Woman Called 'Dramatic' For Begging Her Best Friend Not To Name Her Baby After A Video Game
She does realize this baby will be saddled with this name forever, right?
ArtFamily | Shutterstock At this point, it's hard to be shocked by what people are naming their babies, but every now and then there's a new one so ludicrous it restarts the clock. It has now been zero days since the last terrible, indefensible baby name melted everyone's brains.
A woman was called 'dramatic' for begging her best friend not to name her baby after a video game.
As a person of a certain age, I thought maybe this young woman was thinking of naming her baby Luigi or Zelda. Hey, the former is a folk hero nowadays and the latter has worked out wonderfully for Robin Williams' daughter! Why not? If only it were a name so innocuous.
Roman Samborskyi | Shutterstock
The mom wants to name her baby Fortnite Cicierega.
I am throwing my laptop into the sea. Now, this young woman is just 18 years old, so when even an 18-year-old knows your baby name is "[effing] ridiculous" you know you've chosen something truly diabolical.
It all started when this young woman asked her best friend what she was thinking of naming her baby now that she's reached the second trimester of her pregnancy. "She looked me right in the eye and told me she wants to name her child Fortnite Cicierega (Fortnite being the first name, Cicierega being the middle name)," she wrote in a Reddit post.
As any normal-headed person would, she assumed her friend was just joking. Why would anyone seriously give their child the name Fortnite Cicierega for their entire life? "Nope, she's completely serious about this," the woman wrote. "She chose the name because her partner likes Fortnite and she likes the YouTuber Neil Cicierega."
She told her friend that her baby would end up getting bullied, and now it's nearly ruined their friendship.
As any good friend would, this young woman was basically like, "Are you TRYING to ruin this child's life before he even has a chance?" But her friend was having none of it. "For weeks, I've been trying to convince her that she can't name her child Fortnite Cicierega, but she seems pretty set on the name," she wrote. It's threatening to end their friendship.
Her friend thinks this whole thing is "dramatic," but there is no question this young woman is right. Multiple studies have shown that names truly do make a difference — and not just because of other people's judgments.
Yes, bullying is a very real problem, as is prejudice against unique or ethnic names in the working world — which is such a problem that a 2023 study found that 20% of candidates have changed their name on their resume to avoid discrimination. Studies have also found that strangers are less likely to help someone with a name they think is strange or unappealing.
But perhaps most important of all, a 2006 University of Michigan study found that a person's own discomfort with their name does very real psychological damage because our name becomes what the study's author called "a symbol for the self." Basically, all that bullying or judgment begins to stand in for a person's own self-concept.
So forcing a kid to go through life being mocked for being called Fortnite Cicierega? Yeah, it's not at all "dramatic" to say that's a terrible idea. And as a teen mom, the statistics say her child is likely going to be faced with plenty of challenges already. Maybe name the kid "Jack" or something simple and call it a day.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.