‘My sister-in-law is obsessed with stealing my children’s names for her own’

“This has always rubbed me and my husband the wrong way, but for the sake of his family we chose to just not make it a big deal,” Lana said. Then things got weirder. 

A woman has slammed her SIL for seemingly stealing her baby names for more than a decade. 

For as long as Lana* has known her sister-in-law, Erin*, the pair have generally got along quite well. 

Lana has been married to Greg* for nearly two decades, and shares four kids together, including a boy, Greg*, and a girl named Laura*, who goes by her middle name Kiara. Erin is married to Greg’s younger brother, and they have three kids of their own, with another on the way. 

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Lana can't help but feel upset by her SIL's action. Picture: iStock

Woman steals SIL’s baby names twice

“Me and Erin get along pretty well” Lana said on Reddit, explaining that their children usually hang out whenever their husbands are at work. 

For the most part, the two women are good friends, and their kids love each other. 

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However, for the last two years, there has been resentment growing in the back of Lana’s mind, and she couldn’t keep it any longer. 

Two years ago, Erin was giving birth to her third son and trying to figure out the perfect name for their child. 

“She told me that she wanted to name her son Greg after my husband,” Lana recalled. But there was a problem. “My son, who was two years old at the time, was already named Greg after my husband,” she said. 

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Naturally, Lana didn’t think having two kids named Greg would be a good idea, especially as they were only two years apar, so she gently explained it to her sister-in-law. 

“I expressed this to her, and she then acted like she understood,” she said. “But when her son was born she named him Greg.”

But the entire situation was quickly diffused when Erin’s husband, Josh*, assured Lana they would “only call their son by his middle name or by the initials of his first and middle name”, giving the couple a bit of relief. 

But that never happened. “For the past ten years, Erin and her kids have only called their son Greg,” Lana said. Later in the comments, she revealed that Erin also calls her son “Greg Jr”.  

To add to the confusion, Erin “also tries to get her son and my husband to be really close, going as far as to just bring him over to the house by himself a lot, even when she knows my husband and son are trying to spend quality time together”.

“This has always rubbed me and my husband the wrong way but for the sake of his family we chose to just not make it a big deal,” she said. 

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But that was ten years ago, and since Erin was expecting another baby - this time a daughter - they thought that would be the end of it. 

She and Lana were sitting in the living room, chatting about the new baby, when Erin began discussing potential baby names. However, she didn’t have a long list of possible choices, she was stuck on one in particular. 

“When me and Jane were talking about girl baby names, she said she was already set on a name for a girl and said Kiara,” Lana said, furious. “My daughter Laura actually doesn’t get called Laura and instead goes by her middle name Kiara. And everyone has been calling her Kiara since childhood, not Laura.”

And, of course, Erin is fully aware of this, and when Lana asked her SIL why she chose this specific name, Erin said it was “the only name that she liked for a girl and that she genuinely didn’t like any other name”.

And when Lana reminded her SIL that Kiara was her own daughter’s name, Erin got “defensive”. 

“She tried to say that Kiara wasn’t my daughter’s actual name, so it didn’t matter, and that I was being ridiculous,” Lana wrote. In response, Lana said her SIL was “the ridiculous one and crazy at that”. 

Furious that she had been called “crazy”, Erin stood up and got her children, quickly ushering them out of the house. 

“Honestly I feel like if Erin hadn’t already done this before, I wouldn’t have minded her wanting to name her daughter Kiara as much,” she said. “But twice? It just feels intentional at this point.”

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“I know you don’t own the names, but just gives off ick to me”

Most people agreed the entire situation was “weird”, with many wondering what could be motivating Erin to “steal” the baby names so often. 

“This is weird and why is your brother alright with these names? He doesn't think it's weird?” someone asked. 

“This is not stealing a name you want to use for an unborn child, this is copying the names of actual people in the family, and it is very odd,” said another. 

“While I understand you can’t gatekeep names, this is weird,” a third agreed. 

Many wondered if Erin had ever shown signs that she was secretly in love with Lana’s husband, but that theory was quickly quashed. 

“This is strange,” someone said. “Has Erin ever shown, like, jealousy towards you? Or even towards you and your husband’s relationship? I’m just interested in knowing the reasons why she is copying your children’s names.”

“I can’t imagine naming my son after his uncle and not his own father,” wrote another. “It is just weird to name two of her kids the same names as your kids. I know you don’t own the names but just gives off ick to me.”

Others offered Lana advice and assured her she wasn’t overreacting. 

“Yeah. She's a bad relative,” someone said. “Chin up. Big step back. Big. If she gets the message she will name her daughter something else. If she doesn't then continue after Kiara is born. Everyone around you sees what she is.”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as ‘My sister-in-law is obsessed with stealing my children’s names for her own’