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[CalamityPixel]

My second name is slang for "gay".

My whole school life was fucked up from the beginning.

 

[erawsd]

I'm sure some poor kids have, though I've never seen someone bullied just because of their name. In fact, I was rarely called my actual name in school. I don't even have a weird name, it's "Stephen", but at the time there was a goofy commercial for Jack Stephan Plumbing where the narrator gets his name wrong. So I became Stephonsky, Stephanovich, Stepinino and whatever other twists the kids could think of. That said, I thought it was funny and it wasn't mean enough to feel like bullying.

 

[thebeeks]

Why would he get bullied for that name? Mike Hunt on the other hand...

When I was buying a house, my realtor's name was Mike Hunt. Super nice guy, but I couldn't help but chuckle because I am apparently eight years old.

I never got bullied for my name, but I knew a kid with a very Italian last name. I don't remember how to spell it (Biacci maybe?) but it was pronounced "bee-yaw-chi", but everyone just called him Biatch.

All during middle/high school, it was "Hey Biatch! That's a pretty gay sweater you got there, Biatch!"

 

[Khaos_Knight]

Yep, I know from first hand experience.

When I first started the 4th grade the other guys would make fun of me because of the way my name was pronounced.

They would call me Gay-briel or Gaybe.

They stopped fucking with me and let me into "the group" when they saw me get into a fight with some kid one day lol.

 

[Box of Kittens]

Oh sure. "Jerry Jerry Dingleberry," "Seinsmelled," that sort of thing.

 

[Stuart444]

That's what parents are for, teaching them otherwise.

If only they did teach their kids otherwise.

I'm certain anyone who works in a school and has to interact with parents will see a pretty large amount of parents who either think their child can do no wrong or just doesn't care.

I do think by the time you're 16, you should well understand how other people feel when you decide to bully someone. Empathy is a hard concept to learn though. Even for adults. :/

Anyway I was bullied. Mainly because I seemed/acted differently and didn't exactly fit in with most crowds. I also had speech difficulties (certain letters are hard and still are hard for me to say like the hard-sounding K or if I say god, it might sound like dog or vice versa) which didn't help.

The real thing that did me in is that it was very easy to push my buttons, even when I tried to ignore it, people knew that if they kept at me, I would eventually snap/get angry..

My name was just a tool they used every so often, called me Gammon or saying to me "I'd like a piece of gammon steak" or something like that just because if you changed two letters in my last name, it could become "Gammon".

They also called me Stu (and made similar 'jokes' about wanting some Stew) which funnily enough became my nickname after I left Secondary school.

The names weren't that bad though compared to other stuff that happened but yeah, kids, teens.... they bully because of names. All it takes is one person connection your name with something else and before you know it, most people are using your name as a bully tactic.

Secondary/High school sucked. :/ if I knew half the stuff I did now though, I'd have plenty of comebacks and would probably deal with stuff better but hey, that's hindsight for ya.

Also I do admit that I did participate in some bullying at one time. Not much but I really regret it now and if I ever saw them again, I'd apologize.

(this post went longer than I intended it to)

 

[old]

Yes. Victim of it.

 

[DeathyBoy]

Scott, you just don't get it, do you. You don't.

I don't think he knows...

 

[GeordieMark]

Not entirely. Kids will only pick on someone for having a 'different' name if they also think the kid will be a soft touch. They aren't going to start openly taking the piss out of anyone who looks physically threatening, no matter how dumb their name is

 

[Box of Kittens]

The real thing that did me in is that it was very easy to push my buttons, even when I tried to ignore it, people knew that if they kept at me, I would eventually snap/get angry..

The idea that if one just ignores bullies they'll leave you alone is some of the worst bullshit ever fed to kids. Bullies will just keep at it until they get a reaction because they have the common sense to know that no one can just shrug off abuse indefinitely. In effect it shifts the burden from bullies to be decent human beings and adults to watch out for and stop bullying to the victims who come to believe it's their fault for not having a superhuman capacity to not let things get to them. It also plays into the manipulation of the bullies where the bullying somehow becomes the victim's fault. The idea that you just "don't let it get to you" feeds right into "Hey, we're just having fun. Can't you take a joke? You have a sense of humor, right?"

 

[Nappuccino]

I knew a kid named Miles Long.

Don't do that to your child.

 

[Awrans]

Yes, kids bully each other in any possible way.

 

[PSqueak]

Kids will bully each other for any reason they can find, giving a kid a name that could enable bullying just makes it easier for other kids to bully them, so they'll be targeted for being low hanging fruit.

Remember, Kids are cruel as fuck.

 

[SturokBGD]

I knew a kid named Miles Long.

Don't do that to your child.

Awesome name if they grew up and went into porn, though.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

What, of course, it's just more ammunition for assholes that will use whatever they can to humiliate you.

 

[robotrock]

My first name starts with a B and my last name starts with a J. It didn't take them long to run with that

Billy Joel?

 

[HawksWinStanley]

Yes. My parents made it difficult for them with Ian, so they just called me gay instead. Shrug.

This should be the moral of this thread. It doesn't matter if they can make fun of your name because you'll just be called something else anyway.

Nobody escapes it, just how kids roll.

 

[Dusk Golem]

I don't remember this at all, but my dad told me this story about a year ago. I believe it because I remember this one kid in Kindergarden who bullied me several times, I didn't do anything to him he just picked on me, would do things like kick blocks I was building or splatter paint on the painting I was doing, but I don't remember this exact incident.

Apparently he had made fun of my name in some way (Ryan) and when I went home I was crying and told my dad about what happened, and my dad asked me for his name, I told it to him, and he told me a name to make fun of the kid if he did it again. Apparently the next day after school, I went to my dad and exclaimed to him, "Dad, it really worked! He tried calling me that again, and I used the name, and all the kids started calling him that and he stopped!"

I feel bad for it, but I was like 5 and I don't even remember this incident.

 

[woopWOOP]

Kid in my brother's class had a last name that's basically slang for "gay".
Felt pretty bad whenever kids, including my brother, constantly yelled his name out loud...

Also my name can be slightly changed in two ways to sound like "whore", but only my brother called me that way :V

(my brother was a bit of an asshole)

 

[daveo42]

My last name lent itself to getting a variety of nicknames all related to testicles. It's not a common name either.

 

[Knit Your Own Porridge]

They certainly do. My name was pretty taunt-proof so I used to get called "boffin" or "boff" instead. That didn't bother me because I had a hugely inflated ego and loved being a teacher's pet.

University was a humbling experience - thank god. I was insufferable as a kid.

 

[Pinko Marx]

I knew a chick named Gina Sardina (I kid you not) in middle school and even one of our teachers made a joke at her expense.

 

[bananafactory]

Yes

My last name is Meier, I was called Oscar Meyer Weiner all the time or they'd just start singing the song when they felt like bugging me

One time they brought a package of hot dogs in and threw them at me but the school put a stop to it pretty quickly

But I was also bullied for my middle name too which I won't provide.

TLDR absolutely

 

[Symphonia]

Moments like this reveal how dumb a person really is. Anna-lily doesn't even sound very much like anally.

Said at speed it apparently sounds like it.

To me, it just sounds like Anna-Lily said fast.

 

[Hypemaster]

I wonder how people with the last name Cox managed in earlier years, by high school no one was making immature remarks about their last names.

 

[Onemic]

Yes. Kids will latch on to anything they can make fun of you with.