There ain’t no drama like a baby name drama.
Choosing a baby name is such a special time for parents. You sift through pages and pages of online name guides, you say potential monikers out loud with the surname to see how it sounds, and you imagine writing down your baby’s name for the first time.
Or, you get accused of stealing a name from your celebrity ex-friend and get shamed for it on social media, and then the international media writes about it. OK, that last one might be a uniquely Kardashian-Jenner experience.
You may remember that last month, Kylie Jenner took to Instagram to announce the name of her second child with Travis Scott: Wolf Webster. The drama started just moments later, when Jenner’s ex-friend, Tammy Hembrow, posted a photo of herself with her six-year-old son, along with the caption, “My Wolf.”
“The original wolf,” commented a supporter of the Australian influencer.
“They can steal your recipe but the sauce won’t taste the same,” joked another.
Hilariously, there’s actually a name for what Hembrow is accusing Jenner of doing. It’s called “name-sniping,” and it’s been known to ruin relationships and tear families apart, says Jennifer Morris of BabyNames.com. Interestingly, Morris actually thinks Hembrow’s complaint is at least somewhat legit: “When you choose a name like Wolf, which has never been in the top 1,000 names in U.S. births, and you’re one of the first people to use that name, you do feel like it sets you and your kid apart as unique,” she told the New York Post.
She noted that names like Emma and Liam, which were incredibly popular in recent years, are now being picked by less than one percent of parents, with a growing number opting for less traditional names. Jenner stuck by that trend with both her new baby’s name as well as his big sister’s unique moniker, Stormi.
Hembrow, who is currently pregnant with her third child, didn’t stop at her (passive-aggressive) accusation on Instagram. She also clapped back at Jenner’s name theft in a now-deleted TikTok comment, teasing that she’s “liking the name Stormi” for her new baby.
“Once someone, especially a trendsetter like Kylie Jenner, takes that really cool and uncommon name for their baby, it immediately begins to lose its unique edge because everyone will want to use it,” Morris added.
Of course, if you’re now pondering the name Wolf but find yourself worried about copying Hembrow’s apparently spiritually patented baby name, there’s no need to be concerned, as the name clearly doesn’t originate with Hembrow nor Jenner. In fact, Jason Momoa and Lisa Bonnet named their son Wolf in 2008, while supermodel Kimora Lee Simmons named her son Wolfe Lee in 2015.
Celeb feud aside, here’s to naming your baby whatever you want because it’s nearly impossible that it will be completely unique. As Morris joked to the New York Post, only Elon Musk and Grimes can claim that title with little Æ A-12 (at least for now).
