Mom Shamed For Giving Her Twins The Same Name

Many twins tend to share things. Some might wear the same clothes, others may live in the same apartment, a few could even have the same tastes in partners, but while so much between the siblings is the same, one thing that is always theirs is their name... until now.

A mom chose to give her newborn twins the same name. She is calling both of her boys Sean, and while both kids' names are pronounced the same way, one's name is spelled "Sean" and the other "Seen." As if that wasn't strange enough, the woman's last name is also Sean.

The story came up on Reddit, when one of the woman's co-workers asked if they were a jerk for telling her that her choice in names was "idiotic." The co-worker explained that the mom had returned to work after giving birth to the twin boys, following a long battle with infertility. When the mother stated she was naming them "Sean," the co-worker asked what she planned to call the other one, and that's when they learned about the odd naming decision. Their response came without thinking when they uttered, "That is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard, and it's going to be so confusing."

Following the co-worker's comment, they got texts from fellow employees telling them it wasn't their place to give an opinion like that on another person's name choice. However, the people on Reddit strongly disagreed. One twin said, "Matching names is probably the cruelest thing you could do to a person. It's not just confusing. It would keep the twins from developing identities outside of their twin-ness." Another person stated, "It's going to be massive problems for these kids once they are adults... imagine credit reporting, financial problems or if one of them breaks a law... just a nightmare." Someone else wrote, "I feel sorry for their teachers, friends, future spouses, creditors and law enforcement." One other Redditor said, "Not the hero she asked for, but the hero she needed."

It turns out that the Reddit post got so much attention that the new mom's husband wound up seeing it. He and his wife took what commenters were saying well and even had a laugh at it before agreeing with many of the replies. They said that the "overwhelming process of having two newborns left [them] too tired to think straight." Fortunately, they were able to withdraw the paperwork for the names and they plan to reassess. It might seems like a happy ending, but it turns out the parents are only going to change one name, as they are pretty pleased one of their kids being Sean Sean.