I love my daughter’s name but worry I’m setting her up for failure – people say she sounds like a Teletubby
A WOMAN has been having serious second thoughts about her daughter’s name after people said it sounded like a Teletubby.
It’s made her reconsider her choice because she is now worried the name will only set her up for failure.
She felt she needed to gauge the general consensus over her choice so took her dilemma to Reddit.
Any doubts she may have had were duly confirmed by Redditors in spectacular fashion.
One comment summed up the overriding view of this child’s moniker: “I think it’s on the cruel side. Give her a proper name.”
She started her post with a simple question: “If we name our daughter Lala will we be setting her up for failure?”
Then she offered some background to her story.
“After a long infertility journey, my husband and I are finally about to welcome our first child, a baby girl. We haven’t yet finalized a name for our daughter.
“So far, there has only been one name we both love and a couple names we both like.
“Our last name is long and a mouth full. So, we prefer a short cute name.”
The couple live in a city in the rural west where they have encountered some unusual names.
“[There are] lots of country cowboy names out here. So I don’t feel the name we love is unusual.”
But they were certain they had found the right name for their baby.
“We love the name Lala. Nothing to do with the Lalas on TV,” she insisted, referring to the British television children’s series, that achieved something approaching cult status.
Among its characters were the aforementioned Laa-Laa, alongside Dipsy, Tinky Winky, and Po.
There were other names like liked, such as Kyle, Blair, and Isla, but Lala was their favorite.
They were experiencing some misapprehension, however.
“Would naming our daughter Lala set her up for failure? Twenty years from now, will she struggle to get job interviews?”
The overwhelming answer from Redditors was a big fat yes.
This commenter did not hold back: “This kid would be humiliated at school.”
Another view was shared by this person: “One of my coworkers uses Lala as his daughter’s pet name. He’s the only one allowed to call her that and not in public or in front of her friends.”
There were too many connotations for this commenter: “The first thing that comes to my mind is the Teletubby. There’s also a yogurt smoothie drink called Lala.”
Not such a great name for a grown-up figured this Redditor: “Lala is cute for a baby, but infantilizing for an adult.”
“Do they have brothers named Dipsy, Tinky-Winky and Po?” enquired this person.
Someone made a plea: “You’re setting them up for failure and severe bullying.”
More commonsense from this person: “Lala is a cute name for a toddler, less so for a 40-year-old woman at the board meeting.”
Please reconsider said this Redditor: “She will forever be asked what her real name is. So why not just give her a respectable full name that she can fall back on?”