3 children with the same name reception class - would you be annoyed?

[Twozealotmorethan1]

My son is due to start reception in September. It's a large school with a 3 class intake per year. We got class lists through this week and I was surprised to see that there girls with the same name have been put in the same class rather than spread between the three. They are the only three girls in the year with that name and the name is relatively common around here, but not overly so (for what difference that makes). For the purposes of this post, let's say they are called Sophie. Aside from not making it easy for the class teacher of that class, I think it's quite unfair on the girls, especially as in this school, unlike some others I've heard about, the classes stay unchanged throughout the primary school and so these children will be together until age 11 at least.
I can't help think that it's inevitable that the girls will become known as Sophie P / Sophie E etc according to their surnames and may even be more likely to attract unkind nicknames as they get older e.g. 'Big' Sophie, 'Fat' Sophie etc.
I realise it's not always possible to avoid having more than one child with the same first name in a class and I know various factors are taken into account when setting class groups but I can't help think that in a school with three class entry this could have easily been avoided? I would be a bit irritated if I was one of their parents. I have a younger child who will go to the school too in due course and am tempted to feed back to the school politely that I don't think this approach is helpful. What do you think?

There are two girls in my DS Reception class with the same first name. Both their surnames are pronounced the same (e.g. White/Whyte).

The children call them Lola White and Lola Whyte with absolutely no sense of irony. It's hilarious. Oh DS was that Lola you were talking to? Which one? Especially when your DS asks one of them to his party.

It's a two-form (but one room, more or less) entry but they are, to be fair, in different key worker groups.

There are also two, let's say, Jacks and they are Jack A and Jack B but not known as Jack A and Jack B, the children call them Jack Antrobus and Jack Belvedere, full last names. Those two are also in different keyworker groups.

(And the Lolas and Jacks will continue to be known as Lola White, Lola Whyte, Jack Antrobus and Jack Belvedere. Even though they will be in different classes through the school now they've been in different keyworker groups. I don't think it will hurt them).

I think there are some names that are very popular so this is unavoidable. If you shouted Isabel, Sophie or Edward in our school yard, half of the DC would turn around.

as an aside - do you get full names on the class list or just first names? I am curious because surely some children may need to have their name's kept secret for whatever reason (like real genuine reasons) so I am surprised a school can issue a class list for each of the classes to everyone. Ours put them up on a board at the settling in session but that was the only time we saw it.

DS2 is about to start school nursery at the same school DS1 is at.

Both times our DC started, we've had class lists from the school. But the one we got for DS1 had full names, and the one we've got for DS2 just has first names (or Sophie A and Sophie B for duplicate first names).

I know one of the children who'll be starting with DS2 is adopted, so I'm thinking it's likely thats got something to do with them not giving out surnames this time.

Not overly sure what the need for class lists is? Why do we need to know which other kids are in the class.

With all 4 of my boys we found out the class teacher and how many were in each class but I didn't feel the need to know the names of the other kids so don't understand why parents are given this? I just asked the boys friends parents if they were in the class I wouldn't have liked my kids names being sent out to random people for no apparent reason.

And as for 3 Sophie's why are you worried when it's not YOUR kid? Very bizzare if you ask me. Perhaps they will be Sophie p or whatever but surely the school had its reasons and if the actual child's parent isn't happy they should go to the school rather than some random nosy person who it doesn't concern?...you have too much time on your hands

Class lists are quite handy when sorting out things like birthday parties and Christmas cards.

Although not essential of course.

When I was in school we had a girl called 'Jane Doe'
When a new girl started the school she was also called 'Jane Doe'
I often wondered why they would put them in the same class.
Unfortunately one did become little fat 'Jane Doe'

This has happened with my DD2, there is another little girl in reception with the same name. I've noticed that DD2 gets called by her full name by some of the children in her class, and I have to remember to use the initial of her surname when replying to party invitations. But it isn't an issue, you get used to it very quickly. Certainly not something to bother the school about.

I can't imagine a universe where I would care even the tiniest bit about this.

