Dad-to-Be Urged to Copy Name of Cousin's New Baby: 'Our Hearts Set on It'

A pregnant woman has divided opinions online after asking if she was being unreasonable for wanting to use the same baby name her husband's cousin chose for his child because she had chosen it first—and most people said she should go for it.

In a post shared on Mumsnet, under the username Blubbery, the soon-to-be mom explained that she and her husband "have had [their] hearts set on [the name] for years," and their cousin and wife knew about it, however, they used it on their own daughter, who was born a couple of weeks ago.

She said: "Ours is due next week. Would you still use the same name?" Adding that she would still like to use it, but her husband "isn't too happy" about it.

Though there are obviously countless names available, some always seem to be more popular than others. According to BabyCenter, the most popular names this year include Olivia, Emma and Amelia for girls, and Liam, Noah and Oliver for boys—the same as last year.

In the comments, the woman explained that the name is not a family name, although they will use a family name as a middle name, but different from the one their cousin has used.

Among the 122 users who have left comments in the thread since it was first posted on Wednesday, most thought that everyone should be able to use a name, while some thought it would be quite awkward at family gatherings.

One user, Kpo58, commented: "If it is a [unique] spelling of a normal name, then don't go for the same name, otherwise just make sure that they have a middle name with a different initial to the other baby to differentiate them at family meetings."

And YourUserNameMustBeAtLeast3Characters said: "I'd only worry if they live in [the] same area and mix a lot. My cousin was pregnant at the same time as me and I was worried she'd call her child the same as mine (our [husbands] are from the same background and it's an obvious name that works well in English too).

"She didn't, phew. But I'd completely overlooked that it's almost the same name as another cousin's child. It's no issue at all, the common great-grandparents are long since dead and my mum and aunty mix up everyone's names anyway."

Another user, MajorCarolDanvers said: "No one owns a name. Call your baby what you want." While SweetLittlePixie wrote: "I wouldn't use it. Just pick something else. Yours will just be "Anna 2" forever. Unless you never see them, then it doesn't matter I guess. But everyone will think you copied."

KeepOutingMyselfAnotherNameChange commented: "If it is the same first name and surname and you actually see each other pretty often then definitely not. They'd be fuming and everyone would think you were odd and copied them."

And Stripyhoglets1 said: "Yes use it. They knew so if they [complain] just say "You knew we were going to use the name so if you're bothered about both having the same name you should have picked something else!" My cousin used a name we used but there's [a]10-year age gap. And we didn't care at all anyway. No one owns a name!"

Newsweek wasn't able to verify the details of the case.