We’ve all been there – caught in the middle of family jokes that teeter between playful and annoying. For months, my sister-in-law had a favorite target: my name. What started as harmless teasing turned into relentless mockery, and I decided I’d had enough.

Here’s what happened:

My wife and I have been together since we were 19 and now we’re 32. I met her family after about a year of dating. My sister-in-law was actually the first one I met. Right off the bat, she blurted out that I have a girl’s name (Skye) and then proceeded to laugh about it. My wife told her to stop and that it wasn’t funny. At the time, it didn’t bother me much. I laughed it off and explained that there are plenty of guys named Skye, including my great-grandfather, Schuyler, who was called Sky his whole life, and Sky Masterson from “Guys and Dolls.”

So, the first time wasn’t a big deal. People have asked me before if I feel like my name is more suited for a girl than a guy, and I never minded.

My sister-in-law continued to joke about my name and our kids’ names when we were expecting our babies. It got a bit annoying, but I could brush it off, and my wife would step in and tell her to stop if she went too far, which only happened once back then.

We didn’t see her much for a while, but she got engaged last year and started coming around more often. She seemed to have calmed down a lot. But now that she’s having her own baby, a girl, she’s really testing my patience.

It started when her husband asked what she thought about naming their daughter Skye. She joked that they shouldn’t use it because she didn’t want me to feel even more like a girl. My wife told her to act more mature, and we left. The next time we saw her, they announced they had decided to name their daughter Skye. I said that’s fine. My sister-in-law (SIL) said she was surprised I was okay with sharing my name with a girl. I told her that her daughter wouldn’t be the first Skye, and I wasn’t insecure about my masculinity, so I didn’t see a problem with sharing the name with girls or women.

The next time we met, she joked about dressing both Sky(e)s in pretty pink dresses when her daughter is born. We avoided her for the rest of that visit. Then she joked that I must have been embarrassed by my name because I started using my middle name. This happened more times, and then on Saturday we were back at my in-laws’ house for my mother-in-law’s birthday. My SIL was joking with some of my MIL’s siblings about my name and tried to involve me by calling me over to tell her silly jokes.

Finally, it got to me, and I asked her why she had to be so annoying. I told her how exhausting it is to always hear her silly jokes, which aren’t really jokes but insults aimed at me. She called me sensitive, and I pointed out that she’s the one who has been teasing me about my name for over ten years. I told her everyone understands that she thinks Skye is a girl’s name, but she’s not funny. My SIL got angry. My wife told her that she was about to become a mom and needed to listen to us and grow up.