She's still revered to now as little fat Jane doe. Even though she's not fat anymore and the original one has gained a little weight. We're in our mid 30's

[hhm] overthinking this I think OP. as a "Sophie" in a school where there were loads of us all with the same name, we quite enjoyed the specific nick names we were given ... and all were kind!

I was one of 3 same name girls in my nursery. If it is of any help, I can confirm we all survived unscathed. We had colour codes at the time... we each chose a colour and so if say 3 Hannahs, one was Hannah Blue, Hannah Violet and Hannah Red.

Not sure how schools handle this nowadays, but the good ones usually have coping strategies and involve the kids in chosing their school preferred name.

actually what was worse was my brother and I had the same name as the dogs at nursery school... this was back in the 70s and they roamed freely and were always being called/shouted at!

I was one of 3 girls who had my name in my class - it's a name that can and is shortened, although I use the lengthened version. It's also spelled in different ways, and we all had different spellings.
We were known as same name P, same name Q, same name R, but generally speaking it didn't make that much difference. I've also worked in places with people of the same name - I took a shortened version there to make it easier. The girls will be fine, don't worry!

There were at least three pairs in my DD's class with the same first name. It has never crossed my mind to highlight this to the principal or to their class teacher. This is completely bonkers! They'd just think I've gone mental.
I wish I had your problems, OP. Life would be so much easier if I had the time and space to deal with such trivialities and consider it a genuine issue.

Hmm I sort of see the point.

I know a girl with a fairly unusual name. There was another girl whose name was pronounced the same but spelled differently. They were the only two girls with "that sounding name" in a year group of ten forms. They were in the same form. Say their names were Niamh and Neve (not the actual name). They got called "Ne-am-huh Neeve" and "Nev-eh Neeve" which I thought was a bit crap for both of them. If they had been put in different classes they would both have been called their names properly.

My real name can be shortened, it's also a male name, there are three of us in our office, 2 male and me. It really does not bother me. you get used to sharing your name, if u kick up a fuss at school are you going into work with them to moan about it too?

Similar-ish to Balloon's situation. I was in a class where 3 of us had the same name but mine was spelt differently to the common spelling so for example I was known as 'Hollie ie' and the other two were Holly A and Holly B (not actually Holly/ie). Didn't make any kind of difference to our school life and we could have been split over two classes. None of us got called fat/tall/ugly Holly.

I wonder if you realise that if this bothers you so much just how are you going to cope with other things.

The your going to be one of those parents will be something that follows you all through your childs school like, unless you post of here first so we can talk you down from things.

Sit back and let the school do their job.

its very common, my daughter is in a fairly small class and there is it several boys with same name and same with the girls. When I worked in a school it was the same. You could literally tell the year children born as names popular. They will have sorted classes to best suit children (will take in to account birth dates, suggestions by nursery, any special needs) decisions wont be made on children's names. The children wont think any thing of it and will get used to the fact usually known with first initial of their surname as well or with surname. Its a really common thing and there will be children throughout school with same name

It's a good reason for choosing an uncommon name. I mean an actual name though not Princess Tiaamii.

Holy crap you need a hobby or something to distract you from thinking of such trivial things.

1. If the 'Sophie' s get nicknames which are commonly used at school and they are unkind ones then that's a whole different issue about the school's attitude to bullying and inclusion.

2. I thought I had a relatively uncommon name until we moved across country and found two more 'me's in my class. Then I sat a test with kids from other schools and found another MummyMoonshadow. So I started using my middle initial. I currently work with yet another MummyMoonshadow who has been there longer than me but has a less high profile role. She gets lots of mail that should be for me and we both have a giggle about it when she forwards it to me.

3. it is very common in Reception and Yr1 for kids to mix between classes for much of the time so all three teachers will need to know the names of all 90 kids and differentiate between same names anyway so it's a non issue for both kids and teachers.

There were 4 Graces in my DD's year at secondary school, one of whom had the last Hu (pronounced 'who').

So you'd ask which Grace, they reply with Grace Hu, and you thought they were asking which Grace back Until you finally twigged her last name!