# Do you feel that people who get proprietary over baby names have a point? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853 "2025-07-14T15:20:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/81 "2025-07-15T14:01:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Then my brother and his wife ruined everything by naming their kid Achilles. He should go in to wrestling. He would make a great heel. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/82 "2025-07-15T14:10:05Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Sounds like reality is closer to _Goodfellas_: Reality is that it’s different for each family or sometimes even different for each person. If you use > [@zbuzz](#): > > So they don’t do the “Tony Uncle Al,” “Tony Uncle Johnny,” “Tony Uncle Philly” thing from The Sopranos where it’s the boy’s name followed by how the cousins refer to the boy’s father? then how does Al refer to Johnny’s son Tony? There are different ways of distinguishing people in my own family - one cousin is always John Anthony while another is John and another is John, Sue’s son ( Can’t be Vinnie’s son because of course, there’s another Vinnie) There’s Paul Ann’s husband vs Paul Peggy’s husband. There’s Joe, Joey and Pepe as well as Jo Jo, Jo Ann ( for Josephine Ann) and Josie and the Stephanies are referred to by their full, married names in every conversation. It was fun the first time my husband met them. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/83 "2025-07-15T14:31:35Z")
My wife is Jewish, so we followed the tradition of picking names beginning with the same letter as names of deceased grandparents. There was actually enough overlap that everyone was covered. When our daughter came out as a trans woman she kept her first name, which can be masculine or feminine. She chose a middle name beginning with the same letter as the middle name of the grandparent she was named after. I agree with not telling anyone what you’re going to name your kid; we got talked out of the name we had originally picked for our son. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/84 "2025-07-15T14:49:49Z")
My BFF’s two adult stepchildren are Brayden and Nevaeh (don’t ask). Nevaeh is dating a man named … Brayden. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/85 "2025-07-15T14:51:34Z")
Yeah, the story that make me want to roll my eyes are the ones where the parents decide on a name (or two, if they don’t know the sex yet) and run around announcing it to everyone. Hire an artist to paint the name in a mural, order hand crocheted afghans with the name, on and on. And then a co-worker or someone’s cousin gives birth and Waaaa! they stole my name! Now little Geronimo won’t be so special!!! Heck. Just keep your damn mouth shut for a few months. Or come up with a decoy name if you have relatives who will just not leave the subject alone. Tell them you’re expecting little Cochise and then laugh yourself silly with three ransom pseudo relatives all decide that their baby just absolutely looked like a Cochise so what could they do? ---
**Author:** ![f.coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eada6e/32.png) [@f.coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/f.coli)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/86 "2025-07-15T15:06:43Z")
I guess that couple in the fine print really liked “I, Claudius.” So did I, but I didn’t use it as a source for a baby’s name. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/87 "2025-07-15T15:19:25Z")
Unlike James T. Kirk’s parents. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/88 "2025-07-15T15:54:50Z")
> [@f.coli](#): > > I guess that couple in the fine print really liked “I, Claudius.” Except, did they actually read the book? Or anything about the history of the early Roman Empire? Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/89 "2025-07-15T16:42:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “Paulie and his brothers had lots of sons and nephews. And almost all of them were named Peter or Paul. It was unbelievable. There must have been two dozen Peters and Pauls at the wedding. Plus, they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughters Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk.” That sounds about right. But yeah, let’s assume Grandpa is named Anthony. There’s Anthony Michael, Anthony Joseph, Anthony Frances, etc. But when you get past the firstborns, there’s lots of mixing and matching. My husband has 19 cousins and it took me forever to learn to tell them apart. It didn’t help when we lived out of state, every time I saw them they had aged a year or two which made everything more confusing. I know most of them now, some very well. But I still confuse Frankie and Frances. It didn’t help that some of them looked very similar. Just a fun thing to add: Right now there’s a pretty stark divide between those of us who have young children and those that don’t yet have children. Mostly because the ones with kids see each other regularly at kids’ birthday parties etc. I recently learned that the younger cohort refers to the older cohort as “The Boomers.” 😂 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/90 "2025-07-15T16:53:35Z")
I remember when I got pregnant, my father in law said, “Just so you know, I don’t expect you to name him after me.” My husband quickly said, “Oh, don’t worry, we never planned to.” The boy’s name was pretty much decided from the beginning and we referred to him by name even when in the womb, which some people found odd for some reason. Maybe out of some superstition that naming the baby before it’s born either increases the risk of miscarriage or makes it more traumatic. His name is not particularly unusual and not Italian. Maybe that’s why he’s blond like his mother. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/91 "2025-07-15T17:03:24Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > My BFF’s two adult stepchildren are Brayden and Nevaeh (don’t ask). What does Nedyarb mean? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/92 "2025-07-15T17:41:31Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > \*I did know a couple who named their children Octavian, Claudius, Tiberius, and Agrippina, which…what the every loving fuck is wrong with these people? I guess it is fortunate that they didn’t have more boys, and I can only wonder at what they would have named another girl: Livia? Messalina? Iphigenia. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/93 "2025-07-15T17:41:53Z")
