A woman has hit out at her ‘entitled’ sister-in-law for demanding she change her dog’s name so she can use it for her unborn child.
She detailed how her sister-in-law is expecting a girl – and wants her daughter’s name to start with the letter Z in tribute to her grandmother. However, the only Z name she likes is already taken within the family.
The woman revealed: “My dog’s name is Zahava, which is essentially the Hebrew feminine form for the word for gold/gilded. I’ve had her for six years. My sister-in-law is pregnant with a girl and now seemingly wants to use the name in honour of her grandmother. Yet, she told my husband that she was ‘uncomfortable’ having her daughter share the same name as a dog.”
So her sister-in-law asked her to change her dog’s name to ‘make her life easier’. She continued: “I said absolutely not. She knows her name, her recall is trained to her name, we like her name. So now she’s freaking out and saying that it doesn’t matter, it’s a dog not a person, she won’t know the difference (she will), it will be ’embarrassing’ for her daughter to share a name with an animal. I told her that if she’s that concerned about it she could pick a different name and now she’s annoyed.”
Seeking validation, she turned to social media to gather opinions. One user responded: “Her grandmother wasn’t named Zahava so she’s not naming her daughter after her grandmother. She just wants another name beginning with a Z. Start texting her female Z names and keep your dog’s name the same.”
Another user chimed in: “The dog has been trained for six years to recognise its name, exactly because it is a dog and not a person it will not understand why suddenly it is being called differently. Even more so, when the niece grows up and people start calling her by name, I assure you the dog will react too.
“Honestly, tell your sister there is nothing ’embarrassing’ to have a dog-namesake – the kids love stuff like that. And even if she doesn’t accept it – tough luck, she got pregnant six years too late. I am sure there are plenty of other nice Hebrew names with Z at the start (why not just take the grandma’s name?).”
A third user offered a tongue-in-cheek solution: “You could always change the dog’s name to the sister-in-laws name.”