You’ve probably seen that meme of the pregnant woman standing in front of a blackboard with a list of potential baby names written on it: Taylee, McKarty, Nayvie and Maylee are all crossed out, and Lakynn is circled. The meme became a go-to reference for anyone wanting to make fun of ridiculous influencer baby names, and now, the genre has a new contender: Tess Stickle.



Technically, the child’s name is Theresa Havens Stickle, and she was born to Kelly Havens Stickle, who appears to be a fairly conservative Christian tradwife influencer, and her husband Levi, who already have two sons, James and Thad.


Theresa is a perfectly normal name in and of itself, particularly when compared to Lakynn, Mackayleigh, Stormi or some of the other names influencers and celebrities are inflicting on their children these days. It’s just the incredibly unfortunate pairing of the name Theresa, which is often shortened to Tess, with the family’s surname of Stickle.


Tess Stickle. Tess Stickle. Say it five times fast. Yeah.



Kelly’s Instagram comments are overwhelmingly supportive, particularly as she disclosed that she lost 1,500 milliliters of blood in two hours and dealt with placenta previa, necessitating a visit to the hospital. Unfortunately, Twitter is a far less forgiving place, with people completely baffled by the family’s choice of name. Considering they’re conservative Christians, maybe they avoid saying words like testicle aloud, and thus, it didn’t occur to them when choosing their child’s name?


Ultimately, I just feel bad for baby Theresa. Even if she chooses a different nickname for herself — one Twitter user suggested Teri — others are going to make the connection and call her Testicle against her will.


Admittedly, if the family is doing the whole homeschooling thing, she could avoid the majority of playground bullying, but she won’t be able to hide from the outside world forever. At some point, somebody is going to ask what the deal is with her name, and hopefully her parents haven’t raised her to be completely devoid of a sense of humor about it.