Internet Will Name Baby For $5,000, Haha…

Just when you thought there were no more ways to make extra money :) I love it…

Here’s the article about it on Today.com: Mom defends $5,000 payoff for baby name rights. In a nut shell, a mother-to-be will receive $5,000 for allowing people online to vote for her son’s/daughter’s name – which is somehow backed by sponsors of the contest (I don’t think a name could be “Coca-Cola” or anything…). Here’s what this brave woman says about everything:

“Especially now with people all around me trying to pay their mortgages and get by, I have $5,000 I can put towards my baby’s future, and $5,000 makes a difference in my life,” Natasha Hill, a single, children’s art teacher in Los Angeles, told TODAY Moms. “Here’s the chance for me to do something really positive for my unborn son or daughter.”

She does have a point there! $5,000 is certainly a way to start out with a baby – that’s half of what we’ve already spent on ours in the past year and a half! Not saying I’d go and do that myself (after all, the kid then has to live his entire life now with a possible meaningless name), but I can def. see where she’s coming from… Being a lover of money, and all ;)

At the time of this writing, it looks like 60% of others would consider doing it too! Only 42% of the people flat out said no – and that’s out of 17,000+ who’s voted so far (probably more by the time you read this). You never know what people will do for money! The higher the amounts, the crazier people get… I asked Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy if she would do it and I promptly received the Death Stare in return, haha… Guess I wouldn’t even have a say in the matter :)

What about you guys though? Would YOU accept $5k to give up your rights to your baby’s name? And if so, what would you do with it?? I reckon if we were talking $50,000 it might change a few of our votes (I’m not gonna dare ask Mrs. BudgetsAreSexy again!), but it’s an interesting thing to consider never the less. How far we’d go for money, and if it’s really *that* important at the end of the day anyways, ya know?

For now, I’ll just keep hustlin’ and bringing home money the old fashioned way…  Call me boring.

UPDATE: Turns out this was a hoax!! By the folks at BabyNames.net… Which begs a new question – Would you ever get paid to try and pull off a hoax like this? Haha…

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{Photo by shelley_ginger}

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39 Comments

    1. Lance @ Money Life and More March 6, 2013 at 7:13 AM

      Hoaxes are all over the place these days… there was a viral video of a pig saving a goat in a lake… produced by MTV!

    2. Mercedes March 6, 2013 at 7:57 AM

      I hadn’t heard about this until yesterday afternoon when they were announcing it as a hoax.

      On a side note, I’d want a lot more than $5,000 if the internet was going to name my kid!

      1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:42 PM

        I did not know that until y’all told me! So thanks!!

        And that begs an even BETTER question now: Would you take the acting job to do this hoax knowing you could get caught one day??? Not that it’s really all that horrible, but still. How much money is THAT worth? Haha…

  1. Sue D March 6, 2013 at 6:50 AM

    This is my “What is the world coming to?” moment. Hoax or not.

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:46 PM

      Hahaha… that is awesome. Never seen that before :)

  2. John S @ Frugal Rules March 6, 2013 at 8:01 AM

    Hoax or not, I think I’ll stick the boring way of bringing money in. Not to mention the fact that our last name does not go well with many first names, so I shudder to think how some random stranger would make it worse.

  3. Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank March 6, 2013 at 8:56 AM

    Despite it being a publicity stunt, I am sure there are people out there who would really do it. No matter how much I like money, it seems disrespectful to not name your kid.

  4. Retire By 40 March 6, 2013 at 11:06 AM

    Bah… I would take 50k and run. He can always change his name later. :)

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:47 PM

      True! Just give him a nice middle name and he can go as that :)

  5. Thomas @ Finance Inspired March 6, 2013 at 11:19 AM

    I think $5k is too little, I agree with retire by 40, take $50k and put it in a college fund. Everyones a winner this way.

    1. Edward Antrobus March 6, 2013 at 1:31 PM

      Except for the kid who gets picked on every day in school for being named “Wells Fargo”

      1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:48 PM

        Haha… the story said it wouldn’t be a name like that :) Not that it really matters anyways since it’s fake!

  6. Johnny @ Our Freaking Budget March 6, 2013 at 11:21 AM

    I would probably pay someone $5000 to never have to go through the naming process again. :) I don’t know how we finally settled on one, but since we waited until after our Baby Girl was born, it was likely a mix of epidural and exhaustion. The important thing is, we settled on a name. And we both like it still.

    As for money for hoax? Pass.

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:50 PM

      We only had ONE name the entire 9 months we both liked, and then when he came out we were like, “um… he doesn’t LOOK like his name, but oh well! we love it too much!” haha… now he totally looks like his name, but man. Was worried there for a second… And now I believe that people can “look” like names where I didn’t before!

  7. Rafael March 6, 2013 at 11:35 AM

    Thinking of the right name can be a painstaking process. Also if it doesn’t need to sound to weird but still needs to be a bit unique.

