Mom Explains Why She Decided to Change Son's Name 9 Months After Giving Birth (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Molly Bryant with her husband and son.Photo:Molly Bryant

Molly Bryant

One mom is explaining why she decided to change her son’s name nine months after giving birth.

In aTikTok video, Molly Bryant explains how, from the moment she found out she was having a boy, she felt nervous. While she had a list of girl names she loved, she couldn’t find any boy names that excited her. The 26-year-old Ohio native and her husband spent the pregnancy brainstorming ideas, but before they could settle on a name, Bryant unexpectedly had to undergo a c-section at nine months along.

After 28 hours of labor and three days in the hospital, Bryant says the couple had just five minutes as they were being discharged to come up with a name. They decided on the first name Judah, but for the middle name, Bryant’s husband chose a sentimental moniker they hadn’t really discussed.

“His middle name that we ended up choosing was Moravian,” Bryant tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I used to live in Germany, and that was always a special place for me since that’s where the Moravian Church was founded. But, I don’t know, it never really stuck. It never seemed like him.”

“So we changed it to my dad’s name,” she adds. “It meant a lot to my dad because he was diagnosed with cancer when I was four months pregnant.”

Molly Bryant’s father and son.Molly Bryant

Next, she had to update her son’s Social Security information, insurance cards, bank accounts and savings accounts.

“I feel like names are such a big deal now,” she continues. “People put so much emphasis on them. But I’m also not going to hide the change from him. I love that it’s part of his story, and I want to tell him about it.”

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Bryant says she decided to share her story on TikTok after talking with friends and realizing many of them were going through similar situations.

“Everyone makes such a big deal out of naming their kid. People put so much pressure on what the name should be,” she says. “And it’s especially hard if you weren’t planning on having a boy — boy names can be harder to pick. I think it’s probably more common than not that you might second-guess the name you choose.”

“After I had mentioned online that we were changing his name, I heard a lot of other people say the same thing, that they didn’t realize that their names had been changed after they were born, or they decided to do it for their own kids,” she adds. “That’s when I learned it was more common than I had initially realized.”

source: people.com