When it comes to choosing a name for your child, you want it to be something significant and memorable. For many, the naming of a child is almost as special as actually having the child. After all, they carry their name with them wherever they go and it’s last their entire lifetime. Whether it’s your child or grandchild, you want them to have the perfect name.
On the Reddit thread AITA, user Bloofykins8675309 posted about his specific predicament involving naming his child. According to him, there was some tension in the family about the chosen name, and if he decided to keep it, his mom would deny any familial ties to her own grandchild. That sounds a wee bit extreme. The name must have been awful! Well, not really. The name he and his wife chose for their child was Arthur Morgan.
You would think the grandmother would be ecstatic about the situation, regardless of the name. This would be the first grandchild on either side of the family for the husband and wife, who are both around 26-years-old. Both avid gamers, they wanted to choose a name that held importance to them, equally. So they chose the main character from the game Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan.
“I’ve been playing video games for a long time and his story is the only one to ever make me cry. It was my wife who suggested that we use Arthur Morgan as the first and middle names for our son. Not only would we be paying tribute to our favorite character, but there’s nothing wrong or ‘weird’ about the names, other than Arthur is a little old-fashioned now. But it isn’t as if we’re naming him Sonic the Hedgehog or Donkey Kong.”
Read: This Mom’s Carpool Rule Cost Her Daughter a Friend — Is She Wrong?
However, someone else had other ideas for the name of their grandchild.
The husband’s mom had a brother (essentially his uncle) who died when he was nearly a year old. He doesn’t have any memories of him, and wasn’t close, as far as he knows. However, this grandmother doesn’t think it should matter that much and suggested he and his wife name their first-born child, her only grandchild, after her brother who has been deceased for over 25 years.
“There’s nothing wrong with his name, either. It’s pretty common, think something like “Robert John”. It’s just not what we wish to name our sprout.”
Trying to defend the choice of name, the brother of the husband speaks to their mom about why it’s so important. Unfortunately, he let it slip that the name is from a video game. Finding this out sent the woman into a rage, and this is where things take a turn for the worse.
“She actually drove 30 minutes to our house so she could bang on our door and berate us in person for honoring someone who doesn’t actually exist over her flesh-and-blood sibling.“
Their Choice to Make?
The husband and wife are adamant they have chosen this name for a reason, and they even already refer to their unborn baby as Arthur. They tried explaining to the grandmother how they felt and told her that this is their child and the choice is ultimately theirs to make.
“When we tried gently (and then firmly) to advise her that we respected her position but that we weren’t going to budge on ours, she walked out and told us that she would have nothing to do with our son and would never acknowledge him as family.“
Now, this is a rather extreme way to handle the situation. Denying to call a grandchild you’ve never met ‘family’ is pretty aggressive. Especially considering it will be her only grandchild and it is due in October. Obviously, the husband was heartbroken to hear how his mom wanted to handle things. According to him, he and his mom have always been close. Not having her in his child’s life, her grandchild’s life, would be devastating.
So, this is why he posted to the Reddit forum.
He wanted to know if he was making the right choice. Should he just change the name to what his mom wants, in order to keep the peace? His wife offered up some advice and tried to calm his worries.
“My wife says that as parents we are going to have to learn to advocate for ourselves because people are always going to be telling us that we’ve done something wrong and and disagreeing with our parenting decisions.“
And she’s right. There are always going to be people who judge you or look down on you for how you choose to do something. At some point, you have to trust yourself and know you are doing the right thing.
What do you think? Would you have changed the name, or would you keep the name you and your partner chose together?
Keep Reading: Family Asks Woman For Her Engagement Ring After Her Fiancé Dies So His Sister Can Have It
Attention: While many of these stories are interesting, and we would love to take their word for it, the content in this article was taken from an unverifiable source (i.e., a Reddit forum). As such, we cannot guarantee that these events truly happened in the way that they are described in the original source.