Were you teased because of your name?

[oysterpots]

If so, was it because your name is unusual? Would you choose a different name if you could? Do you know anyone who wasn't teased about their name?

Seems like some people are pretty scared to pick anything out of the ordinary in case their DC might be teased - I always thought people found something to tease you about, if not your first name then your surname, or the way you look, or what your family's like.

Am I wrong? Genuine questions.

How can a name rhyme with both diarrhoea AND gonorrhoea?

Mater has truly peculiar first name which is all to do with Christian Martyrs in Madagascar (oddly enough the missionary branch only being related by marriage! Grandmater also copped it but as middle name and kindly, I avoided it altogether.

My dc have very traditional names and the extremely common surname which isn't Smith. Hence me needing to avoid Tom.

But from experience, it was never the names alone that caused the grief at school, it was the initials too or any accidental sharing of names with the famous or notorious! One of ds2's friends is still suffering (12 years on) from the discovery that his middle name is Ronald.

If you have a hugely confident child then they'll wear their name with pride. Unfortunately, you never know whether you'll be having a child with these qualities at the time of naming. A task often rather hormonally challenged.

Tamarto - I am intrigued now as to whether we have the same surname!! Not sure though as the reference to putting the A on the end - was that your surname or first name?

My pet bugbear is people who phone up, ask for my name which I pronounce correctly, then carry on pronouncing it the wrong way for the rest of the call - height of rudeness!!

Don't know if it's urban myth or not but my friend swears blind that he was at school with Andrew and Peter Ness.

A. Ness

P. Ness

(hopes it's actually true!)

I've got an impossible surname that most people don't even attempt to spell or pronounce properly. I hated it as a kid but I love it now.

Kids will get teased no matter what, but childhood is short and you find your true confidence in adulthood anyway, where nobody would dream of jumping up and down and trying to rhyme your name with smelly bum or whatever.

'Tooby or not To be that is the question' a million times until I got married and everyone thought they were the first to say it!!!

I am guessing MI's name is Rhea/Ria

My name is unusual and I was teased.

I was teased at school for having a very long, unpronouncable surname. And in fact I still get teased, even though I am now married with a much more common name!

It doesn't bother me at all, and never really has.

All kids get teased for something, and I think being teased about your name is much less hurtful than being teased for having freckles, the wrong colour hair, being too tall, too short, spotty etc. etc.

There was a guy working at DH's old work called Russell Sprout (honestly).
Surely that's just bordering on child cruelty?!

I grew up having first name and surname starting with the same letter. I wasn't teased about it but I never liked it so made a point of not naming my daughters with alliterative ames even though I loved lots of names starting with the same letter as DP's surname.

I did get some teasing about by surname - linked to a particular elephant packing her trunk! Mostly that was just from friends as a nickname!

I made a point of giving my girls 'pretty' names - both their names look lovely on paper but have a range of shorter versions if they prefer to use them when they are older.

As a teacher I make a point of checking how to pronounce names and would never make a joke about someone's name.

And I agree, children will find anything to pick up on with some children and others can get away with having anything unuaual -depends on the nature of the child, I think.

I have an unusual first name and suffered with teasing and bullying all through school because of it. As I grew up I made sure I had a little story ready to explain to people where it comes from. My brother also had an unusual name but his became cooler and more popular as we grew up . People just look at me blankly or say pardon when I tell them my name and I don't think I have ever had a telephone conversation without repeating my name [yawn emoticon]

Unfortunately my DTSs have suffered instead of being Rory and Rafe or something equally unusual they have very traditional names which can be shortened and go with our surname.

I've never been teased, about my name or anything else.

But I am 6'5" and built like a brick shit house

I was teased at school because my maiden name is Nicholas, Knickerless, geddit?

And also because I apparently look like a monkey.

My married name+surname combination is equally bad.

one boy turned my surname to sound like 'bordello' and shouted it all the time

his surname was gaunt - and at 10 - i didn't know that gaunt was actually a word - i didn't know what a bordello was either

to 3ofeach: My name is Alexandra too and I absolutely hate it! Although Alexandra is fine and sounds feminine, Alex is unisex and I thinks it's very harsh and male sounding.

