If you’ve ever thought at all about trends in baby names, you’ve noticed that they come in cycles. Many of the names that are trendy in one generation are considered passé for the next two. What to do, then, if you want to name your baby after a deceased loved one with a name that many consider out of style? One mom is facing this dilemma right now.
Actually, we should say that there’s no dilemma for Reddit user Hot-Boysenberry1392 — she is firm in her decision to name her baby boy Brian. But her boyfriend and his family are not fans of this name choice.
“My father, who I was extremely close with, passed away nearly 10 years ago,” she wrote on the AITA subreddit. “He single-handedly raised me and was literally my best friend until the day he passed. Even though 10 years have passed, I still miss him every day.”
Hot-Boysenberry1392 always knew that if she had a son, she’d name him after her beloved father, and when she was first dating her boyfriend, she told him this was a dealbreaker for her. In return, she agreed that if they had a daughter, he could choose her name. Well, they had a daughter first, and husband “Kyle” (not his real name) named her. Now that Hot-Boysenberry1392 is pregnant with a son, she’s moving forward with her plan.
“[Kyle] asked me why I was ordering stuff with the name Brian, and I said it was obviously because that is what we were naming him,” she wrote. “We had that conversation over 100 times at this point, so it’s not like he just randomly forgot. He said that he thought I was kidding and that we shouldn’t name our son Brian.”
Now Kyle has brought his family in to argue his side, and they, for some reason, think they can call her and talk her out of it by saying it’s an “ugly late-’90s/early 2000s” name. (Sorry, but we can think of worse names for babies in 2021.)
“They said Brian is a really bad name for kids today and he will be bullied,” she said. “I disagree, and even if he was, he is still named after the most special person I’ve ever met.”
Hot-Boysenberry1392 said she has no surviving family members on her side, so we find this particularly cruel of these people. Also, who are these children of the future bullying over the name “Brian”? They’re mean too, and we don’t like them getting a say in someone’s baby name. Neither do other Redditors.
“Your husband’s family shouldn’t have any input on your child’s name unless you ask for it,” HotAudience6110 wrote. “It’s between you and your husband. Given that he agreed to this during your relationship, and you respected his wishes with naming your daughter, he is really out of line. More so because he then tattled to his family about a disagreement that should stay between the two of you. Name your son after your father exactly the way you wanted to. Your husband is a huge AH.”
The boyfriend’s family does have a point that Brian is less common today than it was at its peak. According to the Social Security Administration, it ranked 247 in popularity in 2019 for babies born in the U.S. — far below its peak at #8 in the ’70s. But it’s also not rare. The name, of Celtic or Norse origin, is said to mean “strong,” as well as “he ascends.” That sounds like the name of a kid who won’t let some bullies bother him.
But in case they will, Redditors prepared Hot-Boysenberry1392 with how silly that will be.
“Hey everybody, LOOK!! It’s BRIIIIIAAANN! Hahahaha what an outdated late 90s to early 2000s name! He’s nothing like us MODERN kids with our MODERN names!” a-confused-princess joked.
“He’s gonna be so picked-on by Makennalyn and Trott,” allthecactifindahome added.
On a slightly horrifying note No_Proposal7628 warned: “Make sure that the hospital staff know to bring you the birth certificate first and not to give it to your husband. Otherwise he may fill it in with the name he wants,” to which several others chimed in with stories of this actually happening.
Please, everyone, stop having babies with the kind of partners who would do this to you, OK?
Maybe Kyle’s family would rather the baby get one of these unusual celebrity baby names.
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