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One of the first decisions parents of newborns have to make is what to call their child. There are many names to choose from, but with that, a lot can go wrong with the final choice. It could have another meaning, be spelled weirdly, or just be a bizarre name, but it turns out something else could happen - the first name might not pair too well with the last name, which is what is going on with what one man plans to call his child, and his wife is not happy about it.
The 35-year-old took her issue to Reddit, explaining how she and her 37-year-old husband are overjoyed to be expecting their first child after struggles with infertility. Her husband wants to name the baby after his recently deceased grandfather, who he "absolutely idolized," so he is planning on Theodore if it's a boy or Theodora for a girl. It seems like a nice enough name, except when you hear it next to their last name, which is Bounde, pronounced "bun-dee." Ted Bundy, of course, is the serial killer who murdered at least 35 people in the 1970s.
The wife stated, "I asked my husband, do you really see no issue in naming our kid Teddy Bounde? You don’t think that would raise any questions?" but her husband had no qualms. She added:
"I told him he needs to think about how we will be perceived, how our child will be treated, and the implications that that name inherently carries. I literally had to spell out why that would be a horrible idea, and he still thinks I just hate his grandpa. I told him no, grandpa was named in 1930 when the name Teddy Bounde wouldn’t have been a problem. However, since certain events in the 70s & 80s, there’s no feasible way we can give this name to our kid and not cause issues. He kept pushing and pushing until I blew up and told him to stop with the idiotic suggestion, and that’s what it is; idiotic at best, sociopathic at worst. He got extremely upset and told his family and my parents, who are divided. His family is obviously on his side and wants to honor grandpa [by] naming the baby after him. My parents are torn but on my side, as they understand the social pariah we would make our child by giving them such a similar name to the person who did such abhorrent and downright evil things to so many women. I mean, personally, I don’t think anyone is just going to assume that we are honoring a passed loved one; they’re just going to think of Ted Bundy."
She asked commenters for their thoughts and nearly all of them agreed with her. One wrote, "Anyone encouraging you to name your kid Ted Bundy, may, in fact, be an in-the-closet murderer," while another said, "I have a friend who has a very similar name to a well-known serial killer. He has to wind up basically apologizing for his name wherever he goes, even though he has absolutely no relation to the guy. It’s pretty sad. There are many ways you can honor your husband’s grandfather without giving the baby such an unfortunate name."
No word on what the outcome was or if they instead went with Theodore or Theodora as a middle name, but you can read the entire post and more of the comments here.