She Insulted Her Boss After She Told Her She’s Been Mispronouncing Her Baby’s Name
If you struggled to have a baby for years and finally found out you were expecting, you’d probably be pretty excited to pick the perfect name for your little one.
But how would you feel if, after selecting a name and telling all your loved ones, you realized you were actually pronouncing it wrong?
That’s precisely what happened to one woman’s boss, Jane, who’s in her late thirties. It took Jane a while to get pregnant, but this year, everything finally clicked. Her boss learned she was having a daughter, and for months, she’s been poring over potential baby names.
Then, this past Monday morning, she walked into work, saw Jane, and heard that her boss had settled on a name once and for all. Jane told her the name, too, which sounded like a pretty typical nickname.
“I don’t want to say the actual name nor the inspiration out of it, as I don’t want to deal with the possibility of outing myself or, more importantly, my boss. But it sounds like a fairly common name, usually short for another name, like Liz is to Elizabeth,” she explained.
Anyway, she assured Jane that it was a pretty name and asked whether it was short for a longer moniker. Spoiler alert: it’s not, and Jane plans to use the name as a standalone.
So, she was about to tell her boss that it was “even better” until Jane added one more detail. Apparently, her boss picked the name since it’s also the title of a well-known publication.
This caused her to raise an eyebrow since she had a feeling she knew which publication Jane was referencing. Then, she asked her boss to spell out the company’s name.
“I think I was very surprised to hear that and let Jane know gently that, well, that’s not how that name was pronounced,” she recalled.
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This led Jane to immediately begin searching for the publication’s pronunciation online. And soon, after hearing numerous “machine voices” say the name out loud, it looked like her boss was going to have a breakdown.
It turns out Jane was so thrilled with the name that she already announced it to everyone, including her friends, family, and on social media, over the weekend. Her boss also referenced the publication as her baby name inspiration, and the revelation that she’d gotten the pronunciation wrong left Jane reeling.
“I asked what her husband thought of the name, but Jane said he didn’t know how it was pronounced and was just going by her. Poor guy,” she detailed.
Next, she suggested that her boss simply alter the spelling to match her preferred pronunciation because, to her, it seemed obvious that Jane was more attached to the sound than anything else. Still, Jane turned down that idea and claimed she liked both the original spelling of the name and her own pronunciation of it.
This whole debacle started a few days ago, and Jane has remained in “panic mode” ever since. Her boss is torn between sticking with her original name choice and finding a new one for her daughter.
She’s avoided asking Jane anything else about the situation, either, and while she doesn’t think her boss has been directly “lashing out” at her, she has felt some distance and resentment between them.
“I’m hoping that giving her room will be just the thing. At any rate, I was coming from sincerity, but in retrospect, I didn’t have to be the one telling her,” she vented.
Now, she can’t help but wonder whether pointing out that her boss had been mispronouncing her own baby name choice was a major faux pas or not.
Do you think she was out of line here? Or did Jane need to find out about the actual pronunciation at some point? Would you have told your boss the truth or kept your mouth shut?
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