'He was supposed to be a girl': 15-year-old teenage son asks his mother to stop telling everyone the story of how he got his name to everyone that she meets

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Mar 11, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Every kid knows the horror of going shopping with your mom and having to stop to each and every single stranger she meets. Strangers, probably people she works with, who know you're entire life story thanks to the long hours at the office they spend together.

Except you've never met this stranger before, but they're holding your gaze level, eyes wrinkled with that knowing smile of someone who knows your deepest, most private, and embarrassing moments, and most closely kept secrets. They talk to you like you should know who they are as if they're some long lost auntie.

As if that's not enough, your mom proceeds to unload every little detail about your life to this person, still standing in the middle of the store, loud enough for anyone to hear as they're walking past. 

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  • This is up there with Johnny Cash's “A Boy Named Sue" levels of parental torture. People shouldn't be naming their children for their own benefit, they should be naming them for the child's benefit, which is, I guess, what “Sue's" father argues he was doing in the original song.

    Sure, there's nothing wrong with the name itself, assuming the real name is as normal as “Alexander"—the placeholder name they gave in the story. But, the teen has every right to not have a private and possibly embarrassing detail aired like dirty laundry to every person who crosses your path.

    After the latest instance of this, the teen shared their experience with this online community, appealing to readers to see if they were in the wrong for asking their mother to stop sharing the story of their naming.

  • 01

    "It embarrasses me to no end and I've told her over and over to please not tell that to every new friend her or I make."

    Cheezburger Image 10478547712
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+
  • 02

    "AITA for telling my mother to stop telling people the story behind my name?"

    I (15M) and my mother (39F) have similar names due to my mother naming me after her. I don't dislike my name at all. But the story behind it and how my mother constantly wants to tell it to the world is the problem.
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 03
    For backstory, I am her second child and for her first child, my older brother (20M) she wanted to know his gender, and she found out and named him. For me however, she decided to keep it a surprise, however, she for some reason was confident that I would be female and was de d set on naming me after her. Her name is Alexandra, so she would have named me Alexandra as well (fake names)
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 04
    When I came out male, she simply named me Alexander (fake name) However she would constantly tell everyone she befriended, if we were together, the story on how I was named. It embarrasses me to no end and I've told her over and over to please not tell that to every new friend her or I make. She even told all of my friends parents the story despite me asking her to not tell them (she wants to meet my friends parents for the first time if I want to sleep over for whatever reason)
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 05
    This all boiled down to Thursday when my mother and I went to the grocery store and as we were leaving a duo of Charity workers came up to us to ask us if we were willing to donate to their cause. My mother being the social butterfly she, sparked up a conversation with them. As the two introduced themselves to us, my mother followed suit and, of course, told them the story I dreaded she would
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 06
    "My name is Alexandra and this is my son Alexander, he was supposed to be a girl and take my name. But he came out a boy so I named him after me" I got a bit angry and told her "I really wish you wouldn't tell every stranger you meet on the street that, it makes me feel embarrassed and mad"
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 07
    It got silent and my mothers face twisted and just told the Charity workers that she'll donate next time and started walking to the car. The car ride home was silent and when we got home she told me that I really embarrassed her back at the store and that I should have told her something after we got in the car that I didn't like her telling that story.
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 08
    I've said to her that I've told her repeatedly that I don't like her telling everyone with a pulse that she befriends that story and that I got fed up with her blatantly ignoring me and my request to stop. She just told me to go to my room and to not come out.
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 09
    She of course told everyone in my family what I did and my stepdad and grandparents said I shouldn't have embarrassed her like that and to apologize to her. My brother and best friend told me I was right to call her out since I've told her many times to stop embarrassing me with that story and that she needed to learn what I felt. I do feel bad and want to apologize and talk to her, but at the same time I still feel like I'm right and that she needed to feel what I feel. So AITA?
    via mymomnamedme1
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 10478566912
    via Johnny Cohen

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family drama aita baby names mother reddit story family feud etiquette family reddit thread name son
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