There are many professions that have a front row seat to the early days of parenthood. Whether it’s how to breastfeed, self-soothe, or enrol your child in nursery, there are many professionals on hand to help.
A significant part of this parenting journey, and one that comes in at the very start of welcoming your new-born into the world, is what to call your child in the first place.
A call-out went out to the nurses and midwives of the world recently, to ask whether they’d ever tried to talk new parents out of a baby name, and if so, what was it?
The post, shared on Reddit, really took off. People across the world shared their experiences of hospital workers stepping in early doors to have their say on certain monikers – and some of them are pretty shocking.
Starting off tame, one user wrote: “My boyfriend’s grandmother wanted to name her daughter Sunshine. The midwife said that wasn’t allowed because “it wasn’t a real name” and his grandmother had no other back up.
“So, a few minutes later when she heard someone down the hall screaming “Tina”, she named her daughter Tina because she couldn’t think of anything else on the spot.”
Another penned: “Not a nurse, but as a med student a patient wanted to name her child Mudpiles. The nurses silently protested and waited a few days. Mom changed her mind.”
A third shared an awkward encounter that saw the midwife intercept: “I have a false leg. My parents had to be talked out of calling me ‘Peggy’ by the midwife.”
A fourth perhaps took the biscuit, writing: “I worked at a registrar for a while and among the birth certificates I got some of the standouts I saw were: Killer, Syphilis and Sweet Prayer Sunrise (this one was a boy)”.
And one last tale from a teacher couldn’t be left out: “I once had a student named Linoleum. Some midwife dropped the ball on that one.”
There is no law in Scotland that bans names, but registrars can reject names that are offensive or inappropriate, according to Office for National Statistics.
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