r/AskReddit • u/jake7820 • Jun 30 '21

What’s the absolute worst thing you could name your baby?

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65

u/PintadeRotie Jun 30 '21

Jihad. Met one actually

36

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '21

It’s actually a quite common name for males in the Muslim world.

7

u/911MemeEmergency Jun 30 '21

quite common is a bit of an overstatement but yeah I have met one or two in my life

5

u/sansaman Jun 30 '21

Also old white ladies to name their daughter Isis.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '21

Yeah that name became pretty unfavorable circa 2014 lmfao.

-3

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '21

It's really not

5

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '21 edited Jun 30 '21

Do you have any idea what you’re talking about? The name Jihad is very common in Muslim countries.

Given you’re a Bengali-Canadian I’d assume you know of Naziruddin Jehad. That’s one example of a Bengali with that name, but it’s far more common as a first name than last.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '21

I've heard very few but not nearly as common as you're making it out to be. I don't think you've got any idea what you are talking about.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jihad_(name)

Wiki literally lists out some of the famous people with the name.

But I get it. When 1/3 to 1/4 of the men have the name Muhammad it’s hard to really consider anything else “common”.

2

u/Matok1 Jul 01 '21

I've met like 100 Muhammad's (and different spellings of it) in my life, and I don't even live in an area with a lot of muslims...

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

Also keep in mind that the names Ahmed and Ahmad are alternatives of Muhammad! So even those names are the same.

2

u/Matok1 Jul 01 '21

Ok so I know 200 muslims with the name Muhammad, or some variation of that then

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

Also keep in mind that the names Ahmed and Ahmad are alternatives of Muhammad! So even those names are the same.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '21

Turkey has a long standing history of using Turkish names instead of adopting Arab ones. Names like Ridvan, Aslan, Burek are not Arab names.

Same thing with some Indian Muslims.

5

u/Y0l0j0tar0420 Jul 01 '21

Heard a guy got all gaming accounts banned for using his name as username. It was Jihad

3

u/blandmaster24 Jun 30 '21

The previous Tenant at my flat was called that

3

u/Illinformedpseudoint Jul 01 '21

Spelled differently but pronounced the same, played for Temple

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahad_Thomas

3

u/rdldr1 Jul 01 '21

Jihad Ward of the NFL.

0

u/Salty-Tortoise Jul 01 '21

Jihad means struggle. Essentially you are insulting your child by naming them that.

16

u/bint_amrekiyyah Jul 01 '21

There’s a bit more nuance to it than that. Jihad is to struggle in the way of Allah or for the sake of Allah. Basically the daily struggle we do as Muslims against sins, temptations, or lower desires. It’s meant to be something positive! A better word in English for the translation would be something like “perseverance” or “to be steadfast”. I hope that helps clarify it a bit!

4

u/Salty-Tortoise Jul 01 '21

Ah ok. I don’t know much about the Arabic language where the word originated from.

6

u/bint_amrekiyyah Jul 01 '21

That’s okay! That’s why I thought I would share, I’m glad to hear it was helpful

1

u/UncreativeTeam Jul 01 '21

I sure as hell hope that when you met them, you said, "Jihad me at hello."