“You stole my baby name!” Charlotte York exclaimed to former friend Laney on a memorable episode of Sex and the City Season 1.
Charlotte (Kristin Davis) traveled to the ‘burbs with friends Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) to attend former party girl, Laney’s baby shower. While Charlotte talked to Laney, one of Laney’s friends let it slip that she planned to name the child Shayla – Charlotte’s secret baby name she shared with Laney years ago.
Of course, Laney lied, telling Charlotte she thought her husband heard it somewhere. But in true Samantha form, even though she’s the least maternal of the friend group, shot off a “B***!” at Laney when Charlotte told her Laney stole her name.
The friend pointed out that Charlotte wasn’t even pregnant, so it is in bad taste or even downright cruel to “steal” a friend’s baby name? Definitely.
Etiquette expert says stealing a baby name feels ‘theft’ – so Charlotte was right on ‘Sex and the City’
Even though no one usually has a contractual right to a baby name, it still feels like it was stolen, like what Charlotte accused Laney of on Sex and the City. “When someone else comes in and uses that name, it feels like a theft,” etiquette expert Diane Gottsman told HuffPost. “However, a name is not intellectual property. Anybody can use a name, and while you have an emotional reaction to it, you can’t really steal a name. But it feels like a stab.”
“We have an emotional attachment to the names we select,” she explained. “Parents are very attached to names for reasons that range from wanting to honor a family member, like a grandmother or favorite uncle, to idolizing someone like a mentor or important movie star.”
Charlotte probably shouldn’t have shared her ‘secret’ baby name in the first place
Charlotte loved to offer her thoughts on romance and family, so sharing her secret baby name probably seemed natural to her. She ultimately goes on to have two daughters, none of them named Shayla. But some people believe sharing the name in the first place was a bad idea.
“I think it’s always best to keep your special name close so that you don’t have to deal with anyone ‘stealing’ the name before you give birth to your precious newborn,” postpartum doula Ashley Winning told The Healthy Mommy.
“As you can’t own a name or stop anyone from using it, this is the best preventative measure,” she continued. And added, “I don’t believe you can own a name, however, I do understand how frustrating it would be if someone close to you named their baby the exact same name.”
Charlotte was upset because ‘Shayla’ was unique and Laney lied on ‘Sex and the City’
After the Sex and the City friends stormed out of the baby shower, Charlotte returned home and angrily ripped up all memories of wanting a baby named Shayla. The twist in the episode was a very pregnant Laney shows up for one of Samantha’s parties and embarrassingly suggests she does a striptease.
So did Charlotte get the last laugh? And did Laney really end up naming her baby Shayla? Sex and the City viewers never found out. But, a few decades later, And Just Like That … viewers find Charlotte happily married, raising two teenage daughters, Lily and Rose. And the Sex and the City Season 1 stolen baby name doesn’t seem to even rate with her anymore.
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