'I told my pal her baby name is ridiculously stupid and now she's devastated'

10 March 2024 , 09:00

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It's led to a rift between the friends (stock image) (Image: Getty Images)

Not everyone will agree that your baby's name is the most beautiful thing they've ever heard - but you might not expect your friend to be your biggest critic.

A woman had a huge bust-up with her housemate after telling her the name she had chosen with her partner for their baby daughter - after she said the moniker was "ridiculously stupid". The mum-to-be had asked their friend, who they live with, for opinions on the baby name they had chosen - and it didn't go the way she expected.

Being a huge Game of Thrones fan, she first decided to name the baby 'Arya' after the fictional character Arya Stark, which the roommate thought was a great choice. The friend said the name was "good" and had a "good meaning," because it can mean both 'friend' and 'noble', but warned a lot of other parents have started to name their children after characters in from the series, so it "might be a little too common, not that it is a bad thing".

However, the mum-to-be didn't want her baby's name to be common - so decided to switch things up.

The housemate who gave the advice explained on an online forum website: "The next day she said she's found a way to name her baby 'Arya' and not have it be associated with other Aryas running around or the show. How? She said she wanted to spell it as Aughreighyah . I did a double take reading that word too, but apparently people are supposed to read it as Augh-reigh-ya or Arya.

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"She asked me how I felt about it and I told her that, frankly, Aughreighyah looks ridiculously stupid and she should just go with Arya. She got kinda upset and said that she and her partner came up with this only because I told them that the name is very common. I said that having a common name is better than having a confusing name."

After taking to Reddit to ask if they had been in the wrong, many took their side, with one writing: "They are setting that kid up for a lifetime of hell. Why do people feel the need to do this? Besides, the name is still the same, so they haven't really solved the too common problem, they just made the spelling look like a cat ran over a keyboard."

A second said: "That poor child will have to spell her name for everyone, and correct people mis-pronouncing it." Some thought they had crossed the line by calling the suggestion 'ridiculously stupid', as one argued: "You're entitled to your opinion, but there are ways to express it without hurtful words. Silly? Weird? Confusing? Impractical?"

Other said the idea of calling the little girl Aughreighyah couldn't be real, stating: "Aryah Aria Auria Auryah... Literally a billion ways to spell it, and your friend comes up with that BS?"

Ariane Sohrabi-Shiraz