Were you teased because of your name?

I wasn't really teased/bullied because of my name though surprising 'cos pretty much everything else was fair game!

However, I do have very unusual name which is difficult to pronounce from the spelling. In first year at secondary school our English teacher decided to read out our results at the end of the year and had a sudden panic when he got to mine and didn't know how to pronounce it!

My 3 DCs all have popular, straightforward names but more because those seemed the 'right' names for them iykwim, rather than any wish to avoid problems. Part of me wonders whether I should have chosen something more unusual but I know that their names suit them.

In each case, their name picked them rather than the other way round. My DD's names 'arrived' when I was about 12 weeks pregnant! Took the rest of pregnancy and several weeks after to convince DH! Bizarely, and unknown to me, they're almost exactly the same name as a long-dead relative (one letter different in 2 names!). Found that just a bit spooky!

isn't it extraordinary how rude people are about names. children i could just about understand, but teachers? mils? i'd just stare at them.

my dc names are all slightly differnt not made up but just unsural in the uk , 2 italian ds names, 1 arabic dd name(name was chosen by a very good famiy friend) though there is a more common spelling of her name thanks Mr Eric Clapton , and ds 3 is irish name and yep none can spell any of them lol

I have an unusual name, but was never teased about it. I was teased for being skinny and having no boobs in my teens.

I avoided a boy with the surname Swayne even though he had the hots for me because I knew I could not live with passing down that surname to my offspring

My sister was in the delivery ward with a newborn whose name was Dwayne Pipe. A girl in my school had the initials VD.

The most amazing names I've ever heard were Tweety Ip (in HK) and Sunny Ha (Korean)

First name is Juliet, and although I've grown to love it, I did used to resent that every boyfriend I dated had the letter 'o' added to the end of his name a la Romeo.
I did very briefly date a lad called Jerome (I know, he had his own issues!) but we parted ways shortly after when taunts of "Je-romeo" became too much.
And don't even talk to me about that feckin' Dire Straits song which has haunted me for nearly three decades now!!
Spelling was always an issue too, even though my parents chose the simplest (and classical Shakespearian) spelling, people still seem inclined to add an extra 't','l', 'e' or two.
That being said, I now love my name as it's unusual but not too 'out there'.

tmmj that's very very interesting (and a really good reason/explanation of using a popular name).

Breyen - It's supposed to be Irish - but the gaelic spelling was completely different. DS1's name is also Irish (same name as the partner to Ant)

My family were originally from Ireland many years ago - it turns out that my mothers family were from Ireland, and so were my fathers. Strange how it works. While my family were starving in the great famine - my husband's family had servants! And LAND!!! LOTS OF IT!!! I've no idea where it is now though, as I can assure you we own no land and I can only wish for a servant!

I still get 'That's a boy's name isn't it?'. Very overused reply of 'let's nobody tell him and maybe he won't want it back'

the most appalling bully at my school was called Somma Fowles. No,she was never bullied in school. (she may be out there! hello..)

the most bullied: valerie Smith.

the amount of money spent on trainers on the other hand was a factor...

My brother's step children had such a hard time because of their "exciting and unusual names " that the eldest became a school refuser. We arranged a re-naming ceremony before he went to secondary school so that he could start afresh with a very ordinary name he chose himself.

Breyen is a lovely name. Is it Welsh? We gave dd a Welsh first name, even though we have no roots there whatsoever.

My name was quite unusual when I was growing up, certainly different from the usual Karen, Lynn, Debbie, Susan, Gillian etc.

It has a "t" in the middle which of course everyone used to drop and makes my names sounds really coarse and awful.

yep...i had no chance!!

my first name has a rather famous song that pretty much EVERYONE sings to me, i get this at least once a day!!
my middle name is my worst nightmare name!!
i absolutely HATE my name but it is a very sentimental name for my family so i wouldnt hurt my mum by changing it...i was teased very badly as a child as both of my names are very old lady names....

oh ok il tell you lot...

my name is eileen dolores!!! you can see my point then...

xx ei xx

Oh I forgot.... Hannie Fannie too

Oh and Annie Oakley for some bizzare reason....

In any case, DS2 has an unusual name that I havent heard anywhere else.... Breyen. Everyone loves it, but nobody can say it, let alone spell it!

I have an ordinary name (which I love) But I was teased because of it - Hannah Banana, Hannah Spanner, But more often than not I was plain old "ginger pubes" I've no idea why though......

Reality - was she born in 1982, by any chance?

I was.

The same year "ET" came out.

I am so glad that my initials are different now, if one more person had said, "Phone home," I would not have been responsible for my actions.

We were sooooo careful with our dc's names, we have a double barrelled surname (not my choice - thanks dh ) and are going to enrol the dc's in school with only one of the names, to minimise the risk of teasing.

We even changed ds' middle name from "Arthur" to "Oliver" so that his initials, backwards, would not spell "Spaz". There is absolutely no way you can make anything from my kids' initials.

I figure, though, if they're gonna get picked on, it'll happen whatever. I just hope that they have the inner confidence to get through it, in a way that I never did. Or, failing that, dh agrees to home education.

oh and noone could spell it ever

yes I was because my name is very unusual(only seen it once on a baby name thread and it wadn't liked lol)

but I am known by a shortened version which in itself is an even weirder name (but it is a name on its own)

I wouldn't change it, I like it and I like not being the same as everyone else

but it isn't stupid like brooklyn,toilet, summer, diamond...
it isn't chavvy

its a old, well documented name from a certain county

[trying to remain anonymous )

yes, although not badly - just fairly good-natured teasing. My surname provided three or four opportunities for nicknames based on different products or brands and then in my final years at primary school a new character appeared in a long-running kids TV serial and suddenly my first name was in play, too.

Ds has my surname but fortunately most of the things people used against me are now much less common. There is one new brand/product but it's fairly cool so I hope it'll be OK...

yes i was teased about my name as a child but more significantly it has been commented on many many times as an adult and quite frankly it's been a bit of a burden really.

i do wonder what life would have been like if i'd had a more 'common' name and hadn't stuck out quite so much.

i made a deliberate decision that my children were going to have names that other children have and show their uniqueness through their personalities.

i also find that people who give their children very unusual names tend to have quite plain/common names themselves and so have no or little idea of how muchof a pain in the arse it is to have to walk into a room and introduce yourself as..said unusual name.

My name is Esther - was born in 1972. In 1973, 'That's Life' started and became one of the UK's most popular shows for years. I heard a joke about Esther Rantzen every single fucking day*. Also jokes about Estee Lauder, which I thought was stretching it. And of course, I got jester, molester, comes from Chester/Leicester, etc. - DP's mum does this and thinks it's hilarious. It is not.

Still think Esther is the most beautiful name ever, so I get the last laugh

Would much rather have a name that no-one else has than something I share with loads of other people.

*Think I've said this before on a post about the name 'Esther'.

Reality - my friend's mum is called Mavis Davis