Heaven, of course. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/94 "2025-07-15T18:16:54Z")
> [@Patx2](#): > > Well, yes, I thought that was **inferred**. Implied. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > We named our son after a space opera series protagonist and a famous humanitarian. Luke Schweitzer? > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think if as presented in the OP if it is a family member or a close friend and you come up with something creative like a really cool name or spelling like Nepis (Hittite for “sky”) or Madysen for Madison and they then take that for their own before your baby is born, yeah that’s BS and stealing your originality. Maybe if that’s a potential occurrence, wait until the baby is born before telling everyone the fascinating tale of how you arrived at the name and spelling of little Madysen Nepis. I mean, you gotta have _something_ to enthrall the crowd with at the official unveiling; you might as well save that. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/95 "2025-07-15T18:33:40Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@penultima\_thule](#): > > > > I have family who named their 4th son after their paternal grand father because their 1st son, also named after their paternal grand father, was predeceased > > A boy I grew up with was given the same name as a 7-year older brother who had died at an early age of leukemia. Iirc, they were both named after a predeceased relative, per Jewish custom. I always wondered how the parents referred to each of them between themselves. Billy One and Billy Two? Our first Jimmy and our second Jimmy? It was so sad, I couldn’t reconcile it. Kayla’s bff in HS was named Ebonya (pronounced “Ebony”) after an older sister Ebony (also pronounced “Ebony”), whose death as an infant preceded her (Ebonya’s) birth. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I had a Yorkie named Gracie. > > According to my DIL I ruined the name for her to name her baby girls. Lorita had a custom of giving her guide dogs a middle (if one didn’t come preinstalled). When she gave Glory the middle name _Autumn_, she was careful that Joan (her best friend, whom I later married) not find out. Joan had been plagued by issues with her reproductive system and couldn’t bear children, but when she thought that was still a possibility, her dream was to have a daughter to name Autumn. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/96 "2025-07-15T18:36:36Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Iphigenia. Incontinentia Incontinentia Buttocks ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/97 "2025-07-15T18:55:58Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > My BFF’s two adult stepchildren are Brayden and Nevaeh (don’t ask). No need. Kayla had a roommate also bearing a name that when spelled backwards, was “Heaven.” > [@HeyHomie](#): > > Nevaeh is dating a man named … Brayden. Best if they never make a Folger’s commercial… ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/98 "2025-07-15T19:04:56Z")
I could imagine being MILDLY irritated in some limited circumstances - with an emphasis on MILD. Pretty much limited to if it is my siblings or best friends using a name I used recently, especially if we would see them frequently. Basically, it isn’t as though there is a shortage of names to be chosen among. So I don’t understand why someone would choose one that is the same as used by a close friend/relative. Yes, if you have a name that is at all common and/or trendy, you will encounter others with the same name. But I’m not sure why folk who are close to each other would wish to intentionally create such a situation. Let the kid have just this teeny little bit of individuality in your closest circle. If I really loved some particular name and a close relative used it first, I might use it as a middle name. In practice, I assume it would be handled by the kids using different forms of the name. Kid 1 is Michael and Kid 2 is Mike. I can imagine feeling mildly irritated if I came up with some name that was meaningful to me and my spouse, and a sibling said, “Hey, I had never heard that name before. I think we’ll use it.” But, again, VERY mild. Different from what has been discussed, I have not encountered young parents-to-be staking a public claim to names. Instead, the last few times I found out someone was pregnant, they guarded the gender and potential names as though they were state secrets - only to be revealed in some particular - possibly elaborate - manner. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/99 "2025-07-15T19:12:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you decide to name a kid with a “clever” spelling like Madysen, then any grief that comes from that in any way is entirely your fault. Do parents who do this have any idea what it is like for a kindergarten teacher to get her roster of students for the fall, and have a Madasin, Madysen, Madicein, Maddisan, & a Maddyson, all in the same class, and know she will be expected to memorize each spelling, and which one goes with each child, or imperil herself by the parents’ wrath? I didn’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853/100 "2025-07-15T19:19:38Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Tell them you’re expecting little Cochise and then laugh yourself silly with three ransom pseudo relatives all decide that their baby just absolutely looked like a Cochise so what could they do? When we hadn’t settled on names, but people still asked us anyway, DH told people we were naming the baby Blue Harvest. Damned if some people didn’t believe us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-feel-that-people-who-get-proprietary-over-baby-names-have-a-point/1020853.md?page=6)