my DH was bullied because of his bizarre surname - should we do something about this for DS?

[sunnysideup]

Ok, I'd love your wise thoughts on this....DH (and thus me and DS) has a bizarre surname. He's always told me about how he was bullied at school and i've kind of gone "yes, dear oh you poor thing etc etc" but now ds is at school I asked DH was he specifically bullied about his name, and he says yes.

I then suggested we use mine or double-barrel our names and DH said it wasn't worth it as people will always find something to bully about!!! Wtf? My view is, lets not give them anything to start with at least!

The thing with ds is that he isn't an obvious target for bullying - he's pretty assertive, no physical differences for people to pick on, he doesn't appear to be top or bottom of the class; so it's just his name I worry about.

Obviously if we double-barrel our surnames the bizarre one is still there but I feel is a bit diluted.

I wish now i'd stuck to my feminist principles and refused to take the name in the first place! What do you think, what would you do?

[sunnysideup]

thanks for the comments everyone! I have been reminded that there are worse and more bizarre surnames than ours out there! Blowcock, for one

I also heard of a Mr Squelch recently, that's worse than mine too!

[anniebear]

Oh I so want to know what your surnames are

[macneil]

ProfYaffle, exactly like you I kept my name and intend to give it to my daughter. PILs are horrified. I think they find me a disappointment in so many ways and this will be the worst thing yet to do to them. I'm considering chickening out and double barrelling, but my name is two words already, so that would lead to silliness. Both names are hard to spell, his is hard to pronounce, and my name is cooler, plus his brother has two boys. The other thing I'm considering is just not telling the PILs. I'm wondering how long I can get away with it. It's not like they'll see the whole name anywhere.

[notagrannyyet]

DH's best friend at school had the surname Bumpus. I can't believe the poor child wasn't bullied but DH says he doesn't remember any name calling.

[Anoah]

I went to high school with a girl whose last name was Rottenbush. She had 2 or 3 kids before we graduated high school as well. Felt bad for her.

[Skribble]

Thankfully although my second name is unusual it isn't rude or sill. I just had to spell it all the time. Now I am married I just have to spell my first name, I did want to keep my own name but decided it would be easier to change it.

[edam]

FWIW my surname isn't funny at all, but I still got the mick taken out of me at school because there are a number of different products known by this name. Didn't bother me in the slighest - everyone got teased about something.

[SecondhandRose]

My DH knows a man called Dick Holding, I roar with laughter every time he is mentioned although DH doesn't see the funny side.

[SecondhandRose]

I knew a Sharon who took out her O to become Sharn.

[PinkTinsel]

i was teased about my unusual foreign namebut tbh the main reason i haven't passed it onto my kids simply because it annoys the hell out of me when people can't pronounce it!

[Swizzler]

I was at school with a Shufflebotham - can't remember it being a big issue. The family insisted that it was pronounced shuffleBOWtham

[alismummy]

I am not making this up. We had a boy at our school called Mike Hunt

[Busyalexsmummy]

I used to get teased at school with phases such as "the price is right" etc, i cringe at my surname now but cant wait till my partner and I get married and i can take his name!

[rantinghousewife]

My maiden name rhymes with pissed off, so used to get called by my surname and get asked if I was, quite often. Can't say it bothered me much, nor the funny russian references that one particulary clued up kid used to use in reference to me(my surnames romanian). In fact, rather liked the fact that I wasn't a Smith or Brown and quite proud of my maiden name. As someone else mentioned tho, bit inconvenient having to spell it out tho.

[rantinghousewife]

Did used to work with a bloke called Wayne Carr tho.

[CranberryJelley]

I grew up with a very embarrasing surname, and was teased about lots of things, but not my name.
My younger brother reacted when people laughed (Everyone laughed) and got into lots of fights.

Oddly, when I was almost twenty my parents decided to change it by deed, and my brother and I did the same.(He had decided early on that if he got married he would take his wifes name anyway)

[ellanatal]

Just found this thread - so glad there are load of others out there with wierd surnames! my DH is german and has a rude sounding surname but in germany its as common as smith and not rude at all! friends of ours take the p*ss but no-one at my DD's school is rightly sure how to pronounce it and when its pronounced wrongly its not rude at all! think we might let them carry on saying it wrong! But its not as bad as a patient i once had - mr cockshoot!! i count my blessings!

[meowmix]

DH's family name is so bad that the vicar who married us told me not to take it (to be fair my initial would have made it worse). DH hated it so much he changed his name by deed poll to mine so we all have my family name now. Mine's far from usual and I did get my share of nicknames but its less obvious than his.

[meowmix]

DH's family name is so bad that the vicar who married us told me not to take it (to be fair my initial would have made it worse). DH hated it so much he changed his name by deed poll to mine so we all have my family name now. Mine's far from usual and I did get my share of nicknames but its less obvious than his.

[Bananaknickers]

I know someone that changed their last name because their dh got taken the piss out off. Kids are cruel at the best of times. He got bullied and didn't want his sons to go through it.