# Mom Angry At Airline After Employee Name Shames Daughter, Abcde



## Leeda.the.Paladin (Nov 29, 2018)

ORANGE COUNTY, CA (RNN) - Southwest Airlines has apologized after one of its employees reportedly name-shamed a 5-year-old girl.

Traci Redford said a gate agent at California’s John Wayne Airport made fun of her daughter’s name, Abcde Redford, according to KABC.

She pronounces her name “ab-city” and because she suffers from epilepsy, she and her mom always pre-board. 

The Redfords were flying home to El Paso, TX, when the gate agent laughed at the name, pointed it out to coworkers and even went so far as to post a photo of Abcde’s boarding pass on social media so that others could join her in name shaming.

“While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter,” Redford told local media. “It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn't done anything.”

Southwest Airlines issued the following statement:

_“We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online. The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees. We have followed up with the Employee involved, and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all Employees.”_

According to Babynames.com, Abcde is not currently ranked in United States births. Even so, Vocativ reviewed the Social Security Administration database in 2014 and found that 328 babies, all girls, had been named Abcde in the U.S.

Also in 2014, the name Abcde made national headlines when a 7-year-old Autistic girl, also named Abcde, was turned away by a mall Santa Claus.

_Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved._


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Nov 29, 2018)

Name shaming?


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## lesedi (Nov 29, 2018)

ab-city tho


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## lesedi (Nov 29, 2018)

She had 9 months to think about this, she deserves all the name shaming she gets. Her poor daughter does not. Baby girl was set up.


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## Black Ambrosia (Nov 29, 2018)

People don’t care about their jobs at all. How hard is it to stay off of social media? And she was rude af for doing that in front of them. I can see chuckling when you first see it but pointing it out to others and laughing while the person is there? Who raises these people?


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## danniegirl (Nov 29, 2018)

i hope she was fired 

but is the baby name really ABCDE >>>FGHIGK >>>LMNOP

Dear God  if it is 

someone need to find that pic so we can rule out ethnicity


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## ladysaraii (Nov 29, 2018)

danniegirl said:


> i hope she was fired
> 
> but is the baby name really ABCDE >>>FGHIGK >>>LMNOP
> 
> ...



I saw the article. They're white.


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## Southernbella. (Nov 29, 2018)

danniegirl said:


> i hope she was fired
> 
> but is the baby name really ABCDE >>>FGHIGK >>>LMNOP
> 
> ...



They're blonde hair/blue eyed white.

That said, I still don't care for name shaming. Yeah she named her daughter after an urban legend but if the name ever caught on with more of her people, all of a sudden it would become "normal."


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## LivingInPeace (Nov 29, 2018)

People need to stop giving children dumb names. I don’t care if white people do it. I do care when black people make up nonsense and put it on a birth certificate. And I don’t care if that makes people mad. They’re children, not pets. And I’m not trying to hear about it being part of the culture. Names should have meanings behind them. They shouldn’t be a collection of random letters that don’t correlate with pronunciation.


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## RoundEyedGirl504 (Nov 29, 2018)

Southwest employees don't care about their jobs huh? People name their kids what they want, but the employee was trifling.


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## Cheleigh (Nov 29, 2018)

The showing other coworkers in front of the woman and posting of someone's actual boarding pass on SM is a fireable offense. If she'd just hooted about it after the woman left and kept if off SM, she would have been alright. That said, the name is ludicrous and she's unwittingly set her child up for a lifetime of this sort of behavior from kids and adults alike. There are plenty of unique and unusual names that don't include just writing the first five letters of the alphabet.


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## PopLife (Nov 29, 2018)

Why do parents do this? I get being unique, but does she not realize the confusion/embarrassment a name like this can cause...


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## nysister (Nov 29, 2018)

That was a disrespectful and rude thing to do to the child, on behalf of the employee and the parent.


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## nysister (Nov 29, 2018)

The mother's name is Traci (Redford).

I'm a bit confused how you're of American extraction named Traci but thought that was a good idea for a child's name. I'd sooner call a kid ''Spot" or for that matter Kal-El.

Anyway the Southwest employee was still 10 types of wrong.


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## nysister (Nov 29, 2018)

Southernbella. said:


> They're blonde hair/blue eyed white.
> 
> That said, I still don't care for name shaming. Yeah she named her daughter after an urban legend but if the name ever caught on with more of her people, all of a sudden it would become "normal."



Urban legend? Can you elaborate? I've not heard of that before.


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## dicapr (Nov 29, 2018)

Poor child but she is going to get name shamed all her life. Her mom literally named her a string of letters.

 That being said never post anything like that to social media because it is in poor taste and will probably get you fired. Laugh about it in the break room and keep it moving.


