Traditions can be great but can also be burdensome as times change.
Read how one couple chooses to break a baby name tradition, and how their rebellion against this tradition ends up causing a lot of family drama.
Let’s read the story below to find out more.
Me (25M) [and my] wife (24F) gave birth to our son two weeks ago.
My family has had the tradition of naming the child months of the year for 5 generations on my mum’s side.
My name is December (I’ve shortened it to Dec hoping people will think it’s short for Declan or something normal), my brothers are called August (not so common in the U.K.) and July (poor guy, nothing you can do about that one) and my sisters are called April, June and May (not so bad).
When the couple had to name their child, they went a different route.
My wife and I called our son Tobias.
We kept the name a secret until after he was born, and we had signed the birth certificate so it couldn’t be changed.
When we told my parents a week ago, they were most certainly not happy.
This is interesting because some people have been exempt from this tradition.
Even though my dad has the nice normal name of Alex, he liked the tradition.
My sister, June, named her daughter March to keep with the tradition, so my parents expected me to do the same.
My mum continually said that we should call the baby September for a girl and October for a boy throughout the pregnancy.
But other siblings understood the hardships a “month name” like this can cause.
I never outright said I wasn’t going to because I know what lengths they would go to to make sure my baby would have a month as a name.
My brothers were on board when we told them, understanding growing up with the teasing.
My parents left after saying we were disrespecting my heritage by not following the tradition.
And this is when things started to heat up…
I told them I wasn’t going to name my child a ridiculous name because some old, long dead, crazy man decided months of the year would be good names and just because my mum was stupid enough to join him and his madness, didn’t mean I had to.
They stormed out and haven’t spoken to me since.
My sisters have said I should have just named him a month to keep the peace, and I’m a jerk for insulting my mum and her family.
I feel as though I’m just looking out for what’s best for my son.
They even accused the wife of being the root cause…
My family seems to think my wife has “brainwashed” me into calling him something normal even though I have never made it a secret that I hate my name.
So AITA?
Did this couple toss a perfectly good tradition to the wayside, or is it okay to move on? Let’s see what Reddit thinks about this.
Some Redditors shared that not all naming traditions have a good story behind them.
Others validated the couple’s right to choose what they feel is best.
And Redditors also reminded readers that the tradition isn’t worth whining about.
People also highlighted that the sisters had the easier hand dealt.
This family has no right to pass judgment on this child’s name.
If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.
