I’m getting criticism from both sides of the Atlantic over my daughter’s name and now I’m wondering if I’ve created a Tragedeigh.

I’m from the US, my wife is Danish and we live in Denmark. We gave both of my daughters very standard Scandinavian names- Freya and Signe- because giving your kids American names in Denmark is considered very trashy.

We got a little guff from the US side for Freya, but now everyone is criticizing us for Signe- the American side for her first name and the Danish side for her middle name which is Rae.

Now Signe is pronounced “seen-uh,” which I feel like should be easy. I tell them to pronounce it like you would if you say “I’ve seen a ray of light.” Seen a ray. Simple I thought. But no, apparently and they think I’m trying to be unique but Signe is a totally normal everyday name here. Like it could be Beth or Alice.

From the Danish side of the family we’re being criticized for her middle name, Rae. We chose Rae because four generations of boys in my family (myself included) have Ray as our middle names. So we gave her the feminized version as a family name. Well as I mentioned before, the Danish side thinks American names here are really low class and think we’re dooming little Signe Rae to a lifetime of judgement.

I don’t know anymore, neither side of family is happy and I’m beginning to get nervous that I’ve created a Tragedeigh.