It can be hard to name your baby when you think about how they’ll have to live with it for the rest of their lives. In fact, for some parents, regret may set in, as 21% of parents told BabyCentral that they started to second-guess the name they’d given to their babies just one month in.
A similar thing happened to this dad, who, influenced by his parents’ religious beliefs, started disliking his daughter’s name. Saying that in their religion it symbolized bad luck, he begged his wife to reconsider. Unfortunately, she refused to budge.
A couple got into a fight after the husband’s family got upset about the name they gave to their baby
Image credits: nd3000 (not the actual photo)
According to them, it symbolized misfortune, instability, and bad luck, but the mother refused to change the baby’s name
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Gold_Palpitation8982
The Bible does warn against worshipping celestial bodies: the sun, the moon, and the stars
Before the author clarified what her in-laws’ religion is, many commenters were quite confused. There aren’t any popular Christian denominations that put emphasis on the moon and how it represents bad luck.
However, the Redditor later explained that her husband’s family belonged to a very strict independent fundamentalist Baptist church. She then pointed to two passages from the Bible that explain why they’re so against the name ‘Luna’.
The first passage is from the book of Isaiah:
12 “Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
13 All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you.
14 Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by.
While there is no direct mention of the moon, this passage is about warning believers not to put faith in astrology and other mythical practices if they wish to be saved from judgment. Baptists emphasize putting trust in God alone.
The second passage is from the Book of Deuteronomy:
9 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
This passage warns believers not to idolize any celestial bodies, as they are all creations of God. They aren’t objects for people to worship but created for everyone equally.
While these passages don’t explicitly refer to the moon as a moniker of bad luck, the family (especially the grandmother) have their personal interpretations. Expression of faith can differ from person to person, and for this family, the moon clearly has negative connotations.
Image credits: Rod Long (not the actual photo)
The name ‘Luna’ has roots in Roman mythology, representing light and clarity
A name can have several meanings. There’s the literal translation from other languages (in which case, Luna means ‘moon’ in Spanish and Italian). Then there are mythological meanings from different cultures: Luna was a goddess in Roman mythology, depicted as driving a white chariot drawn by horses or oxen. Romans associated their goddess Luna with light and clarity.
The name ‘Luna’ became quite popular in 2003. Some attribute it to when J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, introduced a character named Luna Lovegood. Still, until around 2010, there were less than 1,000 Lunas in the U.S.
As of 2022, Luna is the 10th most common name in America, with 8922 baby girls being named after the moon. Name experts speculate that its popularity won’t wane soon, as mythological names and nature-inspired names are very much on the rise at the moment.
Interestingly, Luna was a very popular name in the 1800s. Throughout the 1880s up until the 1950s, Luna was almost as popular a name as it is now. Its popularity seriously dipped during the second half of the 1900s, but it started getting its groove back at the end of the 1980s.
Celebrity parents also fell in love with the name Luna. In 2016, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend named their daughter Luna. In 2013, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem had a daughter and named her Luna as well.
Image credits: Joshua Earle (not the actual photo)
Many commenters didn’t see what the family’s issue with the name was: “Luna is a beautiful name”
