My niece could Google a fungal infection and find out it’s also her name

Turns out there's worse names than Chlamydia...

An uncle has become the butt of his own joke after his pregnant sister took a list of gag names a little too seriously. 

It means that one day his niece could Google a fungal infection and find out the hard way that it’s also her name. 

Taking to Reddit, the poster with the username Odd_Age1378 explained the situation. We’ll call him Matt. 

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RELATED: The naming trend that has parents seeing double 

"The 'ass' smack dab it the middle of it" 

When his pregnant sister revealed she’d been struggling with finding a name, all Matt wanted to do was help. 

“In addition to the $900 wooden crib on her list that I got for her, I gave her a list of (obviously) joke baby names. We have a really close relationship, and it was in line with both our senses of humor,” he explained. 

Both the siblings have interests within the medical field. Matt is a biology student and his sister is a nurse. He wanted to stick to a theme when it came to crafting his list. 

“All the names were medications, infections, unpleasant animals. All sound like lovely girls' names out of context. Some of them were a little bit obscure, sure, but I included some obvious ones like 'Viagra' and 'Hernia' for good measure,” he explains. 

Two weeks later his sister and her husband landed on a name inspired by his contributions.

“Malassezia. The baby's name is Malassezia,” he bluntly states. (Well, at least it's not the better-known Chlamydia.)

I’ll save you the Google. According to the University of Adelaide, Malassezia is a form of yeast that naturally lives on human skin. It can contribute to dandruff, atopic eczema and fungal acne. 

No wonder Matt has several issues with the name. 

Firstly, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. 

“Nearly impossible to pronounce on the first try, the "ass" smack dab it the middle of it, the first syllable being mal-, literally meaning bad or evil,” he listed. 

Image: iStock

'This should be illegal'

But the part that really makes his skin crawl is the fact he and his sister are particularly familiar with the fungal infection. They've both had it. 

“My sister and I are both genetically predisposed to it," he explained.

"Her daughter will almost certainly catch it at some time!” 

Matt pointed all of this out to his sister. He insists she knew this was supposed to be a joke, but really likes the sound of Malassezia. 

He suspects her husband doesn’t know what the word means. 

“She says that it's so obscure that no one will ever think twice about it. Except, you know, when little baby Malassezia turns 14, finds a weird spot on her neck, and goes on her phone to search for what it is...” 

The comment section praised him for pushing his sister to reconsider. 

“Malassezia sounds like a Disney villain,” one commenter pointed out.

Another advised: “I'd also make a point of telling her husband what the name means.” 

“This should be illegal,” a third added. 

At a loss for what to do Matt, has attempted to pitch names that sound similar, such as Mallory, Azalea or Anastasia. She wouldn’t hear any of his suggestions. 

“She said that since I'm not one of the parents, I have no business telling her what she can and cannot name her child. That I'm stepping way out of line,” he revealed. 

“I think it's pregnancy hormones. She'll regret the decision very soon after her daughter is born.” 

Originally published as My niece could Google a fungal infection and find out it’s also her name