A woman is seeking advice after her attempts to persuade her cousin to reconsider an 'atrocious' baby name have hit a wall. Desperate to sway her cousin from the unconventional spelling of her unborn daughter's name, she has turned to Reddit for guidance.
Taking to the Tragedeigh forum, a term referring to names that are "deliberately misspelled or completely made up to appear more unique than it actually is," she expressed her concerns about the name. Her cousin is fond of the name Phoebe but wants to give it a 'unique' twist by spelling it Feabe.
She explained: "I've tried to convince her that people won't understand how to say it, and the traditional spelling looks a lot prettier, but she has her mind set. She says nobody will read it differently, and uses the names Lia and Lea as examples. I just don't think it's the same thing. But tell me, is it a tragedeigh like I think it is? Will the kid get bullied?".
The concerned woman has been tirelessly trying to persuade her cousin to retain the original spelling, but with the due date fast approaching, her worry for the child's future intensifies. She continued: "I'm struggling here on trying to find ways to convince her to change it. I texted her about the Phineas and Ferb reference the kid is going to get, and she just said that she loved the show as a kid.
"My cousin and I are super close, like sisters, so any suggestions? It also doesn't help that her middle name will be spelt Feiey, like Fae for Fairy. So Feabe Feiey."
One user responded to her post: "Wouldn't Fea be a feminine form of feo, Spanish for ugly? Even if not, any chance you can convince your cousin of that?".
Another user chimed in: "I would pronounce Feabe as Feeb. Maybe Fabe as a distant second guess." A third user warned: "Any elementary teacher will tell you that Phoebe spelled as Feabe is going to get teased as Flea be and when she's older? Even worse, Fee is for sale to the highest bidder. Kids are Cruel. Girls are crueler."
Yet another user added: "It is more than a tragedy. The poor kid will be called Feeble or Febreeze, and even well-intentioned people will say it incorrectly. It also entirely hides its Greek meaning of 'bright' or 'shining' (as in Phoebus Apollo), and it disconnects it from any of the characters in mythology, or the woman in the Bible, who have the name Phoebe."
