A mum-to-be was left horrified when her husband revealed he wanted to name their little girl after his beloved late pet – and when she said she wasn’t keen, his attitude switched
Choosing the perfect moniker for your little one is really important, so one woman was left flabbergasted when her husband suggested that they name their baby after his beloved pet, who had died.
When she said no, he got “defensive”, but there was a long history behind the name that the woman wasn’t too fond of. The cat, named Zoe, was the pet he owned when the pair first started dating, but “the cat was a gift from an ex-girlfriend that they intended on taking care of together. When they broke up, they had ‘joint custody’ until she died”, so the woman thought it was obvious why she wouldn’t want her child to be called the same thing.
She took to Reddit to explain the unique situation, and how her husband wasn’t best pleased she wasn’t keen to use the name. She shared that she and her husband, both 27, got married a year ago, and she was “about 24 weeks along” for her baby.
She wrote: “At my 20-week appointment, they asked if we wanted to know the gender. We wanted to know so we could start planning names ahead of time. Turns out, it’s a girl! I was overjoyed. The next day, we started talking names and he said that he already knew the PERFECT name for a girl – Zoe.
“Here is where the issue begins: Zoe is the name of my husband’s cat who passed away when we first started dating. Not only that, but the cat was a gift from an ex-girlfriend that they intended to take care of together. When they broke up, they had ‘joint custody’ until she died.
“I gently let him know that I don’t really want to name our daughter after his dead cat. He told me to think about it- reasoning that it fit our criteria (short names, bully-proof, cute, unique so that nobody else in her class will have it, but not so unique that people won’t know how to pronounce it) and he considered cat-Zoe like a daughter to him. I jokingly responded, ‘So you want to name our baby after your kid from your last marriage?'”
But rather than taking it well, he “didn’t laugh”, and “instead, he got defensive” about it. She continued: “I said that I didn’t really like the idea of naming our daughter after something that he associated with his last relationship. He started getting teary-eyed, presumably because he was thinking about his dead pet.
“He then responded with ‘Fine, it’s your baby. Name it whatever you want.’ Since then I’ve been here and there suggesting names I see elsewhere, and every time he responds with ‘I don’t care. Do what you want.’ I can’t help but feel like the a**hole, maybe I’m being too stubborn? I do like the name Zoe, it’s just that I don’t think I’d be able to move past the history behind it. Am I the a**hole?”
