Different families have different approaches to choosing names for children. For example, my dad and mom once had a real long argument about my name, but my wife and I chose names for all three of our offspring quite quickly and easily. However, the role of fathers is sometimes very specific in this process...
An additional confirmation of this fact is today’s story from the user Plum02, who will soon give birth to her first child, and is eager to quickly pick a beautiful name for the daughter. But the woman's husband, as it turns out, doesn’t share her enthusiasm at all.
More info: Mumsnet
The author of the post is a mom-to-be and she's so eager to pick a beautiful name for her daughter
Image credits: pixel-shot.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
However, the woman's husband has reacted quite strangely, rejecting every given option without giving any of his own
Image credits: Plum02
Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The woman finally stopped her search on the name "Ottilie" but the hubby just rolled his eyes after hearing it
Image credits: Plum02
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
But the man still was silent about his own preferences, thus driving the wife mad
Image credits: Plum02
The woman took it online to vent about it, and to seek some support and advice from netizens
So, the Original Poster (OP) is pregnant with her first baby, a daughter, and she and her husband, reasonably, have raised the question of the child's name. However, the main problem with this is that only the wife has been coming up with ideas, and her spouse has limited his participation to rejecting the options. Literally all of them.
Our heroine had never even suspected that the man she lived with had so much hatred for a variety of names. The guy rejected the following names one after another: Margot, Ophelia and Clementine (just ugly and horrible, according to the picky hubs), Octavia (a car’s name), Etta (seems weird) and Penelope (seems old-fashioned).
Finally, after much thought and searching, the expectant mom found the name Ottilie, which seemed unusual to her on the one hand, and quite classic, beautiful and interesting on the other. However, when the woman told her husband that she had a new idea, he just rolled his eyes - before he even heard the name.
After learning the name, the man objected even more, saying that he didn’t want to name his daughter “Otter.” To the wife’s reasonable objections that the girl could have the nickname “Tilly,” he wasn’t happy either. And, what's most offensive, he again didn't put forward a single idea of his own, only criticism of literally every option.
So our heroine decided to take it online - maybe netizens, in addition to some support, will advise her something from their own experience. And who knows, someone may even come up with a couple more ideas for a name for the child that both spouses will definitely like?
Image credits: pvproductions / Freepik (not the actual photo)
It must be said that the name Ottilie itself is quite rare nowadays. The name originates from the German male name "Otto", which in the Old German language meant, in particular, "prosperous" or "wealthy." However, if you look at the list of famous bearers of this name, you can see that they mostly lived no later than the first half of the last century.
Of modern public figures with this name, we can highlight, for example, the German politician Ottilie Klein and the Polish swimmer Otylia Jędrzejczak. And, yes, the original poster was quite right - the diminutive form of this name does sound like "Tilly." Although, to be honest, I personally also thought of an otter at first...
However, there are often such people whom I call to myself "the devil's advocate." No, I'm not talking about that movie with Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino, but about a real medieval position.
When the College of Cardinals in Rome discussed the candidacies of potential saints, a special official had to give reasons why the candidate should be rejected. And this principle is often, sometimes unconsciously, used by many people in everyday life...
By the way, the opinions of the commenters under the original post were also divided. Someone completely agreed with the author, claiming that she came up with beautiful options, and her husband responded quite unreasonably. “Fair enough if he doesn’t like your suggestions but it’s rude to just go ‘nah’ every time without coming up with any ideas of his own,” one of the responders wrote.
However, some people also think that the couple should make two lists of their favorite names and go that route. "Then you can discuss, names are really personal and we have deep seated reasons for liking/hating them," another person added.
And someone else simply thinks that they should wait until their daughter is born. "You don’t need to rush," the commenter supposed. And which point of view do you, our dear readers, agree with more?
People in the comments sided with the mom-to-be, but also suggested the spouses to wait till the baby is born
