I just realised I’ve been calling my friend’s daughter the wrong name for a YEAR – birthday card exposed my blunder

A WOMAN has been left mortified after realising she’s been calling her friend’s little girl the wrong name for a full YEAR.

Picking a baby name for your little one can be an incredibly difficult task as they’re stuck with it forever.

Alamy

A woman called her friend’s baby the wrong name for a full year (stock image)[/caption]

You want to strike that perfect balance of choosing something unique, but not so unusual that your child gets bullied.

And it can feel more stressful and upsetting if a family member or friend has something negative or judgemental to say about your choice.

So spare a thought for a poor Scottish woman who attempted to support her pal for giving her little girl a common boy’s name – only to find out she was wrong for 12 months.

Her embarrassing blunder was only exposed when she wrote a first birthday card for the tot, leaving her friend in tears of laughter.

Explaining the events leading up to the moniker mishap, the woman wrote on Reddit: “When I was eight-years-old my school introduced us to some penpals to make friends with over the summer and I was matched with a girl who was also eight-years-old from the US.

“As a little girl from rural Scotland this was super exciting to me.

“Now we’re both 23 and our friendship is still going strong! When she told me over Skype she was expecting I was over the moon for her and she gave birth a year ago to a beautiful baby girl.”

And it was at this point that their difference in accents led to an epic miscommunication.

The mortified woman continued: “So when she video called me a fortnight later to introduce me to her daughter I was momentarily taken aback by the fact she had named her Jim.

“My friend had a gender neutral name as far as I can tell for the US (think Jamie, Alex, etc) as did her brother so I decided not to question it. As a matter of fact I decided to put on my best, supportive grin and said ‘Welcome to the world, Jim!’

“Now, I mentioned earlier that I’m Scottish and my friend is from the Southern US so our accents are jarring at best and, from what I can gather, she didn’t question anything until ‘Jim’s’ first birthday.

“Given that I’m on the other side of the Atlantic I sent a birthday card over for ‘Jim’s’ first birthday as I couldn’t be there myself but I addressed it to her Mum as I imagined it would be her opening the cards.

“The inside of the card has, as you expected, ‘Happy 1st Birthday, Jim!’ written inside it in big bold lettering.

“So she video called me yesterday laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face and I had no clue what was going on.

“Her daughter’s name is Gem, not Jim! She just assumed I was saying it that way because of my Scottish accent but hey, she praised me for my lack of judgement.”

While the woman is understandably red-faced over her mistake, social media users have been left in stitches by it.

One said: “Hahaha! That is too funny! You and your friend will remember that forever- I bet it was the favourite card they received!”

A second wrote: “What a cute story to tell when her daughter gets older!”

A third added: “At least your friend had a sense of humour about it! So it’s all good.”

Meanwhile, a fourth attempted to make her feel better as they pointed out: “Where I live in the southern US, gem and Jim are pronounced identically.”

And someone else echoed: “I’m from the south and can tell you with 100% certainty gem and Jim sound exactly the same here so, don’t fret, unless it had been texted to you I would never judge you for making that call.”

It’s not the first time accents have influenced a new mum’s baby name choices.

One mum-to-be was forced to scrap her baby name choices after moving north of the border.

She told social media users she was disappointed after realising that people pronouncing the monikers in a Scottish accent would ‘change’ the names.

And another, from America, was left mortified when her Scottish husband claimed her accent has ruined their dream baby name – as it makes it sound very rude.