Nursery keep spelling child’s name wrong

They need to get it right, learning to recognise your name is a basic part of the EYFS.

I have the slightly less common version of a name with two spellings, and have had this all my life.

It can be irritating (it is careless at best, disrespectful at worst), but I’d say pick your battles. Most of DP’s family spell my name wrong, which I shrug off, for various reasons. But I’m now doing some voluntary work where details are crucial, and it’s happening there. I’ll be fucked if I’ll put up with it from them, and I’ll correct it every single time. Nurseries and schools should absolutely be getting their children’s’ names right.

This happens all the time. I have to call children from waiting areas & it's a minefield. I'm always checking I've pronounced things correctly, but it is difficult! I've had a Mia pronounced My-ah which did throw me. And lots of African/Asian/Polish/Irish names that I've never seen before so I just try my best & tbh I've been known to Google the pronunciation to try & make sure I'm not saying them wrong! But if I'm writing them down I ALWAYS check. It's a lack of care that people don't I think! It's one of the reasons I gave my own child a name that's said as it's spelled. Easy but still nice!

Yes, anything slightly out of the ordinary sends them into a tail spin! Good luck to you and Ieuan for keeping enwau Cymraeg going. (I have a Siân and a Rhidian - not easily spelled here in the frozen north).

A mum of one of the kids I taught, taught her pre 5 yr old child to verbally spell his name for teachers because it was unusual. Bet she'd had problems with it in nursery/ relatives.

My child has a Scottish name with multiple spellings. We chose the most popular one (though not strictly correct Gaelic).

We kind of take it if someone spells or says it wrong because we chose a more unusual name-though still quite popular. Every day when I get him from nursery there is a list of what they have had for lunches and they spell it different every time.

I have been surprised at the people in my life who have spelt it wrongly consistently and I do take note of the people who always make the effort to check it and spell it properly. That being said I never use his name as a password as its a nightmare to type out quickly 😂

They need to sort it as nursery is where they learn to recognise and even write their own name. I have daughter with a name with many different spellings her nursery never got it wrong.

Ever had it with the ‘er’? Samanther 😂

Seen that quite a bit.

OP, I have the same. My kid has a popular name with multiple spellings. Even some Mum friends get it wrong, although they always ask me the ‘correct’ way. Nursery sometimes used to get it wrong, her school get it right!

Yes extremely annoying OP. Be prepared for a life of this unfortunately.

I have a variant spelling of a name used in the UK. To be fair it is a foreign spelling so I accept people will get it wrong if giving my name verbally. However it really totally fucks me off when people misspell it when it's been spelt correctly for them eg in an email etc. where I've signed off with the correct spelling, the correct spelling is part of the email address and they still can't work it out. See also invitations arriving spelt wrong when they've asked me or DH for the correct spelling.

Or even worse when they pronounce it with the wrong starting letter directly after you've introduced yourself. Idiots.

And yet your user name is spelled with a ‘y’?

🙄

I have an 8 year old son whose name is spelt wrong all the time. It’s a legitimate spelling, just not the ‘usual’ one, but it’s always assumed to be the more standard one so that’s what people use.

It drives me insane!

Last year he was part of a cricket tournament and despite being part of the team for over 2 years his medal still had the incorrect spelling of his name on it.

Sometimes I wish I had a Time Machine so I could go back in time to his birth and call him something else 😂

Could your Dcs key worker have dyslexia?
I would once again speak to her directly, point out that your Dcs name has been spelled incorrectly throughout her report, and get her to write down the correct spelling. It’s annoying, but it’s not the end of the world. I currently teach in a school and in the 3 classes I cover there are 6 boys with the same name, all spelled differently! Every time I mark their books or need to write their names I have to check the spelling.

Would you really do this to people you are leaving your child with? Grow up.

My name can be spelt just two ways. It's incredible how many people get it wrong when it's on my email signature.

Every time you drop or collect please start mispronouncing the nursery workers names just slightly. When they correct you explain that you "didn't think names were important here at nursery as they have spelt your son's name wrong for 2 years?"

Learning how to spell correctly is not considered important nowadays (by many, not me) so generally people don't bother to learn. Added to this there is spell check which auto corrects sufficiently for most purposes. You can't of course spell check names. I think it's incredibly rude, yes and the nursery should get it right but I also think your family and close friends should make an effort to get it right. Other than that your child will get this all their life.

My kids surname gets mis spelt occasionally by school which I find annoying too… this isn’t the name but situation something like its Donald so everyone assumes it McDonald and puts a Mc in front…

My DD is 14 and school are still spelling it wrong - not always but certain teachers. She even got a certificate for a course completed at school and it was spelt wrong. It’s infuriating. Not sure what else to do though. It’s almost as annoying as all those people who shorten my name when I’ve never shortened it. I send an email and sign off with my full name and people reply with a shortened version. People are just rude and don’t make the effort.

Not good enough imo. Having to tell them three times to change the spelling on his peg is sloppiness on their part too. I’d honestly consider if this nursery is good enough to look after your child if they don’t bother listening to you and act on it after repeated communications.
I say this as someone who has had to check and double check registers when I know it’s a name with various spelling forms so that I spell it correctly as it just looks unprofessional otherwise.

Absolutely say something! And yes be very firm!
When mine was at nursery once they put pictures of them trying to learn to spell their name
My child's name spelling is the right spelling of her name and not out there.
Nursery had added an extra letter in her name in pictures!
I was so mad. It's so easy to get a child's name right and so important when they're learning.
I commented and rang them up and they apologised and put it right

Aside from the rudeness of it, a learning goal of nursery is to recognise and start to spell their own name. Are nursery going to teach the child to spell their own name incorrectly?

My name can be spelt two ways. I don't bother correcting people unless it's on something official where it might matter. A young child who is learning to spell her name does need the people around her to spell it correctly though. I'd send a polite but firm email. I think you're probably fighting a losing battle though. People should get these things right, but in my experience they don't.

I agree to get a print out of the nursery records. We had a persistent issue with our surname and school. Admittedly it is a pain to spell, European and lures people into thinking they know how to spell it. We were firm with school because they are reinforcing the spellings and they need to spell it correctly. In the end it was spelt incorrectly in just one subsystem of the records but that kept respawning the incorrect spelling each year. Some other teachers even once the records were correct believed they knew better than the records how to spell it.

Some teachers totally saw the issue with the incorrect spelling and were as frustrated as we were, others just thought it was a fuss about nothing and really resisted correcting names on books etc. Those teachers would also react very badly if the dc pointed out the error in class. The teacher's reaction to the error being highlighted turned out to be a good marker of the quality of teacher.

Ask for a print out of the school records when he starts and highlight the issues you have had at nursery.

My children are all older now and we just joke about how far wrong some spellings are.

That would drive me INSANE! Your name is your identity. I'd definitely complain. I work in a school & we always ensure the children's names are correct & that we're using their preferred version, ie, some like their name to be shortened & some don't, some are known by their middle name, etc. It's not hard - it's just lazy & quite rude to keep getting it wrong.