Do initials matter?

My ds's initials spell JAM!

Russ if I were Lee I would definitely use my middle initial/name, and if I didn't have one, I'd make one up!

No they aren't. One is the only one in the school, the other one of three. In a school with over 1000 pupils.

By the way, what's a "mediocre" name?

My friend dropped her middle name of Olivia after she married in order not to be a COW.

It's amazing how often initials are used when you think about it, so they do matter.

Wow curlew I bet your children are called really boring, middle if the road names so as to not draw attention to themselves. Let's make sure everything is mediocre just in case anyone makes negative comments....

What I don't understand is this. Why should anyone do something deliberately that even might make their child's life even a tiny bit more difficult? Yes of course you could go through life with the initials PIG and nobody would ever notice. Or people might notice occasionally. Or one smart kid might notice on the first day of reception and your child ends up calle Piggy til they leave school. JAP? Yes, people may never notice. Or he may end up with his little playmates doing that ghastly slanty eyes thing every day. Why risk it? Why be so wedded to a name that you would take even the tinyest chance that your child's life will be the tinyest bit less happy because of it?

We use initials all the time at work as all the teachers are refered to by subject and then initials on most. written documents.

However I think initials JAP is fine and wouldn't worry too much as long as they don't spell ARS or FUK etc.

Me and my friends sometimes refer to each other by initials in text messages/forums/chat. For some reason, it does seem mostly confined to boys/men though, like calling each other by surname. I almost always use my middle initial when writing my name.

I have a MAD too! You have about a week where people like to think they're clever and point it out in case you haven't noticed then it is forgotten. Kids will always find something to bully or tease about if they want to, at least you can prepare for JAP related teasing! And if DC ends up in a job that uses initials I am sure bosses would understand using something else to avoid offence, such as JP or JPsecondletterofsurname.

if you want the names, go for it!

Our DS is MAD and he is a wild one! Hopefully not our fault for naming him with those initials!

My uncle is ASS, it never seems to have bothered him.

One thing you might want to consider is their future email address -I once had an email from someone called Lee Rather - their email was leerather@xxx

In a lot of administrative positions I've been in people are referred to as their initials in documents, while leaving messages etc. My sister was KAP growing up. Married I'm now VBO. As an adult that's fine, but I have no doubt if I was as a kid it would have sucked!

You cannot predict what career your child ends up in or whether it will or won't matter in the future but given the racist connotation I wouldn't use it. The risk is too great that at some point in his life it might come back to bite.

My mums ex was Peter Ian guy. Apparently no kids at school even noticed! I think it doesn't matter unless it's something really rude!

I would avoid to be honest, anything that can be picked up on will be picked up.

My DC would know it's racist but wouldn't connect it. I highly doubt most people notice initials, especially JAP etc;

My ex boss was called FART though (well, his initials were). We loved it! He had a double (but no hyphen) first name (for example, Frank Andrew, not his real name btw, as a whole first name) so he was FAT if they didn't need a middle name!

It is certainly a word that my 12 year old knows is racist.

Curlew - would Jap be seen as an insult at your DSs school?

OP, I think I would go with the suggestion of adding a second middle name. The fact that you are worrying about it now before the baby is born, may mean that you will always have an issue with it.

Lol Sapphire friend of mine, born in mid 70s was going to be IRA, until the registrar questioned it. She was RIA instead. I think it was a bit more pertinent then!

Bowlersarm-you are lucky in your child's school and circle of acquaintances! Mine, sadly, isn't.

My dd has initials IRA
I didn't even notice for a fair few weeks after naming her and so far no one else has noticed either

The name I like if I ever have a girl gives the initials ARS. Can you not stick another middle name in to break it up?

I just asked my 13 year old DS if he would notice someone's initials spelling the word JAP. He looked at me as if I was quite unhinged and said 'no, why would I? It doesn't even spell a word"

Think Jap is fine wouldn't give it a second though we came up with an alternative middle name when my mother pointed out to us that our dd initials would be GBH

And Jap is a racist word. I've just checked with my 12 year old and he said that people would most definitely notice at school. He knows all his friend's middle names, by the way- I just asked!

Yes-if you are the child!