Mom Wonders If The Name She Gave Her 3-Week-Old Son Is 'Too Similar' To His Brother's Name
Reddit users thought the names were definitely too close to each other.
New Africa / Shutterstock Choosing the name for a new baby is a big deal. It is presumably the name they’ll be known by for the rest of their life. It’s important to come up with something that sounds nice.
One mom felt she and her partner chose a good name for their second son. It just might have been a little bit too close to their first son’s name.
A mom worried that her new son’s name was too much like his older brother’s.
A mom posted on Reddit seeking advice after realizing she may have “messed up” when she named her second son. She explained that she and her partner didn't name him until after he was born when they were able to look at him.
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“We went with Myles,” she said proudly.
There’s just one catch.
“My oldest is Milo,” she stated. “I loved the names together and I haven’t mixed them up. But, family has mixed their names up, the doctor has mixed my boys’ names up and people have made comments about how they’re just too similar and close to each other.”
The closeness of the two names has left the mom wondering if she should have gone a different route.
“Now I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Have I messed up?’” she said. “Most of the time, I don’t even think about it, but sometimes I feel like I should’ve gone with a different name for my second.”
“I’m not sure if I have caused name issues for them by having their names [be] so close,” she said, concerned.
This mom also considered the fact that her son was young and would perhaps grow into his name.
“But he’s also three weeks old and so new to the world, so maybe it’ll take time for people to get used to his name being close to his brother,” she said hopefully.
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“I’ve seen and known people whose names are so, so similar to their sibling or twin, and I always thought it was cute/interesting,” she explained.
Unfortunately, not everyone agreed.
Reddit commenters thought she should change her youngest son’s name.
Many of the mom’s fellow Reddit users took to the comments section of her post to make their opinions about the name known — and they weren’t very positive.
“It seems like you just copied and pasted the same name,” one person said. “They are two different kids who deserve two different names. Change it now while he’s young.”
“This isn’t satire…?” someone else asked. “He’s going to feel like an afterthought.”
A third person tried to bring the mom back to reality. They said, “The mix-up at the doctor will not be the last. Imagine them going to the same school, the same pharmacy, dentist, daycare, swim classes, field trips, you name it. They are going to get confused for each other for life, and it will sometimes end up being a huge hassle. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t change it.”
Changing a baby’s name isn’t uncommon.
Laura Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard," told Yahoo Life that although changing a baby's name after they are born isn’t a regular occurrence, it does happen and has become more common.
As for how easy it is to change your baby’s name, it all depends on your location.
According to Wattenberg, “The process to change a baby’s legal name varies from state to state and even from county to county. Some states offer a kind of infancy grace period, streamlining the process during the early months of a child’s life to allow for fixing mistakes or having second thoughts.”
As for this mom, she decided to ignore the advice of Redditors and keep her baby’s name — which she was completely within her right to do.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.