Would you let a 6 year old change their name?

Actually I think if he wants to take ownership of his name by being Hugh short for Matthew I think that's fine.

No different than an Andy deciding to be Drew really.

I'd be going into the school for a firm word though, given that the teasing started from a teacher's comment and hasn't been stopped.

I recommend doing some role play with your DS too around possible future teasing and how to respond to it. This has been very effective with our kids.

I suspect it will blow over and he'll drift back to Matthew but if he doesn't Hugh is a great name.

Tackle the bullying! Changing his name is the proverbial sticking plaster to the wound.

Having said that, if he wants to be Matthew, NN Hugh, that's not so terrible and unreasonable. But still tackle the bullying

Change his school!

He is 6 so trying to find a solution..

My DS was bullied at 6...He told me he thought he should move school.. Afterwards told me he was been bullied. My point of this is he wanted it to stop.

Your DS is the same..You need to go into the school.Let them know what is going on and what he wants to do and why..The school should be able to address this.

I just saw that your son wants to be called Hugh - that seems reasonable enough of a change, since it's basically the second syllable of his name. He could just use Hugh as a nickname for now.

Ask him to think about it for a month and then decide? I think he should have some say in what he is called/what shortening to use, but you perhaps ought to prepare him for further nastiness, how to respond to people not respecting his name, how he would even introduce it, otherwise it will be a not great experience. It will, after all, just draw more attention to the name calling and make it more fun.

Glad I don't know any 6 year olds who are that mean

My DS has an unusual name which is similar to a very common name (think maybe he's Farley and there are a few Charlies around).
He really doesn't like it when other childrencall him by the other name but we are teaching him not to react.
Annoyingly even adults do it (by mistake) e.g. we'll get a hospital letter with the name right at the top but the more common name throughout the body of the text.
Sometimes I correct an adult three times and they carry on with the wrong name (they are in that ratio of commonness - his name is pretty unusual). I never know how forceful to be.

I'm a year 1 teacher and we very much call the subjects English, Maths, Science etc to reflect the latest version of the National Curriculum. It's not as if 6 year olds have never heard the word Maths. erm, ok. Like I said they don't in our primary.

I'm a year 1 teacher and we very much call the subjects English, Maths, Science etc to reflect the latest version of the National Curriculum. It's not as if 6 year olds have never heard the word Maths.

This is a bullying issue, not a name issue. Changing his name will just teach him that right way to respond to bullies is to give in, and will if anything make the problem worse.

I'd speak to school asap about the bullying. In the mean time can you talk together about how lovely his name is- what it means, why you chose it, famous people called Matthew etc, to help him feel positive about it again.

No you don't change the name of a child because of what is bullying behaviour.
The first step is to go and see the teacher and to convey how distressed your ds is.
You also need to talk to him about how to stand up to bullies and why changing his name, aka running away and caving under the bullying, will not stop things but will actually make everything 100x worse.

By any chance, is the teacher calling him Mat or Matthew?

I think Hugh is a sweet nickname for Matthew but I think unless he can change his view of what is happening and unless the bullying is addressed in school I think he will still be unhappy.

If he wanted to I'd let him-its his name, after all.

But I would also get the school to tackle the bullying. No reason why you can'5 do both.

Also how do 6yo's even know the subjects as English, science etc? That's not even a thing in primary school.

God I am amazed anyone would actually consider changing their child's name rather than dealing with the actual problem.

The name is not the problem, the bullying is, the school needs to task t it seriously

I'd say no to changing it completely, but Hugh is just a shorter version so I'd let him, it's not much different from Matthew's being called Mattie/Matt etc.

No way.
And even if he did, I don't think 7 year olds have much regard for Government paperwork and would perhaps disregard the change.

Not sure why its up to you.

My first day of school, teacher called me by a nickname. I didn't like it but was was not in a strong position, not knowing how to spell any other name. That night, I remember asking my mother how to spell my middle name and used that at school from then on. Simples.

Matthew's a lovely name.

I'd address the issue. It's bullying, and the fact that it came from the teacher initially is even worse.

Oh gosh. Your poor son.

Way to much of my story but.... My daughter had a similar thing where people got her name wrong, a teacher was involved and her class mates picked up on it. It was a horrible and odd time where she became this person who was pushed past and laughed at if she fell over. The name thing was just one in a long list. I took her out of school part time for a term and she went back a different person after some sessions with a child psychologist and finding her own routes to self belief. After going back, the same teacher got her name wrong and the whole class corrected the teacher and she told them off. This time my daughter came out well out of it. The whole thing baffled me. How she went from being fine at school to being this invisible child and then but of jokes to comfortable in her own skin and back to being an equal in the class. I would never had believed such a thing could happen and her class mates parents were surprised and none of the individual events were significant but when added together it made my daughter miserable.

I wouldn't change his name but I would get involved. Allow him to find things that make him feel better about himself. I had a few direct words with some of the children but I think actually the shock of her leaving school and me telling the other parents why made the children realise that there harmless mucking around wasn't harmless.

Overshared but I hope something in our story help you.

Fab! Not dab!