Parents name their baby after ‘Mass Effect’ character 

A story on a forum on The Escapist, in which a proud, soon-to-be-father announces that their newborn baby girl will be named after a character in BioWare’s beloved “Mass Effect” video game franchise, has gone viral.

 

“Tomorrow my daughter is scheduled to be born,” wrote user DrunkOnEstus, or Adam, on January 4. “Since day 1 her first name was always going to be Tali’Zorah...My wife fell in love with the name during our first playthrough of ME1 (Mass Effect) many years ago.”

 

He added: “Confused friends and relatives are told ‘we wanted a nice Quarian name just because it’s funny to see the confusion become worse.”

 

Some accounts of the story have mistakenly stated that the daughter was being named “Mass Effect.” While “Tali” does sound very pretty and even normal, the parents aren’t giving their daughter the shortened form of the name, but the full one – Tali’Zorah.

 

The controversial story has led to heated discussions on the forum. According to Kotaku, there is an ongoing debate on whether the daughter should simply be named “Tali” instead of “Tali’Zorah.”

 

While some have come to the defense of the parents, many members have chimed in on why they think such an odd naming choice is wrong. The issue boils down to: do the parents have the right to celebrate a favorite fictional character by naming their child after them, even if this might increase the child’s chances of being picked on because of said name?

 

“I was pretty embarrassed when I learned my middle name came from Dune,” said one member, “and I even liked that book.”

 

“Your child is a person, not a fashion accessory or toy for you to break out at parties. The kid’s gonna get teased and she’s going to have to tell people how to spell her freaking name for her entire life,” remarked another.

 

“There is a large probability she will grow to hate the name… because she will have to explain that her name comes from an alien in a videogame,” said one Hero in a half shell.

 

Her girl-next-door innocence, combined with her genius-level engineering skills, makes Tali’Zorah, from the fictional Quarian alien race one of the most popular “Mass Effect” characters. She is present in all three of the franchise games, and serves as both ally and even possible love interest to main character Commander Shepard.

 

The Quarians’ immune systems are extremely weak; this necessitates their wearing of a full-body environmental suit to keep them alive. This effectively hides their physical and facial features.

 

Tali’s face remained a mystery until “Mass Effect 3”, in which an in-game photo showed her unmasked. Because the image simply made use of an edited stock photo of Miss England model Hammasa Kohistani, however, the revelation was widely panned by disappointed fans and critics alike. — KDM, GMA News