A man has slammed his sister for wanting to name her daughter after a fungal infection – but some people believe she’s simply making him panic for her amusement
A man has been left gobsmacked after hearing how her sister is naming her daughter after a fungal infection. The 20-year-old explained how he introduced his sister, 27, to the moniker as a joke – but has been left horrified to hear she actually really likes the sound of it and is intending to use it on her newborn.
Taking to Reddit, he said: “So my sister and her husband had been struggling a lot with baby names. She was determined to find the single perfect name– even by the time of her baby shower (nearly five weeks before the due date), she didn’t seem any closer to picking something out than she was at the start of her pregnancy.
“I knew she was struggling, so 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 humour.”
The biology student went on to explain how his sister works as a nurse – and so he came up with a list of ‘medical’ girls’ names as a joke.
He said: “All the names were medications, infections, unpleasant animals, etcetera, that 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.”
Just two weeks later, his sister and her husband happily announced they’d finally settled on a name for their bundle of joy.
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Sharing his shock, he added: “Malassezia. The baby’s name is Malassezia. One of the names on my joke list.
“Outside of the immediate issues (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), it’s also the name of a very common fungal infection.
“One that my sister and I are both genetically predisposed to. ‘One that we’ve both had multiple times throughout our lives. Her daughter will almost certainly catch it at some time!'”
Malassezia is a type of fungi that colonise on the surface layers of the skin. He continued: “I pointed it out to her, and she said that yes, she knew what it meant, and she knew my list was intended to be a joke, but she just really liked the way it sounded. (I don’t think the husband knows what it means- I think he’d reject it if he did.)
“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 google what it is…)”
Disgusted, he told her it’s “completely unacceptable” to give her daughter this name – and started to suggest similar monikers to try to persuade her to change it.
“I even suggested some similar names, like Mallory, Azalea, or Anastasia, that would be more acceptable, but she wouldn’t hear it,” he added.
“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, and that I’m stepping way out of line.
“I think it’s pregnancy hormones, and she’ll regret the decision very soon after her daughter is born.
Commenting on his post, one user said: “Is it possible your sister is trolling you back about the baby name? Most of my friends and family have had no idea what baby name they liked until the baby arrived and some still struggled.”
Another user added: “Dude, she’s pranking you.” A third user said: “It is horrible to name a child that.”