AIBU to think that children should know their full name by Y11?

[PurplePenguins]

I've just had parents evening at DS3s school. At the same time was a GCSE check in. Y11 pupils were bringing in ID so the right name is printed on their GCSE certificates. While I was waiting I heard several children saying "I don't know" when asked their full name and saw them getting out BC or passports to check. It is a very ethnically diverse school but AIBU to think children should know their full name at the age of 15/16 yo even if they are known by another name?

Quick tip for Michael, a comes before e in the alphabet so remember the letter sequence.

If it was should parents make sure kids know their legal name before Y11, then yes, I would entirely agree, that's important personal information, but children, even at 15-16, may have reasons why they don't know it that are out of their control and has nothing to do with how well they can learn a GCSE syllabus.

It's not a low bar to reason that if kids aren't told all their names or are told the wrong names or go by various names and their legal name is never clarified, then they can't be expected to know it. I don't think this has anything to do with ability for the vast majority of cases.

My 9 year old knows how to say her middle name - I,ll check tomorrow if she can spell it.

She said it last week in a huge amount of pain in A&E

However it’s Norwegian, has a hyphen and isn’t said how it is spelled so I’ll need to check how she spells it as opposed to how I spell it

Shitloads of Y11s don’t know their full address and postcode either.

These children were getting out their birth certificates and passports to check. There doesn’t seem to be a suggestion they had no access to this information for some reason.

Sure, if a child’s parent has never taught them their real name or given them an official document containing then it wouldn’t be the child’s fault. It would still be a ridiculous situation though and I would be amazed if it hadn’t come up at some point in the child’s life before they had to sit their GCSE’s.

I'm surprised at work how many children look at their parents when you ask their date of birth and address. I'm sure I could have given all my personal details at five.

Is it about not knowing, or about not knowing what version of their name is being used officially on this s circumstance.
If their lives span two cultures this could easily be the case.

My youngest has two middle names and a double barrel surname so 5 names in total by 4 he could say them all.

I would expect a child to know their full name by 3 so can't believe yr 11s don't know their name.

I agree, RainbowWaffles, this is basic information that a child of that age should know. It is the parents' responsibility to ensure that children know and can spell their official names and date of birth. Furthermore, there is no excuse for parents not being able to remember or spell their children's names. It shouldn't be a funny anecdote.

I agree with whichever PP said that if this is beyond the pupil's capabilities, then they are probably not ready for GCSEs.

Knowing your full name and what counts as your legal name are different things.

Does a child know whether their confirmation name is part of their legal name for exam purposes?

A child that usually uses one part of a hyphenated name?

In lots of cultures the everyday first name is a permanent nick name but not on the birth certificate. Very common in Indian families.

It is a good idea for schools to double check.

Some people need to eff off with the sneery smuggery.

I had to make sure of my middle name for GCSEs because I'd chosen to use a different one because I didn't like it, from when I was about 5 or 6yo. I'd had my middle name changed on everything except official documents.
It also had more than one spelling, so had to check with dm which spelling was used. I genuinely had no idea.
I got double A (no A*s then) at English so I think I probably was ready for GCSEs.

When my grandmother died we found out that her middle name on her birth certificate is spelt differently to how she spelt it her entire life.

I have the same middle name and have spent much of my life correcting other people's mispellings of it so I'm convinced the registrar "corrected" it.

It was very odd seeing it spelt wrong on her coffin and all the official paper work.

Surely it’s the fault of the parents, can’t say I saw my birth certificate very much when I was growing up. Although I would’ve been the type of child that knew my official name, any religious name and when to use it plus all 12 middle names and the stories behind it.
Now I’ve read this post, i’m feeling nervous for the children and wondering if I can still remember my own name!

I'm a secondary school teacher in a somewhat deprived area. We have considerable numbers of pupils who can't tell the time on an analogue clock or tie their shoe laces. I would probably be shocked initially if they didn't know their own full names, but then mainly pissed off at their parents. The responses to this thread show that a lot of MNers must live in a bubble of middle-class privilege. Not sure why I'm surprised...

Some kids have complicated names! My nephew is A B C D Surname but goes by C Surname. I’ve always thought it’s a bit weird to use the third “ranked” name, as it were.

Of course they should. But nothing surprises me with names anymore. Birth certificate names don’t match actual names which makes taking a register entertaining eg Chandramouli, is Chandramouli here? No reply. Then someone says you never called their name and it’s Chandramouli who is really Mo!

Micheal or Mícheál is the Irish spelling of Michael.

The use of a nickname for almost all purposes is normal in Thailand, like someone mentioned in India. I'm a teacher and almost every Thai child I teach (about 50% of my students) has an 'easy' nickname, just one or two syllables, and a VERY long first name and family name. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of them do not know how to spell both their formal names, especially in the Latin alphabet (which is what goes on their academic certificates e.g. GCSE/IB).

And many of the nicknames are GREAT! Fluke, Guitar, Jelly, Pinky, Pop, Peach, Cheer, Friend... plus some 'normal' ones like Jack or Sam. I love looking at a new register just to see the range of names that comes up!

I'm despairingly of parents - mine could write their full name before they started school, even if dd2 was unreliable on the spelling (she's dyslexic, didn't know then of course).

Certain things you teach kids (SEN aside) as a parent, they also know the full names and dates of birth of us and grandparents, you don't know what will happen and this information can be essential

If course you should know your name.
Why on earth would parents not instill this into their child?
Do they not instil in their child their address in case they get lost?
Also stop randomly picking any old name. Pick a name you will call your child, then there will not be a problem.
If the child changes their name for whatever reason they can do this legally as an adult.
In this day and age it doesn't take a genius to Google the accepted spelling of a name, what is wrong with parents?

Regarding the issue of young adults not being able to tell the time, as my grandmother used to say when asked the time "it's time you learnt how to tell the time, than you wouldn't have to ask."

And a thought, we had to supply a birth certificate to register for school so they had the legal name! (Dd2 uses a shortening so on the forms it says full name then known as xxx. They've attended multiple schools and every time we have issues as dd2 was born overseas and doesn't have an original birth certificate just a certificate copy as that's what they do there!

Not being able to read an analogue clock can be a dyslexia thing. DD really struggled with it.

Plus analogue clocks are vanishingly rare nowadays.

DD4 knows her full name and can spell her first and surnames but wouldn't be able.to spell her middle name. She puts a massive emphasis on the correct pronunciation of her surname (it's not 'English') and always spells it whenever she's asked (I encourage her to give the details in the pharmacy etc, makes her feel.grown up) and she always makes a point of telling them " it's X, not Y, my daddy told me"..... think along the lines of "oo" not "oh". People are always taken aback by how specific she is

Useful to know that about Mohammed, I didn't realise you had to use the variation chosen at birth on official docs. Makes sense.

🤔🤣

Yes, isn’t this like the most obvious thing ever, regardless of the name?

Say my name is Katherine Anne Smith (it’s not). That’s exactly how it should appear on any official documents. I can’t just randomly decide one day that ‘Oh I’ll be Kathryn Ann today’ when doing official type stuff.