Pregnant Mom Refuses To Change Her Baby's Name After Her Sister Steals It

Nov 24, 2021 by apost team

Having a baby is an incredible experience, and one of the aspects that expectant parents get very excited about is naming their child. Since a child's name will be with them for life, parents spend a lot of time and energy deciding on the perfect name.

But that means tensions can get heightened when we find out that other people in our lives have chosen the same name. Even if it's an accident, it can still be upsetting to some people. What's worse is when someone deliberately steals another person's baby name — even more so if the parents are particularly close. 

Unfortunately for one woman, her baby name was stolen — and it was by none other than her sister! The woman recently wrote to Reddit's AITA community to explain the story and ask whether she is in the wrong for refusing to change her son's name after her sister stole it from her. Let's take a look.

The woman explained that she and her husband were expecting their first baby, and when they first announced the pregnancy to their family after the first trimester, they revealed the baby's gender and name. 

Meanwhile, not long after they announced all of the details, the woman's sister and her husband found out they were having their third child together. This came after trying to conceive for around five years, but due to complications with her previous pregnancies, they had to do several rounds of IVF. The sister found out she was pregnant five weeks after the woman announced her pregnancy, so a little over a month after.

The woman explained that since she and her sister's babies were both boys, they "were both excited about the idea of (their) kids growing up to be best friends." She added that "everything was going pretty great until a few weeks ago." That's when the trouble about names started. The woman explained: 

"My mom decided to come to visit me to help me get the nursery ready, and mentioned that my sister had really liked the name my husband and I picked for our baby and that she had decided to take it. My mom then asked me what my husband and I would change our baby's name to since it would be too confusing to have two grandkids with the same name."

Taken aback, the woman said that they would not change their baby's name "since (their) hearts were set on it, and (they) wouldn't have announced it if (they) weren't sure." But that's when her sister called and claimed, "that since this was their miracle baby, she would get first dibs on whatever name they wanted." The woman held strong and "told her that she can name her baby whatever she wants, but that (they're) not changing (their) minds about (their) baby's name."

The entire situation led the woman to wonder if she was in the wrong for not changing her baby's name to appease her sister even though she had the name first. As usual, Reddit didn't hold back and let the woman know that she was absolutely not in the wrong in the situation.

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One person made a good point about whose baby will be born first. They said:

"She's free to name her child the same thing, but there will be consequences to that I'm sure... in the form of 'Uhh isn't your sister's kid named the same, and didn't that kid come out first?' People can do the math here. They're not stupid. Just stand your ground on the name, tell her she's free to name her child whatever she wishes... the situation will resolve itself."

Another pointed out that the sister had no attachment to the name until she heard it from the woman:

"There is no rational reason why you should be expected to give up the name you had already selected because she had a hard time conceiving. She only thought of it because you had picked it."

Generally, people agreed that since the woman's baby would be born first, the sister would have to deal with everyone wondering why she chose the same name instead of the other way around. Furthermore, plenty of people felt that the sister was being entitled and that it was odd the mother assumed the woman would just change her baby's name to appease the sister.

In an update to her post, the woman revealed that their baby boy arrived early and that they kept the name they wanted from the beginning. She said, "it suits him so well." She also said that the sister hadn't delivered her baby yet but "announced this week that she’s using the same name with a different spelling." 

What do you think about this story — should the woman have changed her baby's name even though she had it first? Let us know, then pass this on to those you know so they can answer too.