International- My husband and I knew we were having only one child, so we took choosing a name very seriously.
- I wanted our son to have a Spanish-language name to represent his heritage.
Picking a baby's name is one of the most stressful things parents-to-be can do. A name stays with your child for the rest of their lives and can affect their adult employability.
Knowing we would have only one child, my husband and I took naming seriously. Early in my pregnancy, we came up with guidelines for our child's name — the main one being that we didn't want the moniker to be in the 1,000 most popular baby names.
Finding the perfect Spanish-language name
As someone who grew up in an immigrant household, I remember feeling sad as a kid because I would never see "Irina" on a keychain when my family went to theme parks. But as an adult, I now appreciate my unique name and how it perfectly encompasses my two cultures. Irina is a common name in my Russian mom's culture, and my last name came from my Cuban dad.
Additionally, I wanted our child to have a Spanish-language name to represent that side of my family because teaching him about his Latin heritage was one of my priorities as a parent.
As I entered my second trimester of pregnancy in October 2019, I started to have insomnia almost daily. During one of these nights, Google searching led me to the name Rio, and I instantly fell in love. And as soon as my husband woke up that morning, he did too.
The name perfectly fit into our naming criteria. It's the Spanish word for river, has a pop-culture reference (we love the character River Tam from the short-lived series "Firefly"), and is short, so nickname-free. But most importantly, it was No. 2,000 in popularity at the time, according to BabyNames.com.
We kept the name a secret for the next five months, so it felt extra special — and we avoided others' opinions on our choice. When we finally told the world that our child was born in March 2020, we were still in love with the name Rio and our baby.
But recently, something unexpected happened: Our baby's name has become more popular.
Our baby's name grew in popularity over the past 4 years
Currently sitting at No. 561 on BabyNames.com (up from 677 just two months ago), our once unique name is no longer as rare as it was when we picked it.
Lately, I've heard from friends and acquaintances that they know someone who just named their new baby Rio. It especially hit me after a friend who loves "The Real Housewives of New York City" texted me that not one but two of the wives had a child named Rio — two! I couldn't believe it.
Half a year after I found out about the "RHONY" connection, I'm still struggling with feelings of anger over the popularization of my baby's name. One of the biggest reasons we chose this name was that it wasn't popular, and now it's becoming trendy. I can only imagine how the influence of a popular TV show will increase the name's popularity further.
And I'm a bit heartbroken, too.
We idealized our baby's name for so long, and now it feels tainted. It doesn't quite feel like the name we chose — though I wouldn't change anything. My Rio is such a Rio.
But considering how much thought and care we put into the name and how proud we were of its uniqueness, I'm having a difficult time with its increase in popularity. I don't want to be trendy. I never did.
I'm sure that I'm not the only parent to have changed feelings about their child's name after the fact, so it'll all be OK. But I still wish that this naming trend will be over soon.