A couple from India has reportedly named their children “Corona” and “Covid” as a way to remember the coronavirus pandemic, according to multiple reports.
What’s going on:
- Preeti and Vinay Verma decided to name their children Corona and Covid this week, according to India’s Express News Service. The couple gave birth to a boy and a girl.
- Preeti Verma said the couple named their children because they wanted to “make the occasion memorable.
- Verma said: “There is a lot of apprehension nowadays regarding COVID-19. We wished to ease the anxiety and fear associated with these words and also make the occasion memorable. So, I and my husband took an instant decision to name our twins Covid (boy) and Corona (girl).”
- Verma told the Press Trust of India (NDTV) that the names will stick “for now.”
- She said: “Indeed the virus is dangerous and life-threatening, but its outbreak made people focus on sanitation, hygiene and inculcate other good habits. Thus, we thought about these names. When the hospital staff also started calling the babies as Corona and Covid, we finally decided to name them after the pandemic.”
- The couple might change the names when they get older, according to reports.
This is a bigger trend
- According to Vice, people in the Philippines have begun naming their children after the pandemic, too. For example, one woman named her child “Covid Bryant” — a reference to the coronavirus and the late Kobe Bryant, who died in February.