Parents on the lookout for baby names have been left in hysterics after stumbling upon a comical entry in a naming book. Spotted by BrookishLex, a user on X (previously known as Twitter), who shared an image of the excerpt with the chuckle-worthy caption: “Just found an Easter egg in my baby names book and I am dead.”
The entry in question, from “The Baby Name Wizard, Revised 4th Edition: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby” by Laura Wattenberg, amusingly lists “Gax (GAKS). Popularity: Very rare. Nicknames: FatMan. Sisters: Moo, Spamela, Beer, Soup, John. Brothers: Flax, Vilx, Clax, Eleanor, Xax.”
It includes a note reading: “Gax is a name you should not give to your child at all. It’s only in the book because my kids are beside me and I’m writing and they absolutely insisted. Keep this in mind, prospective parents, if you’re planning to work from home.”
This ‘Easter egg’ sparked a series of comments on Reddit, one user marvelled: “That’s magnificent! I own that book, got to check if my edition has the same Easter egg for Gax.” while another highlighted it as an “in-joke, and probably also a way of discouraging (and identifying) plagiarism and plagiarised content.”
Comments didn’t stop there as users mused over the sibling names, particularly the male sibling named Eleanor. Another curious soul queried: “Can we talk about the brother named Eleanor?”. Another user chimed in with amusement: “This is hilarious! I love this baby name book- we borrowed it from a friend while naming our first. I was amazed that every name we looked up that we liked had other sister/brother names we loved too.”
Another exclaimed: “Oh my goodness, I have the same book, and I just looked, and there it is. That’s pretty darn funny.” The talk turned serious when a woman criticised her brother for deciding to name his daughter after a body part because he thinks it sounds ‘beautiful’. The woman is worried that the poor child will be ridiculed at school over her unusual name, fearing it might make her life difficult.
In a Reddit post, she said: “My brother just announced they’re naming their daughter Areola. They plan to spell it Ariolla, and want it pronounced with a bogan Aussie accent, Air-ee-oh-la. But let’s be real here, kids are cruel. This poor child is going to get torn to shreds in school by her peers. But apparently ‘It sounds beautiful.'”.
Her brother defended his choice, arguing that “everyone else makes up names by putting other names together” and that he wants his daughter to have a unique name that will help her stand out. After failing to persuade him, she resignedly concluded: “I really wish I was making this up, I already feel sorry for this poor kid. I finally admitted defeat and responded that I hope they like the nickname Ari, because that’s what I’m calling her.”