'I think my cousin's baby name will get her daughter bullied but she won't listen'

Daily Record

14 hours ago

The concerned cousin wants to help her relative before it's too late.
Picking a name for your baby is a tough decision for any prospective parent. You have to find a name that you like and will be happy using to describe your bundle of joy throughout their life.
But you, obviously, have to consider the child too. It's a title they will hear every single day for years to come, so you don't want to pick something that might cause them trouble.
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And that's exactly the issue one woman is trying to avoid with one pregnant relative. She and her cousin are "like sisters" so the woman tried to persuade her cousin that the name she has picked could potentially see her daughter bullied in future.
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It's not the name itself that she has concerns about, more the unconventional spelling. And having hit a wall with her attempts to talk her cousin round, she turned to social media.
She took to Reddit's Tragedeigh forum, a place where users debate names that are "deliberately misspelled or completely made up to appear more unique than they actually are", to ask for advice.
The woman revealed that her cousin likes the name Phoebe and wants to give it a "unique twist" when her daughter is born, naming her Feabe.
She continued: "I've tried to convince her that people won't understand how to say it, and the traditional spelling looks a lot prettier, but she has her mind set.
"She says nobody will read it differently, and uses the names Lia and Lea as examples. I just don't think it's the same thing. But tell me, is it a Tragedeigh like I think it is? Will the kid get bullied?"
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The woman shared that the due date is fast approaching and she had made several attempts to talk her cousin round, but to no avail.
She said: "I'm struggling here trying to find ways to convince her to change it. I texted her about the Phineas and Ferb reference the kid is going to get, and she just said that she loved the show as a kid.
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"Me and my cousin are super close, like sisters, so any suggestions?"
And she then revealed that her cousin's planned middle name could also be a Tragedeigh. She said: "It also doesn't help that her middle name will be spelt Feiey, like Fae for fairy. So Feabe Feiey."
One user responded to her post: "Wouldn't Fea be a feminine form of feo, Spanish for ugly? Even if not, any chance you can convince your cousin of that?"
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Another user commented: "I would pronounce Feabe as Feeb. Maybe Fabe as a distant second guess." While a third replied: "It's reminding me more of 'feeble' than of 'Phoebe'.'
A fourth person, taking in the name as a whole, said: "Looking at the first name alone, it just felt weird and less absolutely tragic, but somehow it seems SO much worse paired with the middle name."
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Someone else warned: "Any elementary teacher will tell you that Phoebe spelled as Feabe is going to get teased as Flea be and when she's older? Even worse, Fee is for sale to the highest bidder. Kids are Cruel. Girls are crueler."
Another Redditor agreed, adding: "It is more than a Tragedeigh; it is child abuse. The poor kid will be called Feeble or Febreeze, and even well-intentioned people will say it incorrectly.
"It also entirely hides its Greek meaning of 'bright' or 'shining' (as in Phoebus Apollo), and it disconnects it from any of the characters in mythology, or the woman in the Bible, who have the name Phoebe."
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