Our friends 'reserved' most of our baby names when we shared our list

"First c*m, first serve. You can't call dibs on a baby name."

Jordana Shell

2 min read

April 11, 2024 - 11:30AM

Baby

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One soon-to-be dad learned the hard way that asking a friend for an opinion on a baby name can be problematic.

In an online post, he explains that his wife sent her list of potential names to her friends on Snapchat, and joked about how different and short his baby name list was compared to hers.

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"You aren't even pregnant"

He explains what happened next:

"She gets multiple messages from her friends telling her that they've reserved some of these names so she can't use them. These women are not pregnant; they may never have a son, and yet they're telling us what we can and can't name our child."

Surprisingly, calling dibs on baby names is not an uncommon trend, and fellow group members shared similar stories.

“We had one of my partners' friends blow up on us for calling our first after my grandfather, which they had ‘reserved’,” recalls one user, adding, “She blew my partner's phone up while she was still in hospital getting over preeclampsia.”

Another said, “My good friend did this. I wanted to name my daughter Isadora. She said she had dibs. She ended up naming her daughter Winnie. I should have just named my daughter what I wanted to.”

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"She cares what they think"

One user shared their current name dilemma: “Going through this with my sister. The only name my husband and I can agree on is the name that my sister is naming her next son. Mind you, she already has three children and isn’t even trying for a fourth.”

Others flooded the comments in disbelief, especially given the mum-to-be's best friends weren't even on the baby train.

"Ignore them. It's that easy," one advised.

The OP replied, "I agree completely; it's not that easy for my wife, unfortunately; she's really bothered by it. It's crazy how they tell her they've reserved multiple names; they are planning to have multiple sons one day. These are her best friends, so she cares what they think more than I do."

The couple were upset by the responses. Image: iStock/supplied

How we imagine the thread went. Image: iStock/supplied

"Truly baffling to me"

A wise reader added, "This is why we didn’t announce the names of our kids until they were born. Everyone thinks they’re entitled to weigh in on baby names for some reason. People are far less likely to start shit when the baby is earthside."

Then one user offered their perspective: “I'm the child of an immigrant, so this is truly baffling to me. My mum has the same first name as her sister. There are Marias and four Dianas. On my dad’s side, there are at least four Johns and three Williams. No one ‘owns’ a name.”

But our favourite response was this cheeky one: "First c*m, first serve."

The OP later shared an update: "Ultimately, we both love it, so we're going to name the child that. Regarding the situation her friends are putting her in, it's still really bothersome."