son would likely have a hard time being taken seriously as an adult, others said she'd done her part.
"You tried," one Redditor told her. "Poor kid’s gonna get hell in high school, college and rest of his life."
"To be born and have a name chosen for you and it be Cowboy," lamented someone else. "Ugh."
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
