The Student Room Group

laughing at 'silly' names

Why do people (usually immature children) laugh at and even sometimes pick on people cos of their name? I think it's quite sad really.

Your parents picked it and changing it (and on all your accounts and licences etc) is a faff, time consuming and expensive. And would probably make any historians job in the future harder to find out about you.

I had a bit of bother, but not too much. I'm female and part Scottish. My last name is Scottish, but also a fairly common boys name. Kids I went to school with (in England) thought it was wierd that I had a boys name as a last name especially as they didn't realise it was Scottish. What didn't help was the fact that on most school registers, your surname is printed before your first name. Even in sixth form teachers still make the mistakes of calling me it occaissionally when they're not paying attention.

So I didn't get it really bad, but I can sympathise with those that do. A guy at my sixth form has the last name Sparkhall, which is pronounced Sparkle by most people. A group of guys in our class find it hilarious :sigh:

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Original post by Clare~Bear
Why do people (usually immature children) laugh at and even sometimes pick on people cos of their name? I think it's quite sad really.

Your parents picked it and changing it (and on all your accounts and licences etc) is a faff, time consuming and expensive. And would probably make any historians job in the future harder to find out about you.

I had a bit of bother, but not too much. I'm female and part Scottish. My last name is Scottish, but also a fairly common boys name. Kids I went to school with (in England) thought it was wierd that I had a boys name as a last name especially as they didn't realise it was Scottish. What didn't help was the fact that on most school registers, your surname is printed before your first name. Even in sixth form teachers still make the mistakes of calling me it occaissionally when they're not paying attention.

So I didn't get it really bad, but I can sympathise with those that do. A guy at my sixth form has the last name Sparkhall, which is pronounced Sparkle by most people. A group of guys in our class find it hilarious :sigh:


Sort of answered your own question in the first sentence there didn't you?

Children are immature and silly and will pick on others for childish reasons. They'll grow out of it eventually, but that's just how children are at that age :dontknow:
So... what is your name? :teeth:
Reply 3
hahha erm my surname is BI so i get alot of bumblebee or worst bisexual lol

life is too short - don't take yourself so seriously, it's good to be able to laugh at yourself
Original post by jumpingjesusholycow
Sort of answered your own question in the first sentence there didn't you?

Children are immature and silly and will pick on others for childish reasons. They'll grow out of it eventually, but that's just how children are at that age :dontknow:


Even adults have a laugh at my name... (when they don't know I can hear)... It's shadab :L but yep! :biggrin:

But no one can get me confused then, so who cares, they still like me :P
Reply 5
Theres a tutor at my college called Dick Cummings....
So yeah.....
Original post by Alex17595
Theres a tutor at my college called Dick Cummings....
So yeah.....


What kind of evil parents would do that? :zomg:
Reply 7
Original post by Clare~Bear
Why do people (usually immature children) laugh at and even sometimes pick on people cos of their name? I think it's quite sad really. :sigh:


I don't its quite funny actually and it's good to be able to not take yourself so seriously, I get loadz of jokes about my surname lool

I LAUGH it off - cuz it's pretty funny:rolleyes:
My mum had a friend at school called Virginia. You'll never guess what everyone called her.
Reply 9
Original post by jumpingjesusholycow
Sort of answered your own question in the first sentence there didn't you?

Children are immature and silly and will pick on others for childish reasons. They'll grow out of it eventually, but that's just how children are at that age :dontknow:


But sixth formers still do it to the guy with Sparkhall as his last name :sigh:


Original post by whyumadtho
So... what is your name? :teeth:


Well there aren't many Scottish surnames that are guys names are there. I'm not telling you it exactly, but it's one of the following; Cameron, Craig, Elliot, Graham, Maxwell, Stewart. And cos they haven't got a Mc or Mac, English kids especially don't realise that they're just normal Scottish surnames.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 10
Some just are funny though.


Like Pat Mycock.
Original post by shadab786ahmed
Even adults have a laugh at my name... (when they don't know I can hear)... It's shadab :L but yep! :biggrin:

But no one can get me confused then, so who cares, they still like me :P


To be fair that is kinda funny the first time you hear it :tongue:

First name being Mohammed, I did for some reason get a lot of white people calling me "Mooooo-ham-ed" and a few silly jokes about having 'ham on my head'. But meh, once you get out of school it's never been a huge issue.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by iheartdjokovic
My mum had a friend at school called Virginia. You'll never guess what everyone called her.


Golden
Original post by Clare~Bear
But sixth formers still do it to the guy with Sparkhall as his last name :sigh:


It's sort of silly of them but it's not like they're bullying the crap out of him I suppose :s-smilie: I guess it's just the 'classroom setting' that's bringing it out. I doubt it'd ever be much more than a remark in adult life.
Reply 14
Original post by jumpingjesusholycow
It's sort of silly of them but it's not like they're bullying the crap out of him I suppose :s-smilie: I guess it's just the 'classroom setting' that's bringing it out. I doubt it'd ever be much more than a remark in adult life.


It was quite a way into the year before the guys realised his last name- they then made a load of twilight jokes. I think most of the teachers tried to say it slow so it did sound like spark-hall rather than sparkle.
Reply 15
No word of a lie, there is a chinese kid at my school delighting in the name of Dick Wang.
Reply 16
Original post by 123maz
hahha erm my surname is BI so i get alot of bumblebee or worst bisexual lol

life is too short - don't take yourself so seriously, it's good to be able to laugh at yourself


I wouldn't be surprised if when its your lady time of the month they also call you bipolar! :teeth:
Some guy at my school had the last name of Dicks. Yeah, people laughed.
Living in Scotland, I went to school with a guy called Seoras that everyone called sore-ass. Poor sod.
Reply 19
I dunno.

The hilarity of my surname 'Cousins' though did not escape them.
'Hahaha, do you have lots of cousins then?'

My annoyed response of 'No.' did not make them happy.

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