'My family tease my baby because her name accidentally sounds like a pasta dish'

A mum is worried her daughter might be teased at school after her sister pointed out the unfortunate word her two names create when pronounced together.

She says her and her husband welcomed their first child nine weeks ago and decided to call her Elizabeth.

They wanted to give her the middle name Jane, with the intention of calling her EJ, but during the pregnancy her partner's mum passed away from breast cancer.

Her name was Anya and the mum offered to change their daughter's middle name as a tribute, which the family loved - so her middle names became Anya Jane.

A few days after her daughter was born, the family quickly started calling her Liz and the mum said 'her legal name is all but forgotten'.

Being forced to stay at home during the coronavirus pandemic, they've been staying in touch with family by Skype, and on one call her sister pointed out that they had inadvertently named their little after lasagna (Liz Anya).

The mum said she had already made the connection but didn't think it would be a problem, especially as people rarely use their middle names.

"But then my whole family chimed in and now everyone keeps calling my daughter 'Lasagna'," she said.

"Now I'm scared that when she eventually starts school her classmates and others will latch onto this and make fun of her. I mean, the teasing has already started amongst my family.

"I have asked them to stop because one day Liz will know they're making fun of her and she'll be hurt. My sister told me if I didn't want people to make fun of her name then I shouldn't have named her what I did.

"They won't stop and every time I protest they remind me that I'm the one who named her so I've made my bed. I'm basically not speaking to them right now and they've been sending me daily texts basically telling me I'm being unreasonable and cruel to keep them from seeing the baby."

After asking for advice on what to do on Reddit, some suggested simply switching Anya and Jane around as middle names, but the mum added that she didn't like the flow.

One said: "They are being unreasonable and cruel to taunt an infant by calling her names. You could send them an email and tell them that they can see the baby again when they address her by her given name.

"If they call her Lasagna, end the call and put them in timeout for a week, two weeks or whatever works for you."

A second commented: "I don't think you're an a**hole - but I'm not entirely sure that they are either. I mean, you did name your kid Lasagna, it's pretty hard to let that slide."

Another added: "It’s OK that you didn’t catch it. Your family should drop it once you said it bothered you."