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## Southernbella. (Nov 29, 2018)

The urban legend is that some poor, uneducated woman decided to name her child ABCDE (or L-a, or Lemonjello and Oranjello, or Female, or Chlymyida, or Ghonnorhea, etc). And these urban legends typically have black women in mind or occasionally, trailerpark whites.


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## dicapr (Nov 29, 2018)

Southernbella. said:


> The urban legend is that some poor, uneducated woman decided to name her child ABCDE (or L-a, or Lemonjello and Oranjello, or Female, or Chlymyida, or Ghonnorhea, etc). And these urban legends typically have black women in mind or occasionally, trailerpark whites.



Two of those names I’ve seen in real life.

ETA-Make that 3.


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## Prudent1 (Nov 29, 2018)

What's next? 12345? Pronounced wanti-thrfafi?


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## Cattypus1 (Nov 29, 2018)

I found an original copy of my bc and it didn’t have a first name only the word “female” in brackets. I showed it to my dd and she started calling me Female (rhymes with tamale). I wanted to smack her but it was pretty funny.


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## sissimpson (Nov 29, 2018)

ladysaraii said:


> I saw the article. They're white.


GLORY!


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## sunnieb (Nov 29, 2018)

Southwest employee was wrong.

It's funny that this video from KevonStage showed up on my feed yesterday:


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## Dreamn (Nov 29, 2018)

I don't understand the names should have meaning argument. Names have meaning because someone once upon a time made them up and gave them a meaning and that meaning was accepted by the masses . Everyone's name can have meaning.



sunnieb said:


> Southwest employee waa wrong.
> 
> It's funny that this video from KevonStage showed up on my feed yesterday:



This is the only thing that I don't understand with names. If you're going to name your kid a common name, give them the common spelling. I'll never understand Aiwrecka, Lawren, etc type of spellings. Just subjecting your kid to 'how do you pronounce that' for the rest of their life.


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## Menina Preta (Nov 29, 2018)

The employee was all the way wrong. 

The name is a mess though. However, people should always be courteous and professional at work.


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## ColibriNoir (Nov 29, 2018)

Prudent1 said:


> What's next? 12345? Pronounced wanti-thrfafi?



You’re nut but, you know what, it wouldn’t surprise me!


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## HappilyLiberal (Nov 30, 2018)

I never want to hear another word about the weird names black folks give their children.  At least they make an effort and don't settle on the first five letters of the alphabet!  Orangejello and Lemonjello are  looking real good right now!


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## HappilyLiberal (Nov 30, 2018)

Leeda.the.Paladin said:


> ORANGE COUNTY, CA (RNN) -
> According to Babynames.com, Abcde is not currently ranked in United States births. Even so, Vocativ reviewed the Social Security Administration database* in 2014 and found that 328 babies, all girls, had been named Abcde* in the U.S.
> 
> Also in 2014, the name Abcde made national headlines when a 7-year-old Autistic girl, also named Abcde, was turned away by a mall Santa Claus.
> ...



So, she saddled her child with that dumb name and it's not even original???


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## HappilyLiberal (Nov 30, 2018)

Cheleigh said:


> The showing other coworkers in front of the woman and posting of someone's actual boarding pass on SM is a fireable offense. If she'd just hooted about it after the woman left and kept if off SM, she would have been alright. That said, the name is ludicrous and she's unwittingly set her child up for a lifetime of this sort of behavior from kids and adults alike. There are plenty of unique and unusual names that don't include just writing the first five letters of the alphabet.



That child has a disability and will already be teased mercilessly in school...  with a name like Abcde, just go ahead and double her torment.  I hope her mom is planning to homeschool.  But, given she named her child Abcde, that poor baby is destined for a life of misery!

There are actually two ways to pronounce my first name (a nice normal first name)...  me and my fifth grade teacher had words because she was insisting on using the other pronunciation even after I explained to her that the reason it is pronounced that way is because my cousin has the same name with one letter difference and she pronounces her name the other way (and trust me her name is normal as well its just that when she was born both spellings were common but by the time I was born, they'd stopped using her spelling).  I didn't even go around correcting people on the pronunciation of my name.  However, my mom had gone to a PTA meeting and used the correct pronunciation and she asked me how to pronounce my name that Monday when I got to school.  I finally ethered her by asking her why she didn't ask my mom when she had her there at the PTA meeting.  I couldn't stand that woman!


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## HappilyLiberal (Nov 30, 2018)

Cattypus1 said:


> I found an original copy of my bc and it didn’t have a first name only the word “female” in brackets. I showed it to my dd and she started calling me Female (rhymes with tamale). I wanted to smack her but it was pretty funny.



See...  that was your fault...  don't you remember when you were a child?  You walked into that one with eyes wide open!


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## ThirdEyeBeauty (Nov 30, 2018)

I was coming in here to defend this woman. 

