He probably should have been honest and upfront about it, but he also named their kid after something he obviously loves, and I think that's great. If she loved the name before knowing its origin, she should love it even more for being associated with something that at least one parent thinks is beautiful.
The issue there is that she loved Moana. He thought she would get bullied for that name, so instead named her after a bug. He put his love for insects over his wife's love, and tried to rationalize it to himself. But his rationalization doesn't hold under the least bit of scrutiny, because more kids would tease her after being named after an insect than a Disney movie. The saving grace here is that the cicada doesn't come up in Urban Dictionary (kids love that shit), and it comes up after the Brazilian municipality.
Overall, I'd say he is the butt head, but it's not a huge deal.
Who is going to recognize that name as being after a bug though? Only people who they tell, lol
In Maori, Maua means "we", or "both of us". It's also shorthand for "we share similar beliefs".
Could have gone that route.
It’s a sister subreddit with more lax application of the rules. They did a few of those, mainly for April fools.
How can the rules be more lax? More than half of aita reads like rage bait written by chatgpt
There are many topics that aren’t allowed on the main sub (revenge stories, violence, asking for advice, etc.) that would be allowed on aitb.
I’ve seen way more fake posts on other aita subs (r/AITAH, r/TwoHotTakes, etc.), the moderation on r/aita usually catches most obvious rage bait posts.
I had to google that abbreviation and only came up with
Adventures In The Beetroot Field (booking agency; London, UK)
I eventually clicked on the reddit link though, after putting on some rubber gloves and taking a few anti-nausea pills. There i found the right explanation
All that work and it's literally in the screenshot lol. The sub name is not abbreviated.
I mean it's a beautiful name, who really cares if it's named after a genus of Cicadas? There are worse sounding "normal" names out there. Plus it's named after OP's passion, I think that shows a lot of love
I wonder if they are aware that in Europe the Disney character is called Vaiana, because there is a porn star named Moana.
I got downvoted to hell for stating the same thing on reddit a couple of years ago!
Also, the choice was not just to avoid association with the porn star. The name Moana was not legally available to Disney in several European countries so they had to find a different name
i love the idea that disney would for some reason care about a porn star that barely anyone has ever heard about, as if search results for the name wouldn't instantly be overwhelmed by the disney movie..
the legal issues have to like 97% of the reason for the name change
Thank you kind sir for the vintage research material.
Apparently there were legitimate trademark issues also at play. Apparently its an Ice cream brand in Romania and a perfume brand in Spain.
I mean I have said I would want to name my kid Nodo-Chinko. It's the Japanese word for the Uvula but it more directly translates to "throat penis"....
So he could have done way worse.
I mean チンコ (chinko) is still censored on at least TV, so I think it's a little disingenuous to say it's the word. The actual word is 口蓋垂 ( こうがいすい - kougaisui) whose kanji mean something like mouth, cover, and zig-zaggy thing (specifically a type of Shinto zig-zag paper design, according to my dictionary).
Idk it's not the worst name ever. Definitely sounds like a "kooky millennial parents wanted an interesting name" name. But there's worse. Much worse. He should've told her where it came from though, kinda a dumb thing to not involve your wife in. You know. The name of her child.
I don't think it's on him for not knowing that when she agreed to marry an Entomologist. It's nobody's job to read their partner's mind, they need to communicate likes and dislikes during the courting phase and I'm sure there were plenty of opportunities to bring that topic up.
I'm not blaming him at all. Him being an Entomologist makes this all worse. She didn't even question where the name came from.
People make such a big deal of naming their kids. Just give them regular old names and call it a day. How about Paul? I guarantee everyone will feel indifferent to it, so it's a winner.
call it a day
If they were afraid that the name Moana might be bullied at school, then Day would maybe be even worse
Paul Rudd is so charismatic you feel like you've met him even if he's only on your TV screen.
So many good names to reuse. I say we pull out some victorian names, we've gotten past the "that's my grandma" part of the cycle so it's about due pretty soon.
