A woman has been left furious with Southwest Airlines after one of their flight attendants allegedly mocked her five-year-old daughter's name.
The mom, Traci Redford, and her daughter were boarding a flight from John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California to their home in El Paso, Texas back in 2018 when Traci heard a giggle coming from one of the airline staff.
Traci claimed that the giggling was coming from a flight agent who was openly making fun of her daughter's name, Abcde - pronounced Abcidy.
Abcde has epilepsy and was pre-boarding with her mother when the incident is said to have occurred.
In addition to the flight agent reportedly laughing and mocking Abcde's name, Traci then claimed she shared a picture of her daughter's boarding pass to Facebook.
Speaking to ABC7, Traci said, "The gate agent started laughing, pointing at me and my daughter, talking to other employees.
"So I turned around and said, 'Hey if I can hear you, my daughter can hear you, so I'd appreciate if you'd just stop.' While I was sitting there, she took a picture of my boarding pass and chose to post it on social media, mocking my daughter.
"It was actually brought to my attention by somebody who had seen it on Facebook and reported it to Southwest Airlines. And after two weeks of doing a formal complaint, Southwest hadn't done anything."
Traci then revealed that her daughter seemed confused by the situation as to why somebody would be laughing at her name.
"She said 'Mom, why is she laughing at my name?' And I said not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it's unfortunate.'"
Southwest Airlines released a statement at the time, saying, "We extend our sincere apology to the family. We take great pride in extending our Southwest Hospitality to all of our Customers, which includes living by the Golden Rule and treating every individual with respect, in person or online.
"The post is not indicative of the care, respect, and civility we expect from all of our Employees. We have followed up with the Employee involved, and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all Employees."
While Abcde may seem like a relatively uncommon name, a 2014 report by Vocativ revealed that over the previous 30 years, 328 baby girls in the United States had been given that same name. Of those babies, 32 were born in 2009. Nicknames include Ce-Ce, Sidy, Abby, Xyzzie, Aebi and Seedy, according to BabyNameWizard.com.
The Vocativ report states,"For what it’s worth, the name Abcde seems to be a primarily Hawaiian phenomenon. SSA data indicates that all five of the Abcdes named in 1990 were born there, which is especially interesting, considering that the modern Hawaiian alphabet doesn’t include the consonants b, c or d.
"A little googling reveals that an Abcde Zoller plays soccer for the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and an Abcde de Coito teaches Zumba classes in the Aloha state. NameCandy’s Name Lady blogger suggests the name may also be relatively common in New Mexico and among Latino families."