*leaves thread*


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## Dposh167 (Nov 30, 2018)

I'm not gonna say anything nice after that pronunciation of Abcde...so imma leave too


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## Cattypus1 (Nov 30, 2018)

HappilyLiberal said:


> See...  that was your fault...  don't you remember when you were a child?  You walked into that one with eyes wide open!


Yep, I know...It cracked me up.  They just filed my birth cert before my first name was official when I was a baby.  I didn’t grow up with that name...LOL. Still funny to my dd and I was amused.


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## cocosweet (Dec 5, 2018)

Leeda.the.Paladin said:


> According to Babynames.com, Abcde is not currently ranked in United States births. Even so, Vocativ reviewed the Social Security Administration database in 2014 and found that *328* babies, all girls, had been named Abcde in the U.S.
> 
> Also in 2014, the name Abcde made national headlines when a 7-year-old Autistic girl, also named Abcde, was turned away by a mall Santa Claus.
> _._



Three Hundred Twenty Eight victims.


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## metro_qt (Dec 5, 2018)

Cattypus1 said:


> Yep, I know...It cracked me up.  They just filed my birth cert before my first name was official when I was a baby.  I didn’t grow up with that name...LOL. Still funny to my dd and I was amused.


I didn't have an official name for a while either, I should check my original birth certificate... I do know I wasn't issued a BC until 2 months after my birth, (I was a preemie) so a lot of my important documents (drivers license, etc) have another birthday rather than my actual birthday


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## metro_qt (Dec 5, 2018)

I heard them talk about this on the radio yesterday and thought they were spreading fake news..This thread is giving me all the laughs...

-to the poster who personally has seen names like oranjello and lemonjello in real life, are they pronounced in a funky way?


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## HappilyLiberal (Dec 5, 2018)

metro_qt said:


> I heard them talk about this on the radio yesterday and thought they were spreading fake news..This thread is giving me all the laughs...
> 
> -to the poster who personally has seen names like oranjello and lemonjello in real life, are they pronounced in a funky way?



Yep


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## dicapr (Dec 5, 2018)

metro_qt said:


> I heard them talk about this on the radio yesterday and thought they were spreading fake news..This thread is giving me all the laughs...
> 
> -to the poster who personally has seen names like oranjello and lemonjello in real life, are they pronounced in a funky way?



They pronounced it like Or-ron-gello. Work at a hospital and you see some things.


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## HappilyLiberal (Dec 5, 2018)

dicapr said:


> They pronounced it like Or-ron-gello. Work at a hospital and you see some things.



  because I couldn't even begin to figure out how to write that out phonetically!


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## TrueBeliever (Dec 8, 2018)

Why not Absidee if it must sound like that?


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## Leeda.the.Paladin (Dec 9, 2018)

I remember a mom who had twins asking me for a baby name book and her mother ( the grandmother) said “Dont you pick those names out of a book! You make it up yourself and make it special!” 

So I’m not sure of Abcde would fall into this category of “special” since it’s been used before, but I understood then that some people just have a different purpose when choosing a name.


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## ThirdEyeBeauty (Dec 9, 2018)

^^^Yep. All names are made up. The difference is some people reuse made up names until it becomes the norm and others try to be the first with such a name. Some alter the spelling of something with a meaningful translation.  Some names have no translation.  It doesn't bother me what or how a name is spelled. I don't judge or even care.  However, if you are sensitive to the opinions of others then maybe you should  pick a name that has already passed the test of time.  Daredevils shouldn't need much defending.


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## ThirdEyeBeauty (Dec 9, 2018)

Southernbella. said:


> The urban legend is that some poor, uneducated woman decided to name her child ABCDE (or L-a, or Lemonjello and Oranjello, or Female, or Chlymyida, or Ghonnorhea, etc). And these urban legends typically have black women in mind or occasionally, trailerpark whites.


That reminds me:

"Oh my Candida
We could make it together
The further from here boy the better
Where the air is fresh and clean
Oh my Candida
Just take my hand and I'll lead ya
I promise that life will be sweeter
'Cause it said so in my dreams"

Gets me every time.


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## Z-kitty (Dec 10, 2018)

I know someone who named their child ESPN.  It’s pronounced Espin.  All three of the boys have sports related names.


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## Laela (Dec 16, 2019)

I remembered this thread, when I saw this lol..


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## fluffyforever (Dec 16, 2019)

Laela said:


> I remembered this thread, when I saw this lol..


Those last three names can’t be real. I’m dying


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## Theresamonet (Dec 16, 2019)

Laela said:


> I remembered this thread, when I saw this lol..



He is full of it.


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## ThirdEyeBeauty (Dec 17, 2019)

I tried as I thought I would be close on Sssst but I was absolutely done with trying with JKmn. Very creative but life doesn't work  like that. The names of those people would just be simplified to Forest and Noelle.  Still fine with me for people with a thick skin including the person with the name.


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## larry3344 (Dec 30, 2019)

Name is stupid but isn’t the daughter,s fault


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