A couple who want to name their son John Doe have taken to social media to ask users for their thoughts on the moniker – but they’re sad to see everyone has the same opinion
Everyone knows somebody with a list of baby names saved on their phone – but just because you like the monikers, doesn’t necessarily mean you should use them on your child.
That’s the opinion numerous Reddit users have taken after hearing how a couple want to name their son John Doe, simply because the father loves the name John and can’t bear not using it.
The name John Doe has been used as a placeholder name referring to an anonymous or unidentified name since the late 1500s. It is common to hear the moniker during legal proceedings in the UK and US when keeping a person’s identity private.
Taking to Reddit, he said: “I wish I was kidding. It’s insanely important to me that I name one of my sons John. I do not want to get too deep into the reason why, since the situation is very personal and sentimental to me, but if you knew the story you would absolutely understand.
“My wife and I have been married for three years and she is currently pregnant and we are expecting a baby within the next four months or so. The name John also has some significance to her, due to it being a family name.”
But when he took his wife’s hand in marriage, he decided to take her surname – Doe. He said: “I was never in a hurry to have children so the fact that if I wanted to have a child named John I’d have to name him John Doe, didn’t really occur to me until the moment she got pregnant.
“I was thrilled to hear I was going to have a kid, I love children and I love my wife all the same, but as soon as we started talking about names I realised that this would probably prove to be quite the issue.”
But while his wife doesn’t mine the moniker, he says numerous people have tried to talk him out of it, saying it would cause his child problems throughout life. He said: “My wife doesn’t mind the name, she says some people may say something about it, but she overall likes the sound of it.
“I did a bunch of research and I see so many people say that calling your son John Doe is cruel, and the more I think about it, I can’t help but think that it is.” Seeking advice, he added: “What do I do? What I was thinking is that we give him a middle name and he rather goes by that publicly instead, but once again, the name John is important to me and I would’ve really liked to have been able to call my child that.
“It also still makes him stuck with the ‘John Doe’ name, regardless of whatever the middle name is. I was even thinking of making his name Johnathan Doe, and then letting him go by Nathan, but my wife and I both hate that nickname and also it still wouldn’t allow him to escape from the ‘John Doe’ name anyway.”
Commenting on this, one user said: “You could hyphenate the surnames. I know you took Doe already but you could make it [previous surname]-Doe, potentially.” Another user added: “I really wouldn’t name your child John Doe. Can you use it as a second name? Can you find other version of John, like Jack or from another language depending on your background and taste? Such as Jean in French is John.”
