Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
It looks like a woman named Melita Jackson won't be winning grandmother of the year anytime soon. Mrs. Jackson got so cranky about the name her daughter, Heather Ilott, chose for her granddaughter, she wrote Heather right out of her will. Geez, Gran, way to show your love.
I can't imagine being Ellen, the little girl with a perfectly lovely name, thank you very much. From here on out, she knows just how mean her granny was. AND she has to walk around with the knowledge that someone hated her name enough to pull out the big guns, donating all her money to charity instead of passing it on to her daughter. On behalf of Ellens everywhere, I'm going to go ahead and say it: Granny, the baby's name is none of your beeswax!
That's always the sticking point with baby naming, isn't it? What other people think? It makes baby naming really hard. I know people who have walked into the delivery room still arguing about it, people whose baby has gone nameless for days. And of course you have the folks who were just so set on pleasing other people that they hired a focus group to do the baby naming for them.
Personally, I tend to think a baby name should have certain markers: not too hard to pronounce, not too difficult to spell, not incredibly out there, and not so popular that they'll share it with 15 kids in the classroom. They're all things some would say are about the way other people look at your name, but they're really about the comfort of a child. It's not fun being the kid whose name is always pronounced and spelled wrong. Trust me, I know. And I LIKE my name.
But at the end of the day, it's your kid. You have to feel comfortable with a name. You have to LIKE a name. If granny wants to give you grief, politely tell her she had her chance at baby naming. Now it's your turn.
Has your family gotten nasty about your baby name? Did you cave?
Image via kaatjevervoort/Flickr
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
