An anonymous Reddit user claims to have done a good deed by warning someone else against using a baby name that’s commonly associated with a fungal infection.
The user, who has since deleted his or her account, shared a screen-shotted text message on Oct. 20 to a subreddit dedicated to poking fun at “awful names and naming culture.”
“My act of heroism yesterday,” the Reddit user wrote in the screenshot’s subject line.
The parent-to-be asked the Reddit user, “What about Candida?”
“I could be wrong but I think that’s the medical term for a yeast infection,” the anonymous recipient replied.
The parent in search of a baby name wrote back, suggesting that people likely wouldn’t make the connection, according to the Reddit post.
“I mean I wouldn’t risk it, you have lots of other great names,” the alleged Reddit user then replied.
“I doubt that would have been an issue but OK,” the parent-to-be apparently wrote back.
The name Candida is of Latin origin. It’s a color- and nature-focused name that means “white,” according to BabyNames.com, an online source for baby name meanings.
Other name sources note that Candida means “dazzling white,” “bright,” “pure” or “glowing white.”
Candida is considered a female name and is typically given to girls. The name has been steadily declining in popularity since the 1970s, according to a chart published by BabyNames.com.
The name website says Candida doesn’t appear among the top 100 on “Baby Names Popularity Charts” and it’s currently not ranked in U.S. births.
In medical fields, the name Candida is short for Candidiasis and Candida albicans, which are both linked to yeast infections.
Yeast is a fungus that’s normally found inside bodies and on skin, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
“When too much yeast grows, it can cause infection,” the acclaimed Baltimore hospital wrote in a yeast infection resource guide.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by a yeast called Candida.
“Some species of Candida can cause infection in people; the most common is Candida albicans,” the national health agency wrote on a Candidiasis information webpage.
The CDC says Candida can live in a mouth, throat, gut or vagina “without causing problems,” but it can “cause infections if it grows out of control or if it enters deep into the body,” including infections in the bloodstream or internal organs like the kidney, heart or brain.
Reddit users unanimously agreed that the original poster did the right thing by pointing out that the name has connections to an unpleasant medical condition.
“Personally I would not want to Google my name and have ‘vaginal yeast infection’ be the first result,” one commenter wrote.
Another user chimed in, writing that “Candida is a legitimate name.”
However, this same person indicated a sudden inability to stop thinking about the fungal infection meaning associated with it.
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