Were you teased because of your name?

Don't forget, though, that name-teasing can be turned on its head: one boy in our year (with a very bog-standard name and surname) used to bully and tease everyone mercilessly, especially about their names... until we discovered that his middle name was (is) WINDERMERE. Happy was that day indeed!

Yes, I have never been able to get a pen/keyring/etc., with my name on it. It is a hurt that never fully goes away, even with the passing of time, is it?

I have a very maiden name (what a quaint expression). I was saved from real torment for quite a while because most of the children in my school had English as a second language (North London in the 70s). They didnt 'get' the full implications.

That changed when I went to school out of London. They gave me hell but only for a short while as I was an extremly agressive teenager.

Couldnt wait to get married. Ironically even though my married name is much nicer, people find it very hard to pronounce. Its said as its SPELT people

I once taught a girl with a surname that on paper looked like 'Sick', but was in fact pronounced differently (foreign), and her first name started with C. = Sea Sick.

Yes, and my brothers were too, we have unusual names, my dd has an unusual Irish name (not Niamh or Aoife), I agree with the op, children will find things to tease you about if that is what they want to do.

Yes- I was teased for both my first name and last name.

My first name rhymes with 'pain', 'champagne' and 'aeroplane' and it's quite old-fashioned and english

and my last name is highly unusual and rhymes with 'mong' and is also english

so I was very english in a very welsh school, something else to be teased about.

plus being quite slightly larger than the other super-skinny girls gave the bullies plenty of ammunition.

however, by secondary school I lost the puppy fat and became super-skinny whilst the bullies seemed to gain weight!

Ha!

Mama, I cannot confirm that, but to this day, if I drop the soap, I leave it there and open another bar!

my name is unusal (only met two others) and I never was teased about it.

no, Reality, I am not Mavis.

ds name is unsural and irish not herd of another one , and noone knows how to pronouce it ,not helped as ds is unable to speak ,but it can be shorterned

Oh and my surname sounded like Bollocks. I forgot that because people used to call me Bollocks in such a matter of fact way like it was my actual name. I even had it t-shirt with it written across the front with the calvin klein logo as the ck. Classy!

I have an unusual name which is also a boy's name, the name of a famous male actor and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Yet, despite Blackadder and Mr Bean I got away with no teasing. I used to hate not having a 'pretty' name, but now I love it for a girl or a boy. (can you guess what it is yet...)

Instead, I got teased about my height (jolly Green Giant) and the fact that I was on the children's TV game show Run the Risk

I did once meet a girl who was called 'Ginger'. Turned out her real name was 'Virgin'. This is in Texas.

Like Flamesparrow, as a child I could never find my name on any mugs or keyrings etc.

I have an unusual name and surname, and it was a fecking nightmare growing up in the 70s and 80s, and I have always sworn that I will never give my children stupid names.

Tamarto - yep, think we're in the same clan!! Ditto the not dirty albeit the spelling. I am like Bruce Willis from Die Hard!

My maiden name was Scott. Nice and simple. My Dh's name is Scott - the amount of people who thought it hilarious to suggest that he take my name ... and that they were the first person to think of that ...

They weren't!

scarlotti - The A on the end was in reference to my first name.

My surname is scottish and isn't dirty.

flimflammum, no it's not you, I hate it when people assume it's ok just to shorten a name. My sister is Andrea, and no-one in our family ever thought about shortening it. But lots of people would call her 'Ange' like her name was Angela and it always drove me nuts. And a couple of times people have shortened my toddler's name Adam to 'Ad'...what's that all about! I thought Adam was one of the only ones that wouldn't get shortened.

I love my unusual name, I think I always have. I got teased a bit at school but it never really bothered me much and I do think if I hadn't been teased about that it would have been something else.

Oh and at college I sat next to a boy called Olly Berry

For years I was known as Tarzan Farter.

DH has a fabulously complicated surname and I flung all feminist sensibilities to the wind and took it in a flash!

My friend was engaged to a fella called..... wait for it......... Duncan Brownnuts! No Joke! Wedding was called off in the end but she used to say to people it was pronounced "Bronnut"....hehehe

honeydew, I know someone called Alexandra who is always known as Ali. Never would have occurred to me that it's a masculine name (though people probably assume her full name is Alison).

My first name is quite unusual, though not unheard of (it's 'foreign' but known in English). I never got teased for my name, but I do think people assume that I'm a bit posh because of it, so that made me a bit self-conscious as a child.

What does annoy me is when people shorten it without asking me if that's OK, and I hate the obvious shortened version. It is rude to shorten someone's name without OK-ing it with them, isn't it? Or is that me?

I got a bit of mild teasing when I started High School and for some reason the form teacher asked us one by one what our father's names where. Everyone thought it was hilarious that my dad was Jack and I was Gill.

at Russell Sprout.

I got teased for my unusual quite common in Ireland name at school (I grew up in Nottingham). Not so much teased actually as all the time. How's that spelled? What's that? Eh? What? Say again? Every single time I met someone for the first time. Hated it then.

Love my name now because although it's v. unusual, nobody, repeat nobody ever forgets it once they know it. And they never mix me up with anyone else. And they remember me.

I have a unique and very unusual name. Actually it made me stand out in a crowd, when introduced anywhere, people would always take a step back and say " what a beautiful name!". I didn't look beautiful and was quite scraggy against my sisters or friends, but it made me feel very special. I got this at work, I was always remembered and people never gave me a nickname either. I love love love my name. It didn't stop me getting teased though, instead I was teased by my sisters and family members about my nose (which can I say now to my sisters is actually nicer than yours :-P) hehehe

p.s I gave my son a very unusual name which seems to have put him into some kind of superstar stardom amongst his cousins already! I think caucasians like common names. We, however, love names that add interest. :-)

One of my sisters is called Jamie, and whilst she was never bullied or teased for it, she was told by a teacher in the first year of secondary school, "your name can't be Jamie - that's a boys name!" in front of the class! The teacher also rang up our mum to find out what her "real" name was!!

to 3ofeach: My name is Alexandra too and I absolutely hate it! Although Alexandra is fine and sounds feminine, Alex is unisex and I thinks it's very harsh and male sounding.

My parents and teachers always used to shout 'Alex' to really good effect at home or in the classroom- a bit like some swearwords sound good because of the harsh punchy sound. I always really wanted a nice feminine name and couldn't understand why I had a boys name. I didn't get teased that much but people always assume that I'm male until they meet me.

A couple of years ago, I married a man with a soft Irish surname which does not go AT ALL with the poshness of Alexandra. Even my dad says the name doesn't match. To top it all my sister in law is also called Alex! So she has the same name as me except I'm Mrs!

Since childhood,some people have attributed hard, more male characteristics to me as well like toughness/hardness partly because if the unisex name I believe. (Either that or I am just a bitch ), and although I used to think that was a good thing, I hate simply it now. Alex is not a very romantic name I think. Alexandra though is very nice but better as a middle name ie, Emily Alexandra or like the Queen- Elizabeth Alexandra.

So after much thinking, I'm actually changing my Christian name at the moment by deed poll. I want to keep my new surname as I have 3 kids. My parents didn't give me any middle names either so I'm giving myself two. I'm happy with my identity as Alex (I'm not running away from me)- just hate the name itself with a passion. I know my mum won;t be happy but I just hate my name!

My DD's both have very feminine names deliberately too so that there is no confusion.