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What's in a name, right?
Well, as that line from Romeo and Juliet progresses, William Shakespeare's ill-fated heroine makes the case that names are meaningless. After all, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
However in 2020, one expectant father has a very different view and it's causing conflict with his wife. So he turned to the "Am I The A**hole" (AITA) subReddit for feedback.
Redditor NotKarensDad asked:
"AITA for refusing to name our daughter Karen?"
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
"My wife and I recently found out we're having a daughter. We hadn't really talked about names before but we both agreed that each of us will retain veto power."
"When we did start discussing names, both of us wanted to name her after our late mothers. Her mom's name was Karen and my mom's name wasn't a meme."
"I told her the baby can take my mom's name as her first name and her mom's name as a middle name, or have an entirely different name, but I can't okay 'Karen' as a first name in any case."
"She got offended because she just wants to honor her mother and thinks I have a problem with that. I just don't want to set our daughter up to be bullied throughout her life."
"I told her I'd be fine with whatever first name she picks as long as it doesn't lead to the baby being picked on later in life, but she's pretty insistent on Karen."
Redditors weighed in by declaring:
- NTA - Not The A**hole
- YTA - You're The A**hole
- NAH - No A**holes Here
- ESH - Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors decided the OP was not the a**hole with people choosing both NTA and NAH.
"NTA. Give her 2 middle names and pick a completely new first name?"
"Or if there is a way to combine your mom's name and her mom's name to create a new name, that might be cool."
"Orrrrr, maybe you could suggest something like Corinne (could be spelled different ways like Korrine or Karyn - this is my middle name and it's spelled Caryn) or Carley (Karlie, Karley) or Ren?"
"Then it's kinda still got some of her mom's name in it to honor her, but also gives your daugther her OWN name, too." ~ TaterrrTot3
"NAH. you both have good reasons, you suggested a compromise and you've discussed veto power."
"I think the only solution you can find is to convince her to accept other suggestions and find something else you both agree on." ~ Raising_some_Cain
The OP returned with an update:
"Wow, I didn't expect this to blow up. I thought I'd delete this since this issue is pretty much resolved now but you guys are clearly enjoying this, so I thought I'd provide an update."
"We had a talk about this and why she had such an emotional reaction to my veto. Ever since her mom died suddenly when she was only fourteen, she's wanted to name her first daughter after her and she didn't really ever consider that the meme might be a potential obstacle."
"By that point, I'd thought about it for a while and realized that, as many of the comments have pointed out, Karen likely won't be a meme by the time she's old enough to feel its impact."
"So I told her I'll recant my veto but we should still reconsider it because it still has potential complications and we might just come up with a better tribute."
"While exchanging ideas, we realized that both our mothers very coincidentally had the exact same middle name, Elizabeth (well mine had two middle names, and Elizabeth was one of them, but still)."
"It seemed completely perfect to both of us so we're going with it."
"Thanks for all your inputs!"
All's well that ends well, it seems.