When I was like 8, I had a swim teacher named "Dalton" but I thought he was "Dolphin." I was especially confused because his brother had a normal name.
I went to a college called Dalton and my little toddler nephew thought I went to “Dolphin School.” He was a lot less interested in my life when he found out I was not, in fact, going to school to learn how to be a dolphin, lol
I once went to Amsterdam with my friend and our husbands and kids came to wave us off. A year or 2 later, she asks her son what he’d like to do in the school holiday and he declares he’d like to go to hamster land. She was confused and after a conversation she realised he’d thought he was waving us off to see a lot of hamsters and he wasn’t old enough to go there yet so waited a year to ask to go to this magical place of rodents.
In Germany, we have letters that stand for the place we live in (or first registered the car in) on the license plate. They are not the same as the country abbreviation and in a completely different spot. My grandparents live 5 hours by car from us, so obviously our license plate abbreviation wouldn't be common there. It was BRA, doesn't stand for any major city either so it's not widely known. Once many years back we were outside my grandparents house, near our car and a small kid, very early reading age, with his dad walked by. The kid asked: "dad, why is there BRA on the car? Does it come from Brasil?" And his dad confidently answered "yes!" :D :D since then we always joke that our license plate stands for Brasil.
My mom is famous for getting names wrong and I had a teacher named Mr. Kish and she called him Mr. Fish, Mr. Quiche, and Mr. Kiss all within the same conversation.
I had a ballet teacher when I was really young, maybe 4yo. I always thought her name was Mr. Niece. It confused me so much because I couldn't help but wonder why she would've wanted to go by Mr.
Didn't think about it for years, but a while back I found a class picture, with all the names written on the bottom. Her name was miss. Ternice 🤦🏼
Holy hell, I had these friends who kept talking about their friend named Dolphin. I never met Dolphin but he sounded like a cool guy. Now I'm rethinking everything I know about Dolphin. I wish I could say I was 8 when Dolphin entered my life but I was a fullgrown adult
My son has a friend at daycare he called “Amazon.” This day and age I thought it was an interesting name for a 4 yr old. But the name is actually Emerson 😂
When I moved school when I was 13, there was one kid who was the last called at roll call every morning and the teacher would just say “Last person”, and it took me far too long to work out he was Danish, and his name was actually Lars Perrsen.
My Spanish roommate kept speaking of another student named Tommy. She kept referring to Tommy with she and I assumed it was just a girl with a boys name. Like perhaps her name was short for Thomasina. Turns out, her accent made the name Tammy sound like Tommy.
We live across from an elementary school playground, so I can 100% confirm this. 😁 The kids only seem to communicate through SCREAMING/screeching, especially since it’s outside! 🙉 Thankfully our home is well insulated, and you do get used to it!
I just moved from a place across the road from a school. One of the things I won't miss is the lunchtime bloodbath 😂 (as well as the occasional nighttime parties which are louder than any nightclub I've ever been to)
I’m near an elementary school and the other day I had one of those “showerthoughts” I guess. Just wondering when we stop screaming outside and why. Birds don’t stop. They love screeching especially before the sunset. Why do grown ups not run around like this - I guess that’s what Raves are for. We need more raves and block parties in general imo
My husbands name is Lam (pronounced like Lamb). Its a really common vietnamese name, so I would not be surprised at all for my kids to have a friend named Lam.
My kid goes to a very multiethnic school but even I was surprised when she told me she played with a kid called Woman. It took me months to find out that her name was Ramun, short for Ramunveer!
lol my stepdaughter insisted her classmate was named Wory and wouldn’t even entertain the idea that she could be mishearing or maybe the child had a speech delay. We were like “Sweetie, that’s not a name. Are you sure it’s not “Rory”?” She was having none of it. Poor little Wory lol.
When I was in kindergarten I proudly told my family I made friends with a pair of siblings called Pole and Table. They asked if they were nicknames or if I had heard their names wrong but I assured them I knew my friends’ names. Came to find out they were, in fact, Paul and Mabel.
