It gets harder to name children when you get older. Because by the time you're in your thirties every name you think of reminds you of someone you hate. We have to hurry; we're down to Jethro and Nefertiti.

Rudner’s joke plays on a real social phenomenon: as people age, their mental “name list” fills up with strong associations—exes, rivals, difficult coworkers, or simply unpleasant acquaintances. What was once a neutral, pretty-sounding name becomes unusable because it evokes a specific person and the emotions attached to them. The punchline escalates the premise by suggesting the couple must “hurry” before all acceptable names are contaminated, leaving only outlandish, highly distinctive options (“Jethro and Nefertiti”). Beneath the humor is an observation about how memory and experience narrow choices over time, and how adulthood can make even simple decisions feel overdetermined by personal history.