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

I don't get the joke/potential for teasing?

Roaring Lion ?

Yes. Our surname if mispronounced has a rude context and kids pick up on it very quickly.

Luckily my dd has a thick skin and was expecting it.

There was plenty of it at my primary. I got stick for having an unpronounceable Gaelic name, anyone called Ellie/Kelly was called 'Smelly Ellie/Kellie'. There was an overweight boy called Matthew as well, he was christened 'Fat Matt'.

Yes.
I was. I have an unusual name and hated it. I still don't like my name.

Was it spelled like that, rather than Scipio? It was likely to have been taken from the classical Roman figure Scipio Africanus.

As a child, I was teased for both my forename and surname.

As a teacher, I've heard children being teased for both their forename and surname.

Tess Tickle(s)?
Peony Sez?
Mylon Cox?
Mia Tuss?

We had a male teacher at our school and we knew his initial was R, but he never told any of the kids his full first name when they (rudely) asked him - so one of the boys decided that it 'must be' Rachel, and kept calling him and teasing him for a name that (unsurprisingly) very much wasn't his at all. We later found out that it was Roy.

Hilarious? Not really.

Two boys at state schools in UK in predominantly white area but some mixed ethnicities and less common names than the standard ones used around these parts. Plus some of those old fashioned posh names that are back in. Never once heard of any child getting teased for their name.

We had a boy called Peggy, supposedly because his penis looked like a peg on the year 7 residential, but I suspect mostly because it annoyed him so people kept on doing it.

I don’t think so, not like the past.

one of my DDs (reception) came home upset that a boy Yr6 was calling her something that wasn’t her name. I had a word with the school, he stopped. She’s Yr5 now and thinks it’s funny she got upset over it.

Going to school in the 70s & 80s I think it was more take the piss usually over word association, I remember about 6/7yo us kids changing the lyrics of Nelly the elephant to Zoe the elephant to tease a girl in our class. The thing is she wasn’t big. I’m obviously ashamed now. But at the same time my real name was regularly sung to me and even worse as it was very rude to a child, I hated it but just put up with it. We also made up silly songs for crushes, I remember a boy all the girls liked and we turned a song into all about him and his name and how much of a crush we had on him.

I dont remember anyone actually saying omg your parents called you that…

And I don’t think it’s happened in my DCs school, there’s a massive variety of names.

Saying all that, I do think there is a bit of narrow mindedness’s in the UK with names especially international ones.

I was teased for my first name and surname at primary school. The first unusual, the second forrin.

MIL a former primary deputy head is absolutely horrid about other people's names and shortens names as she pleases. She did it to me once. Once, I tell you. Evidently she shortened all the children's names when she was working. She disagrees she had no right to do so.

Yes, I've definitely had to deal with frequent teasing re names - 2 decades working in education so far.

It gets worse in adulthood though!

We had a Ben Dover in high school.

It was relentless for that poor boy, he was miserable. Really homophobic gestures and even touching him inappropriately.

Why would his parents pick Ben of all names?

I got marked down on a teaching practice essay in the eighties as I had worked with a young girl called Misty. My tutor wouldn't believe it and thought I should have made an effort to discover and use her real name!

A little girl at my sons last primary school was called Bethany, she was bullied by three children who called her bucket fanny instead.

Kids, me and DH are used to having comments made about our surname. British people seem incapable of pronouncing a long name. Yes, it’s long, but just bloody read it, don’t miss syllables or add letters that aren’t there. Kids can be very cruel about it. But also some adults could try to conceal their default ‘othering’ to something unfamiliar. At least try fgs.

As a child I had a schoolmate who’s last name was Belew…she was a bit chunky so her name morphed to Beluga (as in whale). Another kid’s last name was Fuchs … yeah use your imagination.

If kids are going to pick on another kid they will typically go for the easy mark. Don’t name your kid something stupid.

DS has a name that's not too usual round here. He's never had an issue at school, but he's now at an age he plays some games online. He was playing with a friend of his when a friend of this friend said he had a weird name.

DS told this boy he didn't like him, told his friend he didn't want to play, then left the game. Couldn't be any prouder of him.

My brother's step children in sequence insisted on changing their "known as" names when they went to secondary school. I can't say what their names were because I think they might be genuinely unique. The names they changed to were absolutely standard, traditional " boring to Mumsnet" . They still uses them as young adults.

Probably P. Ness.

I've known a couple.

Children get bullied because there's something wrong with bullies.

My sons have a girl called Seerat at their school and when I saw the name I thought “gulp, what will kids make of that?” but literally they have never mentioned it in the years they’ve known her.
Similarly they have a number of friends with the surnames Dong and Wang which would have been mocked mercilessly in 1980s Sussex, but in 2020s Sydney? Not even a mention.

In my experience people are generally bullied for some other reason and their name can be used no matter how common it is. At primary school a Jenny’s name was often rhymed with germs to say mean things.