  8. Grayson @ Debt Roundup March 6, 2013 at 1:03 PM

    Though this was a hoax, what a dumb way to get money. There was a couple last year that got paid by an online gambling site to name their baby their url. They were paid $15,000 and they named their baby “GoldenPalacedotcom”. Yeah, what a way to start out your life.

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:54 PM

      NO way?? I doubt that would be allowed. Not sure what agency monitors it, but I know you can’t be named certain things that are super offensive or ridiculous.

  9. Nick @ ayoungpro.com March 6, 2013 at 1:24 PM

    I would do it, but I would also get the death stare from my wife for suggesting it. That is why I love my wife, she keeps me from doing stupid things! :)

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:55 PM

      Haha yup! They watch out for us!

  10. Edward Antrobus March 6, 2013 at 1:30 PM

    We were just talking about baby names last night because my wife really wants to name any future daughter of ours after an elf from Lord of the Rings.

    I wouldn’t put a name out there for sponsorship because I wouldn’t want my kid to be named Wachovia or something like that. And there is no incentive for the business to actually choose a reasonable name.

  11. Cat March 6, 2013 at 2:12 PM

    Absolutely not. I’d never do something like that.

  12. Jose March 6, 2013 at 3:37 PM

    Assuming it was real it would be tempting to pay off $5000 worth a debt but it would totally suck to have a child named Chubbawubba , Popeye or some other crazy name , So, Nope I wouldn’t do it!

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:55 PM

      What’s wrong with Chubbawubba?? :)

  13. Melinda Gonzalez March 6, 2013 at 4:11 PM

    Can you change the name afterward? I MIGHT consider doing this and than just letting the kid pick a new name later on. In some countries the kids change their names to whatever they want once their older. I put the money in investments for when the child is older. Haha.

    Of course if they voted for bam bam or Apple, or something crazy like that I might bail. Some people would be better off having someone else pick the name anyway, LOL.

    1. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:57 PM

      That’s a good idea! You’re totally right, you can always change it later (if it were allowed in the terms, but I’m sure you could negotiate if we’re only taking about $5k here. and if it were indeed, real, haha…)

  14. Matt @ My Coin Blog March 6, 2013 at 4:27 PM

    I would take $50k as long as it had some sort of built in veto rights. I would have to be able to veto something like Wong Dong Jones or something like that.

  15. J. Money March 6, 2013 at 4:59 PM

    How about Saint-Gaudens? :)

  16. KK @ Student Debt Survivor March 6, 2013 at 10:39 PM

    Glad to see that this wasn’t real. I was a little scared at first. People pick strange/bad enough names by themselves without auctioning off the right to choose a name for money.

    1. J. Money March 7, 2013 at 9:07 PM

      hahahhaha How true that is.

  17. stephanie March 6, 2013 at 10:44 PM

    Chubba-Wubba-kinda has a ring. I don’t know people, I’m sort of in the “this is a bit too far” boat with this one. I don’t think there’s an amount of money that would convince me to give up naming my own child. I mean really-I put a lot of thought into my daughter’s name (I have a really bizarre last name). My mom and I talked about it and decided on the name we did because of its Biblical significance, and because of the historical reverence paid to the name. While it’s a fairly simple name, it still means much more than “this is my name”; it’s the process I went through, with my mom. And she actually really likes her name!

  18. Mike Carlson March 7, 2013 at 1:49 AM

    Such a crazy publicity stunt. Who would a sane mother would ever do that.

  19. maria@moneyprinciple March 7, 2013 at 4:25 AM

    Lover of money or not, I am not prepared to allow this – I would like one day to have the whole share of the blame that will rain on me for naming my son. He ended up with a good king’s name (Philip) but I was planning to name him Ferdinant or Sigmund (Ferdo or Ziggie). I figured if he survived on the playground with a name like that he’ll be OK in life :).

  20. Doable Finance March 7, 2013 at 9:32 AM

    Like George Constanza would say: “Name it the number Seven or Soda.” On the same token as your article, Vidal Sassoon charged $10,000 for a haircut in the 1970s and that was for the very basic.

  21. J. Money March 7, 2013 at 9:08 PM

    I JUST WATCHED THAT EPISODE!!! And I hated it because we never got the answer at the end!!! ACK!

  22. @pfinMario March 12, 2013 at 2:48 PM

    For $5000, probably not. I’d have to be closer to the situation to decide the amount… if was an amount large enough to set up a trust fund that could give the kid a little bit of reasonable comfort for the rest of his life — maybe $1 million — then I don’t see how I could turn that down… especially since the yet unborn child isn’t signing the contract and could thus switch to a more sensible name at age 18.

  23. David March 13, 2013 at 9:43 AM

    Depends on who’s doing the naming, I certainly wouldn’t want my kid named Pepsi or Paris Hilton, but John Deere would be fine.

    1. J. Money March 14, 2013 at 12:28 AM

      hahahhha… naturally.