Source : Perth Now news
A couple are considering changing the name of their unborn baby after their friends picked a very similar moniker.
A Reddit user is worried he and his wife are “overthinking” the name of their unborn child after being convinced they would call her Sophie, only for their pals to accidentally throw a spanner in the works.
He wrote in the Baby Names subreddit: “My wife and I found out we were having a little girl early in the pregnancy and, almost straight away, we fell in love with the name Sophie.
“[But] recently, some close friends had a baby girl and named her Sophia. Now I’m really torn.”
The man’s wife “doesn’t think it is an issue” given the differences in pronunciation, but he’s worried what “people might think”.
He added: “I can’t shake the feeling that people might think we’ve copied them, even though we’d chosen Sophie months before their daughter was born.”
He asked other users on the site for advice, including whether or not Sophia’s parents might think they’ve copied them.
One person replied: “If it were a less common name I would have hesitation but anyone naming their baby Sophie/Sophia has to be okay with others using it.”
Another user agreed: “Every third female child under the age of five that I know is named Sophia or Sophie, honestly nobody has a claim to that name.
“It’s like saying you couldn’t name your girl Mary 50 years ago just because her cousin is named Maria. It’s fine, nobody will think twice about it.”
Others added that it’s a “popular name”, and suggested the man and his wife use Sophie anyway.
They said: “If they have a problem with it, they can talk with you and then they will have to live with the information that you decided on the name before.”
However, some people on the subreddit saw things differently.
One user argued: “Personally I would avoid the name just because it is so popular and having a friend name their baby that would be the nail in the coffin for me. Just to give a different opinion.”
And a different person suggested they could at least have a conversation with their friends to avoid any “awkward” situations.
They said: “It could be awkward if you’re close enough to these people and you end up spending lots of time together or birthdays/holidays together.”
