More than one child with same name in class?

[jollyjane]

My ds is starting primary this September just found out there will be another child with same name.
I do not want ds to be called his name and then his surname initial!
Any other ideas anyone.
Thanks.

You could always follow the example of the archaeologists on Dr Who last week - they had Proper Dave and Other Dave

When DH was at university, in his group of friends were Big Pete and Little Pete. Little Pete was taller than Big Pete, but not so wide, and his beard was smaller. DH was known as Little Dave, despite the fact that the only other David was known as De - De's twin Ian was called Nin, and they both had their father's name (Philip) as their middle name.

You had 9 months to think of an individual name and clearly you didn't.
You have to laugh when people keep churning out Harrys and Alexs and Millies and Laurens. What did you expect to happen? Or are you going to tell us that your son Atticus has just been damn unlucky to be in the same class as another one of the same?

When my brother answered the phone at work to someone asking for Les, he would say 'Do you want Les, Les, Les, Les, Les or Les?'

One of them was female, the others male.

LOLing at this!

Ds1 has a name which is not very common in this country...... and guess what, there is another boy with the same name in his class! We chose the name because we liked it, not because we wanted one which would be unusual iyswim. In some ways it is actually better because staff get more chances to say it and are less likely to get it wrong!

We do have to gently remind him that he doesn't have to put the initial of his surname after his name if it is an out-of-school thing though!

jollyjane - sorry that others seem to be poking fun at your post.

It's a situation I've had & what happened was that the teacher used the name & surname in big groups & when working in small groups just the first name. When talking to the class often just the first name as she would direct her glance to the child concerned.

Are the names spelt the same? In my case the spelling is different & I had to remind the teacher on this. Also labelling pens etc I put the first name & then the surname initial.

There were three Bens in my sons reception class:
Benedict called Benedict, Benjamin called BEN and Ben called Ben + Surname. (very short surname, went very well with his name)

The two Daniels simply had the surname initial added.

This was agreed on, not just imposed by teacher

In MY primary class, there was a Mona. In year 2 a new girl started. Her name was Mona. Both had surnames starting with S.
So the teacher said, we make it easy:

NewMona
OldMona

The girls were NOT pleased, especially not OldMona. But they did not say a word, so the names stuck!

When I went to a parents meeting the teacher said when opening her note book - "The good XXXX not the bad xxxx" !!!

OLD MONA - Love it!!!!

Loving Old Mona.

FunkyNora are you saying there are only 14 names (7 boys and 7 girls) in your country?

No, I think there must only BE seven names, as monday is monday whether you are a boy or a girl?

There will be variants for male/female.

I went to school with a sister and brother who hailed from Ghana, Amma and Kwame (sp?) who were both born on (I think) a Saturday. All of their siblings were also named for the day of their birth.

I can see that it's not ideal to have your child always known by First Name plus Initial, but it's a bit late to worry about it now - you shouldn't have chosen such a popular name!

For what it's worth, at junior school there were 2 of us with the same first name and we both LOVED being "special" LOL. We were both known as First Name, Surname.

Then at university, I lived with (and was on the same course as) a girl with the same name - she happened to have an easily abbreviated surname (McSomething) so was known by Mc, whereas I was called something totally contrived (it rhymed with my first name, but started with my surname initial!).

7 years later, we're both still known by our "nicknames" amongst friends, even though we're both married so the names aren't even correct anymore.

(apols for double post)

Yes, it's Ghana where most people are named for the day they're born. I was at school with an Abena (born on a Tuesday).

We have two children at school (secondary) in the same year with the identical hyphenated first name plus identical surname, identical spelling. They have been through primary together for the past 6 years, with no apparent damage.

Even more surprisingly one is a boy and one is a girl!

It is normal to have two children with the same name in any given class. For the children, it is usually very clear if it is them or the other one that is being spoken to. Eye contact is a dead giveaway. Surname and other qualifiers are only used sparingly.

Funnily enough, when we teachers talk about children in the staff room, we usually use their full names, even if they are the only one in the school.

Jollyjane- there was three - yes three Emma-Louises in my class at Primary school- worse still- we all had surnames beginning with W

Emma Wa
Emma Wi
Emma Wo

as we were all known as all throughout school

How we all coped Ill never know

This happens with the teachers too, you know. I teach with someone who has very similar name to me. We share the same first name and her surname is the first half of mine. So I'm Year X CheeseAlarm and she's Year Y CheeseAlarm, we cope.

We have another pair of teachers with the same problem who are known as Johnboy and Johnboy Junior! Their choice!

At school where 4 out of the 8 girls in my A Level Economics groups were called the same name, (and there were another 4 in the year as a whole), we just gave ourselves a number. I am still known by a certain group of friends as CheeseAlarm3!

what's a cheese alarm?

having visions of

gouda-gouda-GOUDA-GOUDA-gouda-gouda (a la neee-naaar)

or more gorgonZOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAA

I am still honetly about how this can possibly be seen as a problem. It happened with ds and it never occured to me to see it as an issue

It's a song by Robyn Hitchcock. My real name is a very common 1970's one.

Roquefort and grueyere and slippery Brie
All of these cheeses they happen to me
Oh please

Rough pecorino and moody Rams Hall
Stop me before I just swallow it all
Oh please

Somebody ring the cheese alarm
Oh please
Somebody ring the cheese alarm

Oh MB it happens to all our children ... DS is shortened form, first initial, despite the other child with his name being full-length

I suppose some people think it's an important thing to be bothered about and don't realise that one day they're going to be 16 and being called 'Stiffo' or 'Numbnuts' by all their mates

oh how we laugh

well quite. You get called twigglet all the time and do you grizzle.....

.....well yes you do sometimes But in a good way