Women really get worked up about baby names

[KotOD]

My wife is pregnant again and we were kicking around names for the second kid. If it's a girl, we already know what the name is going to be, but we've been coming up with names for another boy. We have a couple that we each like and the other doesn't and we have two that we both like. One of them is Oscar. When people ask, and we tell them that Oscar is getting strong consideration, they get exceedingly rude and worked up. It's mostly women, whether we know them well or not.

We've had people, including reasonably close acquaintances and as well as people in passing conversation, tell us "Your child will hate you." "People will beat him up." "He'll grow up and change it." "He's going to kill you when he gets old enough." "He won't have any friends with that name." "He's going to grow up with a complex." "People will say he smells."

It's interesting that younger people don't have an issue with this. We've not had a person under 30 say an unkind word. These are grown adults, all 30+ and the majority are 40+ saying this stuff.

They all have this bizarre notion that we are going to be naming him after the Sesame Street character Oscar The Grouch. As if there are no other people ever born named Oscar. Men seem to see this right away -- they've seen or know of Oscar Charleston, Oscar Robertson, Oscar De La Hoya -- but to women? Nope, we're naming him after a sesame street character.

I guess I understand frame of reference, but what the hell is wrong with these women? Why in the hell would they say things like this?

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

Oscar? WTF?

[TheDudeAbides]

I can't speak to your main issue - but I personally think Oscar is a frickin' awesome name.

[punkass]

women are dumb.

i like the name.

[BuckyK]

Who care's what they think. If you ask them to give you a name, you'll get a different answer from each of them.

Oscar is an awesome name.

[4_2_it]

[ QUOTE ]
Oscar is an awesome name.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. It's far superior to Ernie and Bert, but no quite as awesome as Grover.

[KotOD]

[ QUOTE ]
Who care's what they think.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, we don't, but we're both just stunned at the way that they respond. It starts as astonishment and ends in anger and they are incredibly shrill the entire time.

The reaction is solidifying Oscar as the choice in my mind.

[secretprankster]

Oscar is bad, not close.

[DrewDevil]

My wife and I had a fairly spirited debate when she was pregnant with her son. We agreed we would name him "James Donald" after both his grandfathers, but the argument was about what to call him.

I was fine with James, Jim, Jimmy or Jay. My wife really really wanted it to be "J.D." Well, I hate hate hate the initial thing, and I think J.D. sounds like a redneck and/or a mechanic.

So back and forth we went. She finally agreed that we would call him Jay, but as part of the bargain I had to forfeit any input into the name of the second child, at least in theory.

The lucky part is that my wife isn't obsessed with naming our children something that no one has ever been named before, or in choosing one of those currently en vogue "yuppie names" that make me want to puke. We have friends who have actually named their children:

Brock
Avery
Riverson
Lee-Lee

But back to the OP--the next time some woman does this, ask her what her kids are named, and then slam the name right to her face. "Wow, that's 100 times worse than Oscar. Were you drunk when you decided on that one?"

That should stop it.

[NeedATimeMachine]

I see nothing wrong with the name Oscar