Parents Give Baby 27 Middle Names After Letting Their Friends Pick One Each
We've heard some really questionable baby names over the years, but these parents take the cake after giving their first-born child 27 middle names. Yes, really.
Dad Patrick Dieter blew people's minds when he revealed that he and his partner decided to let each of their friends pick a middle name for their son, whose first name is Rain.
Some friends decided to stick with the weather theme, and opted for middle names like Thunder, Storm, Cloud, and Wind, but others went totally wild, choosing truly bizarre names like Food, Hawk and Fire.
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Patrick took to Quora to tell his story, explaining that his son was born in the 70s, when he and his partner were heavily into their 'hippy' phase.
"We had an enormous extended family of fellow stoners, psychonauts, amateur yogis, and freelance enlightenment coaches," he said, setting the scene.
"Sharing EVERYTHING was the order of the day, and that included one’s girl/boyfriend, stash, food, and living space, NO matter how crowded it got. Because LOVE is all you need, right?"
When baby Rain was born, his parents decided that they 'wanted to name him something really unique, something that would reflect this huge Love Revolution that was storming the planet.' Erm.. right.
After choosing the first name 'Rain', the parents asked each of their friends to contribute one middle name each.
"That way, he could choose whichever name he wanted to use at any point. We wanted him to like, do his own thing, y’know?"
Admitting that he had 'forgotten quite a few' of his son's middle names, Patrick listed the ones he could remember, which included: Storm, Thunder, Cloud, Fire, Flight, Ambrose, Elijah, Food, Bird, Hawk, Wind and Ocean.
To make things even more amusing, the dad confessed that very few of the couple's close friends are 'even remotely in either of [their] lives today'.
From the time baby Rain was born, the parents were eager to make it clear to him that he could choose any of his 27 names, or choose a new one, whenever he wished.
"We assured him from his very first breath that it was HIS name, and he could choose any of them, reject all of them, or choose a new one by himself."
As if having 27 middle names wasn't odd enough, when Rain was four years old, he decided to choose an even stranger one.
Patrick recalled: "We were explaining to him for the umpteenth time that he could choose his own name whenever he wanted to. He said 'I know, daddy! You keep telling me that!'
"So we said, 'OK, what name do you want to be called now?' He said he wanted to think about it, and slept on it overnight. The next day, he said 'I know what name I want to be called now.' We were excited to hear what he would come up with. His new name at age 4? BETTY CROCKER!"
Ali Condon