She found out what’s in a name.
Mairéad Stevens, an England-based mother of two, was so torn up with bitter regret about the baby name she chose for her son that she “cried almost daily” for six months.
On her family TikTok account, Stevens explains in a viral video that although she doesn’t regret her children’s names anymore, “When we had our son, everybody we knew had boys. All our family, all our friends….[and] all the names that were on my top list for a boy had been taken.”
This included a name that she said, “I was in love with the most. I thought it just went perfectly with my little girl’s name.”
She revealed in a TikTok comment that her daughter’s name is Maggie.
She said, unfortunately, the boy name that she had her heart set on had already been “taken” by another family she knew. “My husband and I became so paranoid that if we used that name, they would think we were copying them,” she said.
So she and her husband, Lee, opted to give their son a different name.
“We settled on a common name that nobody we knew had used. For the first six months, I cried almost daily over my decision. I regretted it so much. I just didn’t think he suited that name,” she said.
So what was this controversial baby name that made her cry daily? Did she accidentally name her son after a pop-culture villain or a dictator? After all, some “Game of Thrones” fans named their daughters Khaleesi, but then Daenerys (played by Emilia Clarke) turned into a mass murderer.
That’s not what happened here. Stevens originally wanted to name her baby Max, but she ended up naming him James instead.
Not exactly a name worth sobbing over — but she insists she cried daily.
Her video has been viewed more than 2 million times, with many commenters sharing empathy.
“We wanted to call [our] daughter Lyla, my parents didn’t like it so we chose Sophie. I was upset at first, but she suits her name now,” one viewer commented.
Another UK-based mom wrote, “My lad is called Bennett and it fits him so well now but for the first 3 months I’d cringe when people said it and couldn’t say it myself.”
One viewer named James clearly took offense to her regret over her name choice, writing, “What’s wrong with James!??”
The worst part of all this agony?
“We didn’t even get a congratulations from the family that we were so scared of copying,” Stevens said.
“So, I guess it’s just a lesson not to worry about what everyone else thinks.”