A mum has been urged to reconsider her choice of baby name after people told her she would be ‘teased in school’ over the moniker – as it sounds like a ‘creepy doll’
It only takes one bad association to completely ruin a baby’s name for some people.
When it comes to choosing a name for your little one, there are so many factors you need to consider. It’s important to make sure it flows with your surname and doesn’t leave your baby with unfortunate initials, but there’s one other thing many parents don’t think about – what people’s first thoughts are when they hear the name.
Even the most timeless of names can be ruined by association if a generally disliked public figure has the same name or if it was used as the moniker for a horrible character in a popular film or TV series. And that’s the exact problem one mum-to-be is facing over the name she wants to give her daughter – Annabelle.
The woman believed Annabelle would be a sweet and classic name for her little one, and thought nothing could go wrong with her choice. That was until people began asking her if she was named after “the creepy doll” from the 2014 film of the same name.
She wrote in a post on Reddit: “We finally decided on a name for our daughter. Annabelle. We want to call her Belle for short. The issue is every time we tell someone they immediately say something along the lines of ‘like the creepy doll?’
“Come to find out, in 2014 there was a movie about a killer doll named Annabelle! Does everyone have this association? Do you think it would lead her to be picked on or teased in school? Is the name ruined?”
Commenters on the post, unfortunately, agreed they also thought of the doll and other horror movies when faced with the name Annabelle – and some even said it reminded them of a name you might give to a farmyard cow.
However, even with the association, people insisted the woman’s daughter wouldn’t be picked on for her name, as Annabelle is a fairly common moniker that isn’t “intrinsically linked” to just one thing.
One person said: “Yeah I think immediately of the doll/horror movies or I think of a cow. I don’t think she’ll be made fun of truthfully, it’s a pretty ‘normal’ name on the whole and isn’t completely dominated as one character on the whole. It’s not like you’re naming your kid something so intrinsically linked to a character.”
And another added: “I’m sorry, but I immediately thought of the doll as well. It’s a beautiful name and I’m not sure children in her age group would have the same association so I think the probability of her being bullied over it is low.”
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