After gifting his pregnant sister a list of ‘joke baby names’ – including names of medications and infections, he revealed that his sister wanted to name her daughter after a fungal infection
Finding the right name for your baby can be a difficult and stressful task. However, sometimes inspiration can come from the most unexpected of places – even from one of your health conditions.
Taking to Reddit, one uncle-to-be expressed his concerns about the name of his future niece, who is due to be born in a few weeks. In the post, he explained that his sister and her husband had been struggling to come up with a name for their baby. Despite their due date creeping closer, they were still stuck on a name.
For the couple’s baby shower, the anonymous user shared that along with giving the expectant parents a crib for their baby, he also wrote a list of joke baby names.
“We have a really close relationship, and it was in line with both our senses of humour,” he explained in the post.
As he’s a biology student and his sister was a nurse, all of the names on the list were names of medications, infections, unpleasant animals. Each option ‘sounds like’ girls names when they are taken out of context.
“Some of them were a little bit obscure, sure, but I included some obvious ones like ‘Viagra’ and ‘Hernia’ for good measure,” he wrote.
Two weeks after the baby shower, the expecting couple revealed that they’d finally agreed on a name for their daughter.
The Redditor explained: “Malassezia. The baby’s name is Malassezia. One of the names on my joke list.
“Outside of the immediate issues (nearly impossible to pronounce on the first try, the ‘a**’ smack dab it the middle of it, the first syllable being mal-, literally meaning bad or evil), it’s also the name of a very common fungal infection. One that my sister and I are both genetically predisposed to.”
Malassezia, also known as Pityriasis versicolor, refers to a group of basidiomycetous (club-shaped) yeasts of the genus Malassezia, which occurs when yeast on your skin multiplies and infects hair follicles, according to the NHS. It’s associated with a variety of conditions, including dandruff, atopic eczema (AE)/dermatitis, pityriasis versicolor, seborrheic dermatitis, and folliculitis.
As they pointed this out to the sister, she said that she was aware of what the name was referring to. However, she ‘really liked’ the way it sounded. She also believes the condition is so obscure that no one would think twice about it.
Unimpressed, the uncle-to-be added: “I told her that the name was completely unacceptable, and I was shocked that she chose it. I even suggested some similar names, like Mallory, Azalea, or Anastasia, that would be more acceptable, but she wouldn’t hear it!
“She said that since I’m not one of the parents, I have no business telling her what she can and cannot name her child, and that I’m stepping way out of line.
“I think it’s pregnancy hormones, and she’ll regret the decision very soon after her daughter is born.”
Several people took to the comments section – with many urging the Reddit poster to talk to his brother-in-law to make sure he knew the meaning of the name.
“While your sis is right that it’s her parental right, you’re not stepping out of line – you’re family and you’re cautioning her,” one person wrote.
Another viewer said: “I’d also make a point of telling her husband what the name means.”
A third wrote: “Any middle school or high school classmate who browses a skincare subreddit will know malassezia yeast. The kids at school will find out what her name means and call her Yeastie. It’s going to be bad.”
Another person provided a different perspective as they wrote: “Is it possible your sister is trolling you back about the baby name? Most of my friends and family have had no idea what baby name they liked until the baby arrived and some still struggled.”
A further commenter thought this theory was plausible, reassuring the Redditor: “Dude, she’s pranking you!”
