Are children teased for their name on school?

[LizardOfOz]

I see on many threads the sentiment "don't call your child X , they'll be teased in school".

As a teacher for 15 years I have never heard a child's name being teased. At most it's an unwanted nickname eg Alex instead of Alexander. And never in a mean way. Just most Alexanders are called Alex.

What have other teachers/parents found

YABU : children are frequently teased for/about their name

YANBU : I have never heard of a child's name being teased by their peers either

DS has been at three schools in three different parts of two countries -- all very ethnically diverse. When you have kids of Irish, Spanish, English, Nigerian, Polish, Ukrainian, Quebecois, French, Rwandan etc heritage in the same class, 'Precious' isn't any odder than Méabh or Charlie.

As far as I know, ds was not teased for his name by his school mates, although he doesn't like it himself.

Adults were actually ruder about his name, including giggling when Happy Birthday was sung at a toddler group.

I actually don't recall ever hearing anyone get teased when I was in school, regarding their name.

I had just one jokey comment myself when a very bad hurricane happened (name changed for this as a lot will probably guess the name!). I was surprised I didn't have more.

Someone I know got teased at work because of their name though. By someone in their 20s...

I was a teacher for over 30 years and I've never been aware of any teasing over a name. A few mispronunciations but not deliberate.

I’ve been a teacher for a long time and children do sometimes get teased using their name but it’s not usually because it’s a weird or unusual name - they take those in their stride. Sometimes it’s just an in joke, that it becomes a popular name due to a tv programme or advert or just that it reminds them of something! I’ve never heard it done in a mean way and they haven’t batted an eyelid at names I found quite strange in first hearing!

I was teased for my name at school which was very unusual and old fashioned at the time.

I find it strange that it's now becoming popular. But I also know now that the bastards that bullied me would have picked something else to tease me for if it wasn't for my name. It was their issue, not mine.

I was teased for my middle name at school

I completely agree OP. Kids just accept the names in their class as familiar and normal, even if their parents have never heard of them.

I agree that children just dont seem to tease on names anymore. There is just a much bigger variety of names out there in school. Ive been working in schools for a decade.

I know one girl called 'fanni' who changed her name to her middle name after a month in the uk. But it was the adults who drove that.

Plenty of teasing going on but not names.

I’ve always had a lot of grief for my name.

Teased for both first and second name at school and as an adult!

I have a foreign name which I now have grown to love but yes the teasing is very real!

Names can be used to bully or tease children, but children aren’t bullied because of their names. A popular, confident child can pull any name off, and any name can twisted to use against someone. The fact that Sarah is possibly the most inoffensive name to exist didn’t help Psycho Sarah at my school. But the girl whose name rhymed with baboon sailed through.

I had lots of bullying for my perfectly normal name. Kids are cruel - if they find a chink in your armour, they'll use it.

I've dealt with several bullying incidents involving names but it's always been part of a bigger issue rather than being the main issue.

No. My children all have fairly unusual names and none of them
have ever been teased by their peers. The worst they’ve had is dd1 had a teacher who refused to /couldn’t learn how to pronounce her name and every day would peer at the register and go through several variations while the entire class shouted her name at him. Then she had a supply teacher for about a month who skipped over her in the register. She also had a different supply teacher who looked at her name and said “is that broccoli?” so was called broccoli for a few weeks 😂

I did as a child but actually I liked my name and I was proud of being named after my late aunt. So didn't go fR.

Also didn't stop me using unusual names for my children

I shoukd clarify i was comparing to my education in the 80s/90s where teasing of names was very common.

I've found the reverse. Those with made up or misspelt names came in for a lot of stick from the others. Some changed their names.

We are far more diverse now. But I recall a boy called Skippio in rural Suffolk in the late 1960s and he was teased.

Names are becoming much more diverse now that I really don’t think people will be teased. When I worked in a school there were loads of unusual names and it was the grown ups who were nasty about them, the kids couldn’t care less.

MNs name boards are a weird bubble where no one seems to have any experience outside Little England. I grew up in London & had an unusual cultural name, loads of my classmates did & no one was ever teased for the name unless it was a joke because it was the same as a celeb etc At uni & the work place I met lots more people with different names because you know globalisation

I know people were teased in the past - I mean nowadays 2020s not 1980s

Sorry to those who were teased for your name: it's so mean

Yes, this. Having said that, while DS was born in London, he went to school for the first few years in a Midlands village, and even there there was a wide variety of names reflective of different cultural backgrounds.

My daughter came home from school today complaining that she’d been teased for her name . It’s happened a few times. She’s called Penny and they call her Pennywise after the Stephen king book/film. It makes me wonder what 7 year olds are watching nowadays ! We just laugh it off .