Woman Ruins Sister-In-Law’s Baby Shower By Pointing Out ‘Burden’ Of ‘Unique’ Name

Taking to the website’s infamous AITA (“Am I the A–hole”) forum, one woman revealed how speaking out against her sister-in-law’s planned name for her baby-to-be rubbed her the wrong way.

While the reason behind the name was a heartbreaking one, OP (a.k.a. the “original poster”) still felt obligated to advise her brother and SIL against the choice, leading to hurt feelings and family discord.

Read on to see how it all played out, as she wonders, “AITA for telling my SIL how I feel about her baby name after she asked?”

Setting up her post, OP explained she’s a 28-year-old woman with a 35-year-old sister-in-law she referred to as Ana. The SIL is 8 months pregnant and, according to OP, has had three miscarriages in the past and had to also terminate a pregnancy deemed “not viable.” OP and the SIL are married to a pair of brothers.

“Her pregnancy is taking a huge toll on her, she had awful morning sickness and pre existing medicinal conditions that have worsened and she is on sick leave,” wrote OP, who “offered to plan her baby shower as she was unable to, and offered up our place for her and BIL as it was mainly family and a few friends that I know through her.”

While the baby shower was “a hit” and Ana was “really pleased with how everything turned out,” things took a turn when the SIL and OP’s BIL revealed the name they picked out for their child.

“They want to name the baby Five as the number is the amount of years they have tried to conceive and it took them 3 miscarriages and one termination,” wrote OP. “Ana said it’s a reminder of her baby’s older siblings.”

OP shared that she then “expressed in private after [the SIL] asked what I thought of the name that it might not be this symbolic for their baby when they grow up to understand the meaning.” She added, “I did say the word ‘burden’ which led to Ana getting really upset and left, and my BIL followed her out.”

Her brother-in-law later called her and said she “made Ana cry and ruined the baby shower” with her comment about the name.

“My husband agrees with me on the name Five, but he thinks it wasn’t our place to say anything and that Ana and his brother had been through a lot of infertility struggles and that I should just let her have the name as there are worse names she could have picked,” OP concluded. “Five is a unique name but I was just trying to point out the meaning of the name they had picked, and the implications of it.”

The post has since received an official “Not the A-hole” stamp from Redditors.

“NTA. This name WILL BE a burden to bear. Every time the kid will invariably be asked ‘Five is such an interesting name how was it your parents named you that?’ They will have to answer well gee the story goes they named me five because they had three miscarriages and an abortion of an unviable pregnancy … .over and over in their life,” began the most popular response.

“Why would your in laws theoretically WANT this to occur on the daily for the rest of this kids life? Great first date material,” they continued. “It’s dumb and frankly over dramatic and attention seeking. But it’s the poor kid who will suffer and get the attention, but your sister in law wants it.”

Someone else responded to that reply, adding, “That poor kid is going to be so messed up if their parents can’t learn to manage their grief in a healthier way.”

Another said the name is “an homage to [SIL’s] trauma,” saying that while they couldn’t “imagine the pain she’s gone through,” she also “absolutely should not be projecting that pain upon her poor kid.”

If they do go through with the name, another Redditor suggested the kid “just tell people I was named after the umbrella academy,” as the characters all have numeric names in the comic and TV adaptation.

“Maybe OP should suggest to her in-laws that they name the baby Quentin. It means ‘fifth’ but doesn’t have the obvious problem of needing to explain to everyone why that name was picked,” suggested someone else, as another commenter pointed out that Quinta Brunson is named as such because she’s the youngest of five children.

“I wasn’t named Three, but both my parents constantly talked about the babies they lost before me, and that was hard enough on a kid,” added another reader. “Can’t imagine being named after the number of babies lost.”

What do you think?