You'd think there was a LOT more to worry about in 2021, but two influencers have this week been forced to deny a feud over the fact that the friends both called their babies, Baby. Kind of.
Reports in the Sydney Morning Heraldsaid that model Jessica Hart and influencer Sasha Benz were feuding because Jessica had called her first child (born late last year with Nascar driver James Kirkham) Baby (as a first name, you understand). Well Sasha has a two year old called Baybi.
Lots of people have mocked the story online, but honestly, if we were at all able to join our friends for a glass of wine and tell them about this story, I bet loads of people would open up and tell similar stories.
And if you don't have a story of your own, then you'll at the VERY least remember Rachel stealing Emma from Monica in Friends. The betrayal.
Victoria's Secret model Hart had told People magazine of the name: 'I first heard [the name] in the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ and always thought I’d love to name my daughter Baby.' However, sources close to Benz told The Herald Hart had gone to Benz for advice on names, landing on a riffed version of Baybi. The source claimed Hart warned Benz, 'We are calling her Baby, but don’t worry — it’s spelled differently!'
People laugh at the story as an example of influencer behaviour gone wild, but from where I'm sitting it's not so mad at all. It took me all of about two minutes after talking about this story to find three people who had stories they wanted to share about the dreaded 'name-stealing'
'We were having a chat at work about baby names,' says Beth. 'I mentioned my all-time favourite and thought that was that. Before I knew it, the colleague I was taking to was pregnant and had chosen my favourite name. Then she claimed she had dreamed it up.
'Never reveal your baby names. No sooner than it’s out of your mouth, your friend will get pregnant and use it. Then to add insult to injury, they will claim they didn’t know where they had heard it before. Not cool.'
But reports came from both sides - including the stealers.
'I had to have a difficult conversation with my sister when she announced that she was calling her daughter a name she knew I’d long earmarked as what I thought of as "mine", when she got pregnant before I had kids' said Jess. 'She caved. But the irony is I didn’t then use it later, either, because by that point so many other friends had done.
'And then, I’d decided on my new name but then the wife of a university friend called her daughter that name. Despite the fact we weren’t super close I felt I had to email her and "ask permission" for me to go down the route of naming my daughter the same. Awkward.'
In fact, so many of us know that it's a touchy area, that it seems almost relatively common for friends to have had such fraught chats.
'I remember when one of my best friends was pregnant at the same time as me - she really seriously said we needed to talk,' said Rebecca. 'I was so worried. But then she said it was that they were struggling with boys' names and that the only one they liked was my husband's name and she wanted to check that we weren't also planning to use that name. We weren't at all - and I thought it was so sweet of her to ask, but probably, seeing what's happened in other circumstances, a good idea I guess!'
As for Hart and Benz, they've now made up. Sasha wrote on Instagram: 'This is so stupid. There is no feud, no problems – this is all fake news. Jess and I are absolutely still friends there is no issue.’
And Sasha also reportedly told the Daily Mail: ‘Of course Jess and I are still friends. We chatted it out a few weeks back, and I am happy she has a name she loves for her beautiful girl.’ She added: ‘This is her moment and I want her to enjoy this beautiful part of becoming a mother. Baybi is almost three now and our new babies are only weeks apart, so it’s more important that they all grow up knowing there are more important things to care about, and both Jess and I agree on that.’
So -baby name stealing... should you? Would you? Could you? Head to our new parenting community on Instagram, The Juggle, and let us know your thoughts and stories.