A woman was left in disbelief after learning what her friend had named her second child, saying she couldn't decide if the choice sounded like a porn star name or a horse.
Writing on Reddit's Tragedeigh thread — a term used for names deliberately created or misspelt to seem more 'unique' or 'creative' — the woman explained that her friend had welcomed a daughter and kept the name secret for the first few weeks.
She said: "When I heard Una Rain, it took me a while to get used to it. But after two years, Una seemed perfectly fine."
Reaction to the boy's name
When her friend welcomed a son a few years later, the woman was stunned by the chosen name. She added: "Then baby number two came along and it was a boy. I will never get over the tragedeigh of Silva Thunder! I can't decide if it sounds like a porn star name or a horse."
Several Reddit users criticised the parents for the name, while others joked about it. One user said: "Poor little guy's been Thunderstuck." Another commented: "The girl's name is OK but the boy's... eeek. For me, anyway, I want to either pronounce it 'Silver Thunder' or 'Silva Thundah'. Which of course the latter pronunciation would be used here in Massachusetts."
Different views on the names
A third user joked: "A racehorse who moonlights as a porn star." Yet not everyone felt Una Rain deserved the same criticism. One user said: "Una is a name that seems to go back to the Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser, which was published in 1590. Looking at a list of famous people with the name, it seems more common in the Victorian and Edwardian era than it is now, so really can't be a tragedeigh. Silva is weird because it's the most common last name in the Lusophone world, particularly Portugal and Brazil. It's like the Portuguese 'Smith.' Thunder is dumb."
