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L.A. Mom Gives Up Naming Rights to Unborn Child for $5000 Cash Prize [UPDATED]
Photo by karen roach via Shutterstock
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Naming a child is a big deal--after all, they're pretty much stuck with it for the rest of their lives. But one Los Angeles mom-to-be is fine with letting the public pick her baby's name, in exchange for a $5000 cash prize she won in an online contest.
Natasha Hill entered Belly Ballot's contest, and submitted her application to let "the entire world" have a say in her baby's name.
The Belly Ballot site was launched in 2012, and offers parents-to-be a platform where they can post ideas for baby names and have people vote on them.
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Natasha Hill (Facebook)
Hill's win was revealed mid-February, and the 26-year-old UC Santa Barbara grad quickly took to her Facebook page to share her glee, posting "Yeahhhh I won!!!"According to the popular parenting site Baby Center, Hill said in her entry "she would spend half the money on credit card debt, and the rest would go into a college fund for her new baby." (Incidentally, a lot of the moms commenting on the Baby Center post say they think $5000 is "cheap" for what Hill is giving up.)
Hill announced she was expecting in late January, and says while she doesn't want to know the sex before birth, she's already been trying to come up with names.
Of course, now that's pretty much out of her hands, while (a mere) $5000 is in her pocket.
Belly Ballot explains what happens next:
In the coming days, we will create Natasha’s Belly Ballot and prepare the open voting to commence on March 18th and continue through March 22nd. We will select a number of currently trending names, and names sponsored by our Advertisers, to be listed on the ballot. Anyone will be free to vote for 1 girl name and 1 boy name each (only 1 vote will count per person for each though). The girl and boy name with the most votes when the ballot concludes on March 22nd will be the name Natasha will name her baby!
“I think the whole Belly Ballot concept is so social and fun, and can’t wait to see what everyone votes for!” Hill said.
This could also prove to be horrifying, since advertisers have a say and people also have questionable taste (and spelling skills) when it comes to current names. If you've ever talked about baby naming, you've probably heard an earful of cringe-worthy selections, including those with gratuitous punctuation marks and extra letters...you know, so the name can be unique. How about La-A, which, of course, is pronounced "ladasha" or Abcd, pronounced "abscidee"? And thanks to shows like "Teen Mom," our future country will be run by a slew of men named Jace and Bentley.
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Just a few interesting name selections that moms-to-be have floated around online forums in recent months include Brexley, Maddix, Racein, Tonto, Desire, Aunianna, E'yanna, Rayleighana Mayleek, Kaydence, Swayze, Chenayah, King, Krue, and Skyleiah, to name a few. And, depending on the advertisers, the baby could be called any imaginable product name. Did we mention the contest was called "Belly Branding"? Based on the site's banner ad, there's a good chance Hill's offspring could be named Megabus or Country Outfitter.
Oh, baby.
UPDATE 3/4/13: The Belly Ballot site's owner has now admitted no one entered the contest, and that she hired L.A. actress Natasha Lloyd to play "Natasha Hill" the "winner." Lloyd is not pregnant.
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