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Baby Megatron? Canadian parents-to-be ask Internet to name their unborn daughter

Expectant parents of the world, don't let the Internet name your baby.

It's one thing to ask for suggestions — or to get family to vote on your top choices — but Kelowna, B.C., software developer Stephen McClaughlin is giving others a little too much say in choosing his unborn's daughter's name.

When media outlets first reported that McClaughlin and his wife were crowdsourcing their child's name, the frontrunner was a surprisingly sweet choice: Amelia Mae McClaughlin.

"I am also quite surprised by how respectful people have been," McClaughlin, who goes by digitalgecko on Reddit, wrote two days ago.

Then the story went viral.

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The frontrunner as of this afternoon: Cthulhu All-Spark McClaughlin.

(Cthulhu is a "cosmic entity" who first appeared in a 1928 short story by writer H. P. Lovecraft. So…at least it's a literary name?)

While Amelia is still the second choice, Megatron, Zelda, Not Zelda and Streetlamp are also currently in the top 10.

"I tend to be very forward person (this gets me in a lot of trouble lol) and I just blurted it out — 'Hunny, I am going to ask the internet what we should name our daughter! [sic]'" McClaughlin posted on Reddit.

"She was supportive right from the start. I think at first she didn't think I was actually going to do it. But once the domain was registered she knew it was real."

"Hell, when I saw that namemydaughter.com was available I just knew that was the sign that I HAD to do it."

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Their daughter is due on April 2nd. If you want to have a say, too, vote here.

McClaughlin's smart wife appears to have predicted that things would go so awry. On the couple's site, NameMyDaughter.com, they posted a disclaimer:

"Unfortunately, Internet, I know better than to trust you. We will ultimately be making the final decision. Alas my daughter shall not be named WackyTaco692. Sorry, guys, the wife wouldn't go for a free-for-all."

McLaughlin told CTV News that he plans on archiving the website and all of the crazy votes to show his daughter when she's older.

So while the Internet might not actually end up naming their baby, the exercise is revealing just how dangerous it is to ask strangers — and 4Chan trolls — to make decisions for you.

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