Mum fuming over ‘tacky’ name her sister-in-law gave her baby daughter

"I feel like she's made it a bit of a joke."

A mum has told how she was left gutted over the "tacky" name her sister-in-law gave her daughter. She explained on Mumsnet that her sister-in-law had recently given birth to a baby girl, and given her a name that rhymes with their own daughter's name. She said:

"My daughter has a fairly classic name, not unheard of but pretty rare. Not a short name either. "[Sister-in-law's daughter's] name is from another country (their family has heritage from this country) but unheard of in the UK - it's not like our daughter is called Holly and she's named hers Molly, more like... If our daughter was called Leonora (she's not) SIL has names her daughter Deeonora. "The two names are VERY noticeable as rhyming names and because of the very very very unusual nature of her daughter's name, it looks like it was done deliberately (it was, by her)."

The mum wrote that she was "pissed off" as they spend a lot of time with sister-in-law and are a "close family", so their daughters will be together a lot. She continued:

"I feel like by giving her daughter the name she has, she's sort of taken away from the niceness/individualness of our daughter's name and sort of cheapened it made it into a bit of a joke. "The two names together sound truly ridiculous and instead of having 'What a lovely name!' comments that we used to get for DDs name, we have already started getting some looks and awkward comments from people when the two girls are together and we tell them their names."

She went on to say that it wasn't "even the worst of it", as the situation is about to get a lot more complication. The original poster explained that sister-in-law's step-sister is also expecting a little girl, and is planning to give her a name "she has TOTALLY made up" - and also rhymes with their daughter's name. She added:

"Am I being unreasonable to be absolutely gutted? I know it's not my place to say anything and I won't but I just feel SO upset and angry, I burst into tears when DH told me. It took us ages to think of a classic, uncommon but pretty sounding name for our DD and now I feel like SIL and her SS are just making us all look like absolute fools. "I don't like rhyming names for close relatives at the best of times, but to have stupid made up names too... I really feel like they've made my DDs name go from being sweet and classic to tacky and nasty."

Some of the commenters felt the woman had every right to be annoyed. One person said:

“I’d be gutted too. Some people are so odd! “I probably would change it to be honest but I’m probably overly invested in naming issues because we had something similar happen to us.”

Someone else added:

"I'm horrified by this and would feel pretty much as you do. Take your time to decide what to do. I would hate for you to change a name so loved and chosen with such care, and it's certainly not fair."

Another user urged the mum to take time to think about what she really wanted to do, pointing out:

"I'd be a bit annoyed but honestly it's entirely up to them what they call their child. If they both have long names it's likely at least one will become shortened as they get older. "I don't think you're overreacting being annoyed but I do think you're overreacting by thinking about changing her name!"