Paul is a weird name for a girl. I'd rather go with McKenzie or Murphy or Noah. Now those are some girly names.
She didn't one day googe it for some reason, she read through his papers and found it for some reason.
What's wrong with bugs? They're cool, while a made up string of characters (that sounds good) might be better I don't see what's wrong with using an uncommon scientific name. Then again being honest is likely helpful.
There's nothing wrong with bugs. It's all about intent, and he clearly intended to hide this from her because he knew (correctly) it would be a problem for her. So it was a lie by withholding relevant information. About their daughters name. Its messed up. It's also dumb because it's so easy to look up the origin of a name that this "secret" isn't really one at all.
It would be, but he did say he thought it was a harmless secret. That could be read as though he didn't know it would bother her.
Like, my name allegedly means things, but unless my mom really hates the Irish, I don't think many of them would set her off.
I see your point, but can't square it.
If he had said "I didn't think it mattered so I didn't think to tell her" that would make sense, but the fact that he said he deliberately hid it (ie harmless secret) means he knew she wouldn't like it. Which makes sense because I think it would be pretty common to get "no" for an answer when you ask your spouse if you can name your kid after a bug.
Mm, yeah, that's possible, too. I think I just considered that to be a turn a phrase.
This is almost off-topic, but I've always found it kind of funny that people ask questions like these in AITA when they could get an answer if they just thought about it for 5 minutes. Like, "Wow, my wife really hates this. And, it either was or was not my fault, so... hm."
I was questioning why it became so problematic. It's still a good name and could totally have been a coincidence. The name being related to work seems like the main issue to me.
I was questioning why it became so problematic.
I guess I left this part out: If you haven't noticed, many people don't like bugs.
What? Why would I have nightmares about the thing that secures my continued paycheck?
I fucking love 'em.
i guess it depends on whether you're working for someone else or not. I'd guess most independent programmers would rather make new things rather then just fixing what they've made before.
Because having a weird name makes you a target for bullying. Also the name of a loud and annoying beetle is worse.
In my experience having a common name has that effect too. I feel like every name has the potential for bullies to target it. Also this is only one subcategory of beetle (that most people likely don't know) if I read it correctly.
All the less reason to be upset about naming your kid after a bug. If the bug isn't even Google's first association, why should it be yours?
Bullshit.
You're making a joint decision that will last a lifetime. Both are expected to contribute and understand
Doesn't have to last a life time, just till their old enough to change their dumb name to something less "unique"
I'd still be looking it up as the husband. I wouldn't want to risk giving my kid a name that sounds good but has a terrible etymology.
People who don't care what other think? I don't think people googled names they like in the 1900's
Children do descend upon large amounts of sweets in the same way that insects do. That's all I'm saying.
They buzz around too. Sometimes in swarms. They can be adorable and fuzzy, as well as annoying and gross. They can be vampires and drain your energy. They can be essential to our life/enviroment too.
It's really hard to put myself in the shoes of someone so against cicadas... Like I get that it's possible to not like them so intensely you wouldn't want your name to be inspired by them, but I'm just not sure how I'd have that person in my life.
I'd be mad if my child was named after a cicada instead of a cooler bug. If you name the child after something more dangerous they will be ready to dominate the playground. No toddler would have the courage to mess with a kid named Yellowjacket.
He should show her this. The fact that it means “flowers” in Swahili might help. It won’t solve the trust issues, but it’s better than nothing.
The same reason a lot of people do: because it sounds nice. Plus, maybe flowers were what the cicada was named after. When someone discovers a species, they usually get a decent amount of leeway when naming it.
honestly it's not just a decent amount of leeway, it's basically free game so long as you're not outright offensive.
There's a gene called "sonic hedgehog", and many other organisms with names that are specifically meant to just be funny and absurd.
"I did a lil appropriating cuz I thought it was cute"
Edit downvotes from people who just googled their kid's name
Some cultures are less strict with naming conventions. Americans seem to love coming up with quirky names