A woman asked the Internet whether she was a jerk for getting angry at her friend
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It’s not actually possible to ‘own’ a name
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However, the truth is that ‘stealing’ a name is a gray area.Etiquette expertDiane Gottsman told HuffPost that a name is not intellectual property. “Anybody can use a name,” she said. “And while you have an emotional reaction to it, you can’t really steal a name. But it feels like a stab.”
It might feel like a betrayal when a friend uses your name or the name that you picked out for your child. In her advice column, Amy Dickinson writes that achild’s nameis the parents’ business.
There is an etiquette to reacting to babies’ names
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Generally, it’s one of those cases where the golden rule “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” applies. Even if it is a white lie, better to respond with a “That’s a beautiful name! I’m so happy for you!”
“Popular names tend to swing from gender to gender throughout the decades. Just because a name is considered more appropriate for one gender in the current age, doesn’t mean it wasn’t used for the opposite gender in the past,” Brittany B writes forBirmingham Mom Collective.
Commenters deemed OP the jerk, calling her a “narcissist” and an “AH”
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