A young mom’s sweet attempt to honor her grandparents completely backfired after she accidentally gave her newborn a name that some say borders “child abuse.”
At just 20 years old, a new mom had settled on a sentimental way to honor two important people in her life, taking inspiration from her grandparents, Harvey and Charlotte.
Rather than choosing one name over the other, she decided to combine them.
It was only after her baby girl had been named that the rest of the family discovered exactly what she had come up with – and according to one relative, the paperwork had already been finalized by the time they heard it.
“She named her something so horrific I cannot even call the baby it,” the woman’s cousin wrote on Reddit. “This poor child. Harlotte. HARLOTTE.”
The problem was immediately obvious to everyone else: Harlotte, a portmanteau, is frighteningly close to “harlot,” a word historically used to describe a prostitute.
And when the name was finally revealed to the family, the reaction was anything but subtle.
“My mom burst out, ‘YOU NAMED THE BABY W***???’ and my cousin started screaming. We are a loud family, but holy hell,” the original poster said, adding that she started calling the newborn “Piglet” because of her pink and “puggy nose.”
‘That’s child abuse’
Once the story made its way online, strangers had plenty of other suggestions for what the little girl could be called, with Charley, Harley, Charvey and Lottie emerging as possible escapes from the unfortunate name her mother had chosen.
“Did no one hand her a dictionary opened to the word ‘harlot’ and ask her if she really wanted to saddle her precious child with such a name?” one person asked. “I vote with everyone else, I would call the child Lottie and keep advocating for a name change.”
Others couldn’t resist pointing out just how badly the attempt to combine Harvey and Charlotte had gone.
“A baby Victorian whore. How sweet,” one netizen wrote.
“I think people inventing a name should probably do a cursory search to make sure they’re not calling their baby a whore,” a second user shared.
“You could even argue that’s child abuse, considering she named her a whore at birth,” another added.
Should some names be banned?
While much of the reaction focused on the unfortunate name itself, the conversation eventually moved beyond Harlotte and into a much bigger debate over how much freedom parents should have when naming their children.
Around the world, naming laws vary widely, with some countries restricting certain choices to protect children from bullying or social harm, preserve cultural traditions, or prevent certain titles from being used as names.
“Often, these rules are there to protect children from names that could be seen as derogatory or make life more difficult for them,” Kaomi Taylor, founder of the Museum of Names, told Today’s Parent. “In some countries, naming laws also serve as a way of preserving cherished cultural traditions and heritage.”
But according to Michael Sherrod, co-author of “Bad Baby Names: The Worst True Names Parents Saddled Their Kids With,” American parents face relatively few restrictions when choosing a name for their child.
That freedom has resulted in some extraordinary real-life examples, including Fanny Pack, Fanny Whiffer, Post Office, Warren Peace, Rubella Graves, Nice Carr, and Hell Hellickson.
“A lot of parents say they want their kids to be unique. They think it’s fun and differentiates their child from everyone else, and gives them a personality,” Sherrod told BBC News.
“Americans are also very proprietary about their children and take the attitude, ‘We can do whatever with our children and if they don’t like it, they can change it when they’re older.’”
Bad names potentially considered child abuse
Despite acknowledging that particularly offensive names could potentially be considered a form of child abuse, Sherrod wasn’t convinced that more legislation was necessarily the answer.
“I’m not saying courts should not intervene, but I would prefer they do so only when parents cannot agree and the item gets taken to court,” he told the outlet.
“I think, for the most part, parents are pretty good at compromise. I would say, anecdotal evidence is that the number of cases considered abusive is so tiny as to not require much law, if any.”
Do you think parents should be free to choose any baby name they want, or should names require approval? Let us know what you think, then share this story to hear what others have to say.
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