We've all had to search our brains for something nice to say when a well-meaning friend or coworker tells us their truly awful baby name. But one mom is having a problem just grinning and bearing it. Her coworker's new baby girl had a pretty typical name, but the real problem is that she didn't get the spelling quite right. Unsure if she should tell the new mama that she might have made a flub, the coworker took to Mumsnet to ask other parents if they would suggest correcting the name or keep quiet. And it seems like people are split.
The drama started when user CaptainCabinets saw her coworker's new baby name online and originally thought it was an error.
The name is more commonly spelled "Phoebe" and the user wondered if she should give her coworker a heads-up.
Later in the thread, CaptainCabinets said that she would want to know if she had made such a crucial mistake.
"The kid will only get called Phoebe all her life anyway, will be a nightmare for official documents etc." she reasoned.
Many people agreed with CaptainCabinets and said she should tell her coworker IMMEDIATELY.
She's "committing her child to a lifetime of spelling her name out," argued one person.
"A few minutes of embarrassment vs years of it spelling it out when the name's been registered," someone else said.
And someone who knew a "Mellisa" spoke her truth.
But not everyone agreed. Some people thought that CaptainCabinets should keep her concerns to herself.
One person argued that CaptainCabinets wasn't the right person to drop the bomb.
Only if it was "someone really close to me (…) then I'd tell them," she argued.
And another person felt like the OP had nothing to gain for making the correction.
Someone else pointed out that CaptainCabinet's coworker might have *wanted* to spell the name that way.
There are no laws against spelling the name wrong, she argued.
Perhaps the best thing that CaptainCabinets can do is take a step back and let her coworker spell the name however she wants. Who knows? Maybe, Pheobe could be the next big baby name trend!
