An expectant mum has been urged to reconsider the baby name she adores due to its “truly atrocious” alternate meaning.
Choosing a name for your child is a significant decision that will affect them throughout their life. It can be quite a task to find a name both parents agree on, and the gravity of the decision should not be underestimated.
Names need to suit a child from infancy through to adulthood, being appropriate for a cute child and a working professional in the world, too.
One mum, struggling to make a decision, sought the advice of impartial strangers online, taking to Reddit with a since-deleted post titled “People have always said I have bad baby names”. In her post, she wrote: “I have had these baby names chosen since I was a child and now I am having a baby.
“Sex unknown, hoping for a girl! Whenever I share these names amongst friends they always say, ‘Dude, do you WANT your kids to get bullied?’ All fun of course! I did choose names that weren’t very common, and this is something I’ve wanted to do since I was young.
“I always wished I had a more interesting name and I want to give my kids that. ” She explained all the names “have some meaning” to her and shared a list of “masculine” names which included Abel, Abbott, Atticus, Alistair, Alois and Aurelius. Her “feminine” names list included Adagio, Anastasia, Annabeth, Anneliese, Aristella, Arya, Auretta. People had strong opinions on the names but it was the inclusion of ‘Adagio’ that really raised some eyebrows.
The mum admitted in an update she chose the name “because of music” – it’s a tempo marking indicating a piece should be played slowly and with a light, soft and measured pace – but she “totally didn’t make the other connection.” The word is Italian and translates to “slow” or “at ease” in English, which some Reddit users felt was a disastrous choice for a name that could lead to bullying.
One person commented: “Not adagio?! Calling your own daughter slow”. Another agreed: “That one is truly atrocious”, while a third remarked: “This is one of those cases where you really need to remember, and spend time thinking about, the fact that you are not naming a baby.
“You are naming an entire person who will one day have to try to get a job and apply for college scholarships and make a dating profile and they will have to do it with the name you’ve given them (or not, because some people do change them). Names matter.”
Another suggested: “That one’s awful—maybe consider Aurora instead”, while another said: “The boy ones are weird but ok. The girls are pretty bad. Adagio is a bad name for a human woman. Aristella sounds like a prescription drug. Auretta is bleh. Annabeth is potentially confusing because I’d hear it as Anna Beth not one name. Arya and Anastasia are fine. Adagio is a tragedy. Please no.”
Someone else added: “Please for the love of god you cannot name a real live human girl Adagio. Where did you hear this, and are you aware what it means?” They then stressed a child’s name being synonymous with the word “slow” should be avoided due to concerns about bullying because “kids can be mean as all hell”.