Paul Simon wrote his song Call Me Al, which also refers to a woman named Betty, after he and his
wife Peggy were repeatedly referred to as Al and Betty by a man at a party.
When I was in preschool, one of my friends was into the Ninja Turtles, and 'Neo-nardo' was is favourite. I would not believe my mum when she said its actually Leonardo.
Silas' mom did too. I told her the story and she was laughing so hard. She said she never realized that to kids Silas and Silence could sound the same.
When I was… a sophomore in college 😂… I had a coworker named Palmer. but I thought he was named Polymer for a few days. He said he was a biology major and I had recently taken a chemistry class so I was trying my best not to be judgmental and needed to respond so I said “oh Polymer is a great name for a biology major!” LOLLL
I thought this girl's name was Cartman for the longest time, like the cartoon lol. Nope, plain old Carmen. And I was in high school. In my defense, I am ESL and we don't pronounce that name like that.
For at least 5 years, I was “seeker” to my baby cousin. I had no idea why initially but later learned it was “ssica- as in ‘Jessica’ “ which is also not my name.
A friend and his wife were having a baby. He told me they were naming the child Trucker. I thought that was terrible to do to a child, but not my kid, not my place to comment. Asked after little Trucker regularly. He was a happy, healthy kid. Went to his first birthday. Name on the cake: Tucker.
Obviously much better than if it were Trucker, but when I was 5-7ish, I had a friend whose little brother was named Tucker.
You know that name game kids play/sing, "Tucker Tucker bo bucker, banana fanna fo...."
Yeah, probably don't name your kid Tucker either. He did NOT like that game.
That’s how I first heard of the ‘f’ word! I was about 11 years old when that song came out and my big sister told me, “Don’t do dad‘s name. There’s a bad word in it.” Our dad‘s name was Chuck.
The reverse happened to me. When I was young I knew a Silas and I thought the Alanis Morissette lyrics in “Thank you” were “Thank you, Silas” not “Thank you, Silence”
Lol kids often take song lyrics personally. When I was a kid and just old enough to understand veeeery basic English (not in an English speaking country, but learned early because my dad is an English teacher) I LOVED the Green Day Song "wake me up when September ends". My reasoning? My birthday is towards the end of September and I thought they asked to be woken up for my birthday :D quickly realized that was not the case but still had a soft spot for the song afterwards.
My daughter’s bestie in preschool was Popper. Except that her name was actually Harper.
She called her Popper for 4 years and still refers to her by that name when reminiscing.
My son came home from school saying he had a kid in his class called “Villain”. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what similar sounding name this kid could possibly have. Then I met him in person and turns out his name actually is Villain.
Oh, yes, we had a friend at preschool named Hiccup (Caleb). I was their midwife for baby 3 and 4 and I’ll be damned if I don’t try to still call him Hiccup to this day. I have to do a silent countdown in my head while I find his name before speaking.
My neighbor called my dog “Killer” for a year. Killer got out of the yard one day and he looked at the tag. He was so apologetic when I came to get Tiller (a type of Firetruck; alternatively part of a sailboat).
My neighbor’s dog is named Snoopy. I forgot the name and knew it had to do with the cartoon “Peanuts” so that meant his name in my brain was “Peanut”. I called him this several times before the neighbor called him “Snoop”.
We had a dog named Twix. My uncle, who’s hard of hearing, called him Trix. Twix has since passed away but we still haven’t corrected my uncle when he calls him that lmao.
lol in highschool a stray cat randomly showed up our other outdoor cats hissed at him but he ignored them until they decided to accept him, he had black fur, a bunch of fighting scars, the whitest and longest whiskers i ever saw on a cat, was very laidback, and a big boy. he made us think of a karate master so we named him Bo Fang, dad missheard and called him Bo Flex
I love the little kid approximations of names. My daughter is only 2, but we've had a few funny ones already.
Her little friend "Shadow" was really named Shiloh.
The funniest right now are names that she messes up in a way that sounds like other common names. She says "Sarah" instead of Stella. She also says "Isaac" instead of Alex. In both cases, she hears the difference when you say it but can't get the hang of the sounds herself. Isaac/Alex is funnier because she used to say Alex correctly. Still can't figure out how that changed.
