Using a baby name that someone else has already expressed an interest in could be seen by some as sneaky – but one woman explained why she wanted to use the moniker
Choosing a moniker for a baby is personal to everyone – and it’s something you’ll likely give a lot of thought to.
One woman was left seething, however, when she realised that her soon-to-be sister-in-law wanted to use the same baby name as she did. She revealed her sister-in-law had claimed she had “dibs” on it because it has a sensitive family meaning.
The woman explained they both wanted to use the name ‘Veronica’, because it was the name of her husband-to-be’s sister who passed away. So it was significant to her sister-in-law as well, as it was her sister too.
Taking to Reddit’s ‘Am I The A**hole’ forum, she wrote: “My fiancé and I were talking about baby names and he said that he wanted to name a baby girl ‘Veronica’ but that his sister had ‘dibs’ on it already.
“I am not expecting a baby right now but if this were the case in the future, would I be the a**hole for naming our baby ‘Veronica’ even though she already ‘called dibs’?”
She worried she would be in the wrong if she decided to use the name, but thought she had good reason to want to use the name.
“There’s also no guarantee that either of us would have a girl. So if we got pregnant and with a girl before she did, would it be fair to name our baby ‘Veronica’ since there’s no guarantee that my sister-in-law would even have the opportunity to name a baby girl?”, she asked.
She said she liked the name, and the “meaning” behind it, but she didn’t want to “be on the bad side of possible drama.” Some people in the comments told the woman to stop “trying to create a problem that doesn’t exist”, because neither of the women were pregnant.
Someone said she would be wrong, however, penning: “Obviously all hypothetical, but if she’s been talking about wanting to use that name for her future child should she have a girl, then you’d be knowingly ‘taking’ that name from her. If your fiancé really wants to use it too, then the two of them should discuss it, but only if the situation comes up where the two of you would be having a girl prior to her.
“I think you’re a little out of line attempting to stake a claim on it when you’re not the one with the deceased sister, and you’re not having a baby anytime soon, probably. Just seems like you’re trying to start a competition with your soon-to-be sister-in-law for no real reason.”
Another said: “My first cousin and I have the same name. It was our great-grandmother’s name. I guess in the 80s, nobody cared about ‘owning’ names. On the other side of my family, literally every other person has some variation of one of our great matriarch’s maiden names. Again, these births occurred between the 40s and early 90s, so maybe this ‘dibs’ on names is a new trend. Nobody owns a name.”
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