Picking a name for a baby is a major decision – it has to suit them from being an infant right through to adulthood. One mum has received backlash for her choices
An expectant mum has been warned over a baby name she loves that has a “truly atrocious” alternate meaning.
Deciding on what to call your child is a massive decision they’ll carry with them for life. Finding a name both parents agree on can be quite the challenge, and it’s important to bear in mind the levity of the decision.
Names have to suit a child from being an infant right through to adulthood, when they’re a working professional out and about in the world.
Struggling to come to a decision led one mum to seek the advice and input of impartial strangers online, venturing to Reddit with a since-deleted post she titled “People have always said I have bad baby names”.
In the post, the anonymous woman penned: “I have had these baby names chosen since I was a child and now I am having a baby. Sex unknown, hoping for a girl! Whenever I share these names amongst friends they always say, ‘Dude, do you WANT your kids to get bullied?’ All fun of course!
“I did choose names that weren’t very common, and this is something I’ve wanted to do since I was young. I always wished I had a more interesting name and I want to give my kids that.”
She explained the names all “have some meaning” to her and shared a list of “masculine” names which included Abel, Abbott, Atticus, Alistair, Alois and Aurelius. Her “feminine” names list included Adagio, Anastasia, Annabeth, Anneliese, Aristella, Arya, Auretta.
People had strong opinions on the names but it was the inclusion of ‘Adagio’ that really raised some eyebrows. Though the mum confessed in an edit to having chosen it “because of music” – a tempo marking stipulating a piece is to be played slowly and with a light, soft and measured pace – she “totally didn’t make the other connection.”
An Italian word, it translates to “slow” or “at ease” in English, which some Reddit users felt was a recipe for disaster as a name. One person said: “Not adagio?! Calling your own daughter slow”.
Another agreed: “That one is truly atrocious”, while a third commented: “This is one of those cases where you really need to remember, and spend time thinking about, the fact that you are not naming a baby.
“You are naming an entire person who will one day have to try to get a job and apply for college scholarships and make a dating profile and they will have to do it with the name you’ve given them (or not, because some people do change them). Names matter.”
Another advised: “That one’s awful—maybe consider Aurora instead”, while another said: “The boy ones are weird but ok. The girls are pretty bad. Adagio is a bad name for a human woman. Aristella sounds like a prescription drug. Auretta is bleh. Annabeth is potentially confusing because I’d hear it as Anna Beth not one name. Arya and Anastasia are fine. Adagio is a tragedy. Please no.”
Someone else added: “Please for the love of god you cannot name a real live human girl Adagio. Where did you hear this, and are you aware what it means?” They then reiterated it’s a bad idea to have a child’s name be synonymous with “slow” due to the potential for bullying as “kids can be mean as all hell”.
