A few years ago, we talked about a married couple that nearly divorced over a baby name.
Today, let’s talk about a married couple that actually did get a divorce because of a baby name.
Audrey Payne wed Arthur Simms of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1950. About a year later, they had a baby girl. Six weeks after that, Audrey petitioned for divorce.
Audrey had originally named the baby Antoinette, after her mother.
Thereupon, she charged, her husband, Arthur Benjamin Simms III, “flew into a rage.” He’s an aircraft engineer.
Simms, she charged, changed the name to “Annette.” She changed it back.
Then, Mrs. Simms claimed, her husband hit her and tore up all the birth announcements reading “Antoinette.”
Yikes.
I’m not sure what name the baby ended up with, but an obituary for Arthur Simms mentions a daughter named Anne, and this could be his daughter with Audrey. If so, perhaps the name on the birth certificate is Annette.
…Which of the two names would you have chosen for baby Simms?
Source: “Feud Over Baby’s Name Results in Divorce.” Reading Eagle 13 Jul. 1951: 4.
Antoinette is so much prettier and the maternal grandmothers name Annette was so popular at the time still can’t believe they had all this drama over a name
It’s hard to believe they couldn’t come to an agreement on their own. Especially since the names they liked were so similar.
I’d guess that there were other things already going on inside the marriage, and that it all just boiled over when it came time to choose a name.
Really, in their situation, I would have thrown out both names and tried to come to a compromise on another one–with Antoinette in the middle since it was the grandma’s name. But if I had to choose between those two names for my own child, it would have to be Annette. The way I say Antoinette, it has a “twa” sound in the middle that makes it a little too fussy for me.
My ex-husband and I also could not agree on our first-born’s name. I wanted to name him Blake. My ex wanted to name him Michael after a Christian singer named Michael W. Smith. I honestly never cared for the name Michael but after some arguing I agreed to name him Michael Blake because it flowed better but thought we also agreed that our son would be called Blake. Well my ex didn’t keep that agreement and never would call him Blake. I always have. Our friends who were stuck in the middle call him by both names together. His younger brother calls him Michael, but if you ask him what he wants to be called, he’ll tell you Blake. Poor kid. And no, we did not divorce over the naming incident. Glad my ex let me choose our 2nd son’s name.