A woman started off with good intentions to name her child but has been slammed as "cruel" for accidentally picking the wrong name.

She wanted to name her son after the doctor who saved her life after she had severe birth complications, but was so stressed after childbirth that she gave him the wrong name.

"I had no problem figuring out the father, who was my best friend (now boyfriend), because he's the only guy I've ever slept with," she wrote on Reddit.

"I was completely freaking out when I found out because I wasn't ready at all, and I didn't tell him because his mother was fighting COVID so I didn't want to put him through any more stress."

"Without any support system, I was so stressed I never bothered with naming," she admitted. "I didn't even think about it."

She decided to name her child after the only person that was by her side during delivery, which was a doctor.

"I decided I would name my son after her albeit in a variant or middle name sort of way, like Christina to Christian or something," she said. "Her name was Audrey, and I distinctly remembered that—although its less common—Audrey can be used as a boy's name, and I actually thought it was very cute, so that's what I named my son."

However, when she broke the news to her family, they were disgusted.

"I told them it was a less known fact, but Audrey can be a boy's name," she said. "We looked it up, and apparently I was thinking of AUBREY."

"I feel like an idiot," the new mum confessed, saying her boyfriend loves the name and doesn't want to change it.

"He says it's stupid that one letter can change the gender of the name and says it's just a bunch of letters anyway and has no inherent gender," she continued. "He says he can't picture him as anything but Audrey."

"Reactions from friends are very mixed, but many are telling me we're pre-emptively ruining Audrey's life," the woman said, before asking Reddit users if she's 'ruining' her child's life with her name choice.

People warned her about her naming choice, saying that "kids are really cruel".

'While I agree that the convention of gendered names is a silly one, but it doesn't make it not a thing," one user pointed out. "You are setting up your son for being bullied and teased."

"I hope you know kids are really cruel and he most likely would be teased with this name," said another.