These Reddit Siblings Tried to Stop Their Sister from Naming Her Baby After Their Grandma for the Most Heartbreaking Reason
Sibling spats are unavoidable, even when you grow older. You just go from squabbling over the last purple popsicle to, say, fighting over your future baby names. That’s exactly what happened to one mom-to-be on Reddit, who announced her intention to name her baby girl after their late grandma. But instead of a happy, excited reaction from her siblings, they immediately shot down the name choice — then tried their best to get her to change her mind.
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At first glance, this “Am I The A—hole?” post seems obvious — just let her name her baby what she wants! — but when you find out the heartbreaking reasons the siblings are trying to gatekeep the name, you might just change your mind.
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The Big Announcement
Image Credit: Kampus Production/Pexels A woman wrote into Reddit to see if she was TA for telling her sister not to use their late grandma’s name for her unborn baby girl. She explains that her sister invited several family members over to make a big announcement: “that she wanted to honor Grandma by naming her Josephine after her.”
It sounds sweet at first. “My mom was over the moon happy about it,” the sister explained. But her and her brothers immediately felt off about it. After commenting on why they were so quiet, the OP decided to tell her sister the truth.
“I told her I did get it but she should probably know that grandma hated her name Josephine and she wanted people to call her Rosie,” the OP wrote. “My sister was shocked and asked why she never knew and I told her it was because grandma was sick by the time she was old enough to really remember her. My sister said everyone else called her Josephine. I told her most people did and she hated it.”
The sister explained that their grandma’s name was Josephine Rose, but that she “hated her first name and the nicknames people called her (Jojo, Jo, Josie).” Because of this, her closest friends and her husband called her Rosie. “But her parents and her only sister told her she was silly for hating her name and called her Josephine her whole life,” the OP explained, which is so sad. “My mom and her siblings ended up ignoring what grandma and grandpa told them about grandma hating her name and would always say they were ‘Josephine’s kids’ and not Rosie’s.”
Her grandkids decided to call her “Granny Rosie” so that “someone in her life would call her what she preferred.” The whole story is making us emotional! Why is it so hard to call someone by their preferred name? These kids have hearts of gold, but for some reason their parents didn’t respect the name change.
“She was so happy and when she died, my mom and her siblings insisted she would be called Josephine in the obituary and never mentioned Rosie in it at all,” she wrote. “My sister was too young to really remember the whole discussion and she wasn’t even born when we started calling grandma Granny Rosie.”
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Hurt Feelings All Around
Image Credit: Getty The mom-to-be decided to ask her brothers to weigh in, and they reiterated that they believed grandma “wouldn’t have seen her using the name Josephine as an honor for her and likely would have said she just liked the name.”
So then the sister went to ask her parents — and the claws came out.
“All hell broke loose and my parents were asking how we could lie and disrespect grandma like that,” the OP wrote. “My sister then said we just didn’t like the name and it was terrible for me to lie about her disliking Josephine and going by Rosie when she could never name her daughter Rosie.”
So now they are accusing the siblings of making the whole thing up? It’s wild! If it wasn’t true, why would any of them have a problem with her naming her daughter after a grandma that clearly all loved? So to prove a point, the brothers pulled out old letters from their grandparents.
“My brother kept letters our grandparents wrote to each other. Each and every letter, Grandma was Rosie,” she wrote. “She also wrote Rosie on IDs she had when she volunteered.”
Finally, the sister admitted that it was true. However, she maintains that her siblings “shouldn’t have told her.” So she doesn’t feel guilty when she wants to use the name anyway? I get that the sister was too young to know better, but now that she does, it seems like it would be dishonoring her grandma’s memory to go this route.
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The Consensus Is Clear: Sticking Up for Grandma Rosie Is The Right Thing To Do
Redditors agreed that the OP is NTA, as she was just sticking up for her grandma Rosie.
“Sooo they disrespected randma the entire time she was alive, and now they want to continue that tradition, but also get cred for ‘honoring’ said grandma,” one person commented. “Sis should just admit she likes the name Josephine and it’s not really about grandma at all.”
The OP responded to this comment, clarifying how much the family has already disrespected the grandma. “Yes and even went against her wishes for her obituary. She wanted to be called Rosie in it,” she wrote. “Also requested it for her headstone. Josephine is on everything because her kids didn’t want to honor what she wanted.”
Someone else commented, “She wanted to honor your grandmother. You grandmother preferred Rosie. To use Josephine would be DIShonoring the grandmother. Does your sis really want to honor your grandmother or was it just an ‘excuse’ to name the baby Josephine? NTA for stepping up for your beloved Granny Rosie.”
The sister responded: “I think it’s a little of both. She wanted to honor our grandma but loves the name Josephine and doesn’t like that it’s not a true honor for her, and the fact grandma wouldn’t have liked it. She could just use Josephine because she loves it and not as an honor to grandma.”
Someone else summed it up nicely: “NTA the baby should be named Rose if she wants to honor the grandmother. If she doesn’t, she can name it whatever she pleases. Bigger issue: the grandparents seem to have lost their minds.” So true!
Baby names can cause emotional reactions in family and friends, and it’s ultimately up to you what you decide to name your baby. But don’t try to pretend your name choice is done to honor someone else when it clearly isn’t — just say you like the name and be done with it.
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