Baby Name Consultant Admits She Stole Her Cousin's Dream Baby Name — for Her Family's New Dog (Exclusive)

A TikToker obsessed with names broke a major name rule in a hilarious accident.

Jessie, on TikTok @dreambabynames, wasn't naming a baby, but a dog, when she was struck with the perfect idea.

"My mom was rescuing a dog, who would join our family dog. Her name is Olive and I was trying to think of a name that worked perfectly with Olive. The new dog is this gorgeous little white dog, and I was like, 'Oh, she has to be Pearl,' " Jessie tells PEOPLE.

"My mom was like, 'You're so right, 100%, she's Pearl.' I was helping her take care of the dog and the more time I spent with her, the more I was like, 'Her name is Pearl, no doubt.' "

The cute name was a fit for the dog, but it wasn't until they introduced her at a family gathering that Jessie realized where she'd heard the name before.

"It came time for my son's first birthday that my mom was hosting. And my whole family walked in and we were very excited for them to meet Pearl. And right as it flew out of my mouth, I looked and made eye contact with my cousin and her jaw was just on the floor."

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Jessie's cousin asked if she was kidding, and confirmed the suspicion that Jessie was the one to suggest they named the dog Pearl.

"I said, 'Yeah, I did name her. I apologize. Honestly it totally slipped my mind that that was on your baby name list until right now, in this very moment. But I'm so sorry.' "

In her TikTok video about the mishap, Jessie notes that her cousin isn't currently pregnant, but could be in the foreseeable future. Jessie, who has started sharing her passion for baby names and helping families struggling to find the perfect moniker, also notes, "I probably get rattled off 50 baby names a day that are people's top baby names. It really slipped my mind."

Luckily, her cousin was a good sport, knowing the conversation in which she mentioned the name was "easily over a year" before the dog came around. Her cousin's partner admitted they were "relieved" by the name mishap.

"Her partner actually was like, 'Oh thank God, I did not want that name to be on our list. Thank you for taking it out of the running.' And I was like, 'No it's not out of the running! You could still use it.' "

And if she was still passionate about the name, Jessie says her family would support her cousin in using it.

"We honestly have the kind of family that if she truly wanted to use it, we would all just laugh and move on. I don't think anyone would question it much."

Jessie was so surprised to see how many people felt she did something that really overstepped.

"I didn't realize people would be angry. I was like, 'Oh my gosh.' But I got a lot of comments of people being like, 'Well how would you feel if she named her dog your baby name that you were about to name your baby?' "

Jessie continued, "I said, 'I would think it was funny and I would make them take pictures together and wear matching sweaters and stuff.' I just think that speaks more to our sense of humor as a family. She definitely was not bothered. I waited until the dust fully settled to even post it, just in case there was some underlying feelings that maybe hadn't come out immediately. She thinks its funny. There are definitely no actual hard feelings."

That said, her cousin will be surprised to learn about their TikTok viral moment, as she's not on the platform herself. "I have to tell her I posted it and that people were actually mad, because she's going to think it's so funny."

The TikTok moment was made possible by Jessie's account dedicated to baby names. What started as getting to know the platform as a social media manager turned into a passion project for her.

"I tried to think of a TikTok account I could start just to have in my back pocket, to build my knowledge of the platform in a professional capacity. I thought about what I cared about the most and realized I could talk about baby names all day," she explains.

"So I started there and by like my third video it had gone viral. Before I knew it, people really needed help. It was kind of a side of it that I didn't anticipate, but people really were seeking help for their baby name crises and it felt really nice to be able to take some stress off their shoulders," she says.

Jessie notes how much baby naming has changed in recent history. "We're so far out of the realm of, 'My parents used a baby name book to find my name.' We're just so inundated with information that I think it's overwhelming to name a baby now," she says.

For the year ahead, Jessie things we'll continue to see "nursey or nursing home names."

"We're loving giving babies 'old people' names. I think it's just the most like long-standing trend of late. I wouldn't expect those to go anywhere," she shares. "Other ones that I'm really seeing are Soren for a boy and other softer boy names. I think that's one that's really going to stand the test of time."

"We have all of the 'El' girl names. We love Ellie. Everyone wants their daughter to be named Ellie with some unique formal name, so we have the Eliana takeover, the Eleanors. We also love the food names, like Olive and Clementine and sort of those like kitschy, fun, vintage names."

This recent viral moment has made it clear to Jessie that conversations around naming are changing — and there's a rule set being formed in the process.

"I think there's a lot of conversation around baby name taboos and etiquette, which is really interesting because I don't think we took baby naming as seriously as this 10, 20 years ago," she notes.

"I think that there's a big conversation now around stealing people's baby names and everyone wanting these really unique names. It just brings a whole conversation up that I don't think has been had often before this. We're headed into a very interesting time and I'm interested to see kind of more of what what those taboos end up being."

Read the original article on People