My parents and teachers always used to shout 'Alex' to really good effect at home or in the classroom- a bit like some swearwords sound good because of the harsh punchy sound. I always really wanted a nice feminine name and couldn't understand why I had a boys name. I didn't get teased that much but people always assume that I'm male until they meet me.

A couple of years ago, I married a man with a soft Irish surname which does not go AT ALL with the poshness of Alexandra. Even my dad says the name doesn't match. To top it all my sister in law is also called Alex! So she has the same name as me except I'm Mrs!

Since childhood,some people have attributed hard, more male characteristics to me as well like toughness/hardness partly because if the unisex name I believe. (Either that or I am just a bitch ), and although I used to think that was a good thing, I hate simply it now. Alex is not a very romantic name I think. Alexandra though is very nice but better as a middle name ie, Emily Alexandra or like the Queen- Elizabeth Alexandra.

So after much thinking, I'm actually changing my Christian name at the moment by deed poll. I want to keep my new surname as I have 3 kids. My parents didn't give me any middle names either so I'm giving myself two. I'm happy with my identity as Alex (I'm not running away from me)- just hate the name itself with a passion. I know my mum won;t be happy but I just hate my name!

My DD's both have very feminine names deliberately too so that there is no confusion.

One of my sisters is called Jamie, and whilst she was never bullied or teased for it, she was told by a teacher in the first year of secondary school, "your name can't be Jamie - that's a boys name!" in front of the class! The teacher also rang up our mum to find out what her "real" name was!!

I have a unique and very unusual name. Actually it made me stand out in a crowd, when introduced anywhere, people would always take a step back and say " what a beautiful name!". I didn't look beautiful and was quite scraggy against my sisters or friends, but it made me feel very special. I got this at work, I was always remembered and people never gave me a nickname either. I love love love my name. It didn't stop me getting teased though, instead I was teased by my sisters and family members about my nose (which can I say now to my sisters is actually nicer than yours :-P) hehehe

p.s I gave my son a very unusual name which seems to have put him into some kind of superstar stardom amongst his cousins already! I think caucasians like common names. We, however, love names that add interest. :-)

at Russell Sprout.

I got teased for my unusual quite common in Ireland name at school (I grew up in Nottingham). Not so much teased actually as all the time. How's that spelled? What's that? Eh? What? Say again? Every single time I met someone for the first time. Hated it then.

Love my name now because although it's v. unusual, nobody, repeat nobody ever forgets it once they know it. And they never mix me up with anyone else. And they remember me.

I got a bit of mild teasing when I started High School and for some reason the form teacher asked us one by one what our father's names where. Everyone thought it was hilarious that my dad was Jack and I was Gill.

honeydew, I know someone called Alexandra who is always known as Ali. Never would have occurred to me that it's a masculine name (though people probably assume her full name is Alison).

My first name is quite unusual, though not unheard of (it's 'foreign' but known in English). I never got teased for my name, but I do think people assume that I'm a bit posh because of it, so that made me a bit self-conscious as a child.

What does annoy me is when people shorten it without asking me if that's OK, and I hate the obvious shortened version. It is rude to shorten someone's name without OK-ing it with them, isn't it? Or is that me?

My friend was engaged to a fella called..... wait for it......... Duncan Brownnuts! No Joke! Wedding was called off in the end but she used to say to people it was pronounced "Bronnut"....hehehe

For years I was known as Tarzan Farter.

DH has a fabulously complicated surname and I flung all feminist sensibilities to the wind and took it in a flash!

Oh and at college I sat next to a boy called Olly Berry

I love my unusual name, I think I always have. I got teased a bit at school but it never really bothered me much and I do think if I hadn't been teased about that it would have been something else.

flimflammum, no it's not you, I hate it when people assume it's ok just to shorten a name. My sister is Andrea, and no-one in our family ever thought about shortening it. But lots of people would call her 'Ange' like her name was Angela and it always drove me nuts. And a couple of times people have shortened my toddler's name Adam to 'Ad'...what's that all about! I thought Adam was one of the only ones that wouldn't get shortened.