Calling teachers .. what ate naughty boy names?

[MyNewVenture]

Middle class naughty boy names rather than 'Shane' type names. For non teachers, who are the naughty boys in your child's class?

Perhaps the parent's names also have a bearing?

Both my kids' names are on here. DS2's in most of the posts. Meh.

I've taught five Brandons over the past few years, all of whom had behavioural problems to a greater or lesser degree. Others that spring to mind are Alfie, Tyler, Reece and Casey. Thomas and Daniel are less obvious ones - those I've taught have tended to be on the 'naughty' side, but I do know a couple of adorable, well behaved ones out of school!

No you shouldn't judge on a name, but some names seem to go with certain behaviour.

It can be quite difficult for teachers to name their own children because it is difficult to disassociate the name from a child you have taught.

IME Jess is a bit of a handfull, Jessica or Jessie, fine, but Jess - nope.

All muslim girls whose names start with 'S' are IME lovely. Bright, polite, considerate.

This is probably due to a group I taught where there were 6 muslim girls, all starting with an 'S', some with very similar names.

The worst thing they ever did was swap headscarves at break to confuse me.

AAron is another lively character, OK on his own but group work brings out the worst, and I would never pair him with Liam.

I really think that in the 5/6 years I've been in schools, there are too many exceptions for any pattern to be made. Especially given the wide variety of names you find today (and, paradoxically, the frequent mulitiples of names).

You also have to consider the fact that just because one teacher finds a child naughty, another might not. "He/she's fine for me" is a refrain chimed in many a staff meeting- raising the hackles of strung out teachers everywhere!

Naughtiness is intangible, therefore a pointless comparison as we have no universal point of reference. I don't believe any teacher genuinely judges on names- and if they seriously did- they must be shit enough for that aspect of their character to be the least of your worries.

And for what it's worth- my teacher partner and I chose baby names within an hour of discovering I was pregnant. Easy peasy. Interestingly- neither of us have any behaviour problems in our classes. Maybe that's it.

Are we actually pre-judging on the basis of a name though? I thought we were just sharing our experiences of children we already know who have been naughty, just to see if there is any common thread there. A different thing entirely. I'm not sure any sensible person would seriously decide in advance that a child will turn out to be naughty or clever purely because of its name, although I understand that teachers, particularly, may unwittingly build up patterns/sterotypes. One of those links ^ up there (DM I think) said something along the lines of 'If you name your daughter XYX you run the risk of making her badly behaved.' which is of, course bollocks, and puts the cart before the horse.

sorry that reads as though I think you are either naughty or clever! Of course that is also bollocks.

I agree fallatio- it's one thing to talk about a pattern- it's another to start a seating plan based on it.

Nathan and Jude
Terrible Christopher

I do think people have taken this thread a little too seriously.

DS1 is Jack, mentioned several times on this thread, and I just laughed.

DS1 is almost 13 (birthday is Saturday), and is an angel at school (confirmed by his latest school report), it's at home he can be a little bugger!

At a school I once taught at, any boy whose name began with J was almost guaranteed to be "challenging". Therefore I have avoided: Josh, Jack, Johnny, Jayden, Jake. Also Connor and Callum. I have found that Tom's are often a little on the mischievous side..... My DS is now a Tom!

To rephrase slightly, names I have been been put off using for DC2 if it's a boy because of negative associations with children I've taught (although the children themselves would never guess this):

Jake
Connor
Mason
Josh

Names I'm more fond of because I've taught a few lovely ones:

Sam
Patrick
Kieran
Alex

Really? Naughty boy names?

Yet another example of not taking responsibility for poor parenting. "It's not my fault, it's his name/age/where we live. Ooh look, he's pulling the wings off a butterfly, isn't he adorable?"

My Calum is naughty. But he's 3 and his behaviour is no worse than any of his friends. Even the ones with outright posh names!

I wonder how many Tarquins there are with ASBOs.....

PerryCombover: I've never known anyone to give their son the name 'Terrible', but I can see that it would come with certain connotations!

"Yet another example of not taking responsibility for poor parenting"

Excactly. It is not the name that makes someone naughty. It is their parents/upbringing that allow the naughtiness.

Actually this thread seems to be about people's (in particular teachers') perceptions of children based on their names. It's not actually about whether they are really 'naughty' or not.

Children often rise (or fall) to our expectations. So if you expect Jordan to be naughty, you'll sometimes find that s/he will be. You're also far more likely to notice 'bad' behaviour in a child who you expect to be 'naughty' than you are in children you've categorised (however unconsciously) as 'good' children.

I'm sure we can all remember children from our own classes at school who got away with really awful behaviour because the teachers (or other adults) believed them to be 'good girls' (or boys). In my experience, those particular 'good girls' were often incredibly vile and used the perception of them as 'good' to be really horrible (and then get their victims in to trouble).

So, I don't think anyone's blaming the names. It is very interesting to see what names people associate with naughtiness though.

2 of my DS's names are on these lists, one of them quite a lot, but neither of them have ever been in trouble at school. I do work with a lot of 'naughty' boys (ASD/ADHD)and Brandon seems to crop up a lot, although I think we have pretty much covered every common/popular name at some time ......

And that is the point, all teachers will have taught a load of good Brandon/Jayden/Daniel/Jack/Whatevers too, but it is the more colourful ones who stick in the memory

I knew Luke would be mentioned on this thread

I have a Luke, are you all his teachers?

Damien tho' for a certain generation (mine) would surely be one to avoid? (the book, the film, the connotations...)

Jordan. I never, ever taught a nice Jordan. They have all been school refusers or truants, cheeky, wild and a total pest.
Doesn't mean that I auto judge when I see the name..I live in hope.
Oh and recently at the Dr there was a eleven year old girl running havoc, knocking over plants, throwing magazines and generally being a brat...when mum did finally shout at her the name made me chuckle...jordana !

I feel like I need to apologise before answering but I mentioned this to another teacher just last week. Three students not finished their coursework for me - Josh, Josh and James. All bright, sociable young men but organisation is not their strong point.

I named my son Charlie because all the Charlie's I've taught have been sweet, cheeky and pleasant. Not always the brightest but nice.

As a teacher I couldn't name my own child with the same name as student I've taught that was naughty because I would always associate them with that individual (Callum jumps to mind) but I wouldn't ask other teachers their opinions as I might be left with no names at all.