Young mother accidentally gives baby ‘appalling’ X-rated name as people say it should be ‘banned’

Coming up with a unique and special baby name often means taking inspiration from loved ones, but one mother seems to have taken it a bit too far with her chosen moniker for her baby girl.

A Reddit user shared the name that her 20-year-old cousin landed on after she gave birth to her daughter before the family descended into chaos upon learning the X-rated name. 

Writing in the popular online forum, the user explained that her cousin had decided to create a new name out of her grandparents’ names, which were Harvey and Charlotte.

But the lovely sentiment was overshadowed by the portmanteau the mother decided to go with.

‘She named her something so horrific I cannot even call the baby it. She combined two names and came up with… “Harlotte”,’ the mortified user wrote.

The family were kept in the dark about the baby’s name until after the parents had signed her legal documents to confirm it.

‘My mom burst out, “YOU NAMED THE BABY W****???” and my cousin started screaming. We are a loud family, but holy hell,’ she recalled.

‘This poor child. Harlotte. HARLOTTE.’

The name bears a striking resemblance to the word ‘harlot’, a word originating from Middle English that means ‘prostitute’.

While the word is considered slightly archaic today, the definition remains the same.

As the post author said she couldn’t bring herself to call the baby by her given name, she added: ‘She came out very pink and has a puggy nose so I’m calling her Piglet for now.’

Other users who commented on the post had similarly horrified reactions to the name, branding it ‘appalling’.

‘I would immediately and INSISTENTLY start calling that child Lottie and never look back,’ one person wrote.

Another said: ‘99.9 per cent of the time I advocate for to-be parents to keep names to themselves. This is the 0.1 per cent.’

Some people suggested that the mother could have named her daughter Charley, Charvey, Harley, or Harvette, if a combination name was that important to her.

A user whose own daughter is named Charlotte shared an anecdote about a time when the name ‘Harlotte’ accidentally became part of their Christmas plans.

‘I’ve shared this before but my daughter is Charlotte and one year the “C” fell off the little Christmas ornament with her name on it which was unfortunate but also pretty funny (and we fixed it pretty quickly).

‘It was amusing as an accident, but on purpose it’s just awful.’

A number of people advocated for parents to only be able to choose from a list of legal names provided by the government, to avoid such unfortunate naming incidents.

‘Sometimes I think of countries that literally have a list of legal names to choose from,’ one person opined.

‘Some people say that’s an affront to their freedoms… but really the list is typically very long and has every typical name known in that language.

‘Just bans things like this so kids aren’t abused their whole upbringing because their jacka** parents named them Bætmàn.’

Another added: ‘Oh how happy I am to live in a country where names are regulated and people can’t give their baby any offensive names.’

Countries like Iceland, Germany, Sweden, China and Japan restrict baby names, only allowing parents to choose from a list of legally approved names, or seek permission from a special committee if they wish to go with something different.

In New Zealand, parents are not allowed to name their children anything starts with a number.

Some of the reasons for this include protecting the child’s welfare and avoiding gender confusion.