Choosing a unique moniker for your little one can be really difficult, especially before they're born and you've not seen them face to face. Parents must always remember that it's their choice, and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of their little one's name - people will always pass judgement no matter what, so you may as well do what's right for you.
One woman, for example, was kicked out of her sister's baby shower when she burst out laughing after discovering the name she was set to give her little girl. The woman claimed her sister and her husband had decided to merge their names together to come up with the moniker for their impending arrival , but it had ended up sounding like a bacteria.
The mum-to-be's name is Ella and her husband is called Sam, meaning their baby girl would take on the name "Samnella", which caused Ella's sister to start laughing as she realised how close to Salmonella it sounded. This didn't impress her sister though.
In a post on Reddit, the woman claimed: "I have a younger sister Ella. She got married to Sam last year in a small socially distanced wedding. We knew they'd want kids right away, and last Sunday was the baby shower. I knew she'd announce the gender and name at it, but Sam's mother arranged it so it was a surprise.
"[During the gender reveal] pink comes out and we all cheer. Ella goes, 'okay name reveal' and that's when she pulls out a baby onesie with 'Samnella' on it.
"There were a few 'woo' [noises] but [then] dead silence, and I laughed, thinking it wasn't real. Then I said 'Salmonella like food poisoning?'.
"Sam's mum freaks out about how it's a beautiful name, Ella is screaming that I've ruined everything and the name was meant to signify the coming together of them. My own mother hissing that I should have kept my mouth shut, how the kid would probably go by Sammy.
"Not going to lie I left after that. I'm told the party went on but the mood was different."
The woman says her sister is adamant that most people love the name when they hear it, but she thinks they're just "being nice" and don't actually think it makes a good baby name.
She added: "Family seems mixed on it, with a fair few agreeing Samnella does sound like salmonella, and caught off guard they'd have giggled too, but also a lot of 'well, it's her baby if she likes the name'.
"I do think I shouldn't have laughed, but also, how have multiple people heard Samnella and just thought 'yeah sounds cute'? My sister says everyone else loves and compliments the name, I think they're just being nice."
Others on the Reddit thread were equally as baffled by the name choice, wondering why the parents had opted for that.
"Surely a wind-up? If not, no child's name should sound like a bad chicken curry", someone asked.
Another said: "All I could think of is that poor kid in biology class in the future. We used to get teased if a character from an English lesson or an example sentence for grammar had our name in it. The kid is named after a disease!"
A third wrote: "You are doing them a service. Now they’ll hopefully be embarrassed out of using that awful name."
What do you think of the name? Let us know in the comments.
