Parents-to-Be Leaking Fake Baby Names to Families Backed

A couple’s way of shutting down family members trying to name their baby has received support from social media users.

On Reddit, user /u/Extension-Judge-2906 said they decided to prank relatives who insisted on choosing their baby’s name.

The drama began a week after the couple announced they were expecting, when family members on both sides began suggesting names.

Certain relatives—including the poster’s two sisters, aunt, uncle, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law—banded together and decided that if the couple had a girl, she should be named Elizabeth or Cassandra, while a boy would be called William or Patrick.

The couple, however, had no interest in using these suggestions. “We told our families we weren’t taking name suggestions and to stop acting like they can tell us what to name our kid,” the poster wrote.

Despite the warning, their relatives didn’t back down, arguing that their suggestions were “good, solid names” and that they were trying to prevent any “weird, tragic names that people these days choose.”

Instead of continuing to argue, the poster’s husband came up with a plan to annoy their relatives. The couple began leaking outlandish names they had no intention of using.

“This meant commenting on random FB [Facebook] posts with a name and acting like we were going to use that. Or photoshopping photos with baby items that had other names on them,” the poster wrote.

The couple chose Dicky, Sprite and Cuntley—a name the poster’s husband heard on TikTok—to maximize the effect.

Predictably, their relatives panicked over the potential names, but they soon caught on after realizing the couple kept changing the names every week.

“They said it was childish,” the poster wrote. “My husband pointed out they were the ones who childishly believed they could name our child for us.”

Newsweek has contacted /u/Extension-Judge-2906 for comment via Reddit.

Unusual names may rise in 2025. Baby name consultant Colleen Slagen, who teamed up with boutique brand JoJo Maman Bébé, said last year: “Cottage-core, virtue and nature names will continue to grow in popularity. However, people will lean more into these trends rather than just picking from the popular favorites from each category.

“Nature names such as Robin, Meadow, Lake, and Cove will rise and cottage-core names I’m hearing a lot include Cordelia, Percival, and Archibald. Virtue names like Haven, Promise, Chosen, Poet and Story will continue to rise.”

The Reddit post has received more than 16,000 upvotes and 690 comments, many of which applauded the prank.

“This is peak petty and I respect it,” one user wrote. “The fact that they got so invested in your baby’s name that they fell for ‘Cuntley’ is sending me.”

Another added, “Your relatives are ridiculous and need to understand boundaries.”

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