Do baby names “belong” to people — and should you confront a friend who steals your pick?
That was the “Social Dilemma” tackled during TODAY with Jenna & Friends on April 14, co-hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks. In the segment, Jenna Bush Hager reads aloud questions from viewers seeking advice on friendship issues.
The viewer question read, “Rebecca and I have been friends since high school. We’ve always talked about baby names and what we’d pick when we had our families. Well, Rebecca is pregnant and just announced the name they picked — and it’s my name! I know it sounds silly, but I really am hurt. Do I bring it up to Rebecca or do I let it go?”
“Rebecca — girl, you just broke the friend code,” declared Banks .
“That is a hot mess,” added Banks, who shares son York Banks Asla with her former partner, Erik Asla. "I think she needs to bring it up if that’s her friend, because every time she hears that name ... that’s not cool.”
Jenna added, “I agree. Baby names are very tricky.”
Banks suggested a simple adjustment, joking, “If she were naming it Tyra, name it Tyro. A little something.”
Jenna agreed.
“Switch it up a little ... and you’re right that she has to address it because otherwise, there’s going to be some resentment,” she said; Banks added, “And then, the end of a friendship possibly. It could go that deep.”
The names of Jenna and Henry Hager’s children — Margaret Laura “Mila,” 11, Poppy Louise, 9 and Henry Harold “Hal,” 5 — are all significant.
As former President George W. Bush said in a 2013 birth announcement, his granddaughter Mila is named for her grandmothers, Margaret and Laura. “Poppy” is the former nickname of her grandfather. Hal is named after his father.
“Somebody told me, ‘Don’t tell people your baby name,” said Jenna. “It’s one of those things that people can’t help but give an opinion about and you’re like, ‘But that’s what I’m naming my child.”
Banks mentioned a friend who said she gave her child a name that sounded like, “Quinoa” — except it was a joke.
“I couldn’t even hide it,” explained Banks. “I was trying to do that thing like, ‘Oh my god, that's so cute.’”