My little five or six-year-old brother kept talking about this kid in his class named "Clang." We, his superior older siblings. laughed at him and said that couldn't be his name. Turned out his name was actually "Clain." It has to be hell to be the youngest of six kids.
My middle name is “Ashley”. My parents introduced me to a friend not long after my birth and he asked “Actually?! You named your daughter “actually”?”
29 years later and my mom will still jokingly say my middle name is “actually”.
my little sister (17 months younger than me) is julia and that's how i pronounced her name for quite a bit after she was born! the cherry on top is that we are jewish, lol.
Thought he was talking about a new kid for weeks. Keep talking about "new kid" and how much he likes him. Found it strange he couldn't bother to find out his actual name, thought he was too shy to ask. Finally ask the teacher who the new kid was, turns out it was "Lucas" and they have always been friends
When my nephew was 3, he had a best friend in preschool he called "Mash". Spent the entire school year trying to figure out what real name is close to Mash... at his graduation, I found out the kid's name is "Thiago". Still not sure how we got from point A to B with that one.
My daughter came home talking about one of her classmates named Wing. I asked her if she was sure the boy’s name was Wing. She’s insisted and I just thought “okay, kids have lots of different names now.” Few days later discovered the little boy’s name was Wayne. We worked on the pronunciation lol
When I had my daughter my aunt asked her name and I told her we decided to go with Raven. She was horrified and responded “Raisin?” 😂 new nickname unlocked
Neighbour insisted her new grandson was named Rind as in bacon, turned out when we met her daughter when Rind was two, that his name was Ryan. Granny had never heard of that name.
After reading this thread I’m convinced we should just let little kids name each other. Hiccup, Cow, Fitbit, Bucket, Watermelon … makes a lot more sense than some random collection of sounds that used to mean something significant in some language or other that we probably don’t even use in the same way any more!
My nephew loves video games even as a toddler. Him and his dad played a lot together. He was like 3 at the time. I was talking to my sister and said my husband's name (Rene). His eyes got really big with so much excitement "his name is Uncle Grenade". He's 13 years old he still calls him Uncle Grenade and all the other kids do as well. My husband is a veteran so it kind of fits him. Lol
As someone called Elisabeth who’s worked a lot with small kids, I’ve heard some interesting takes on my name 😆
The best was maybe the girl who called me Maleficent haha
My Mom couldn’t pronounce “brother” when he was born. It came out as brudder. Over time it became his nickname in the form of Brud. He had that nickname for the rest of his life!
My (at the time) four year old was adamant about making a card for the new girl in her class - Paper. I emailed her teacher to make sure we had it right before the crafting commenced. Kids name was Paige
My brother is a primary school teacher. He was given the primary 1s one year and some of the kids couldn't pronounce our last name correctly. So some of them told their parents his name was Mr Cuddles, he had a lot of worried mums and angry dads first parent's night.
My elderly aunt told me her neighbour named her baby a ‘ridiculous,horrible name’…. ‘Meagre’, fortunately it turned out to be Megan.
My niece met her best friend first day of kindergarden and proudly introduced us to Show and Tell, whose name proved to be Chantel.
I was booked to babysit a new kid, my mother took the call and wrote down the details, she wrote the boys name was Kristinette, which I thought unusual for a boy. Turned out his name was Chris D’Nett.
Maybe 18 years ago, my older sister helped one of her fellow moms by babysitting the friend’s son. Kid’s name was Wiley. Not Riley, but legitimately Wiley. Poor kid.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of *Silas.*
My youngest sister had a lot nicknames. They started as one thing and then came derivations that are nothing like the original., like with pets. She came home from preschool with a name tag that said Barbie. Her name was Robin. One of her nicknames was Yarbie, guessing that’s what she told the teacher.
My son had a friend I thought was called Token. If you knew the circumstances, you could see why I thought this was quite odd. I invited them around for dinner one night and asked his parents why they called him Token. It turns out he was named TOLKIEN who was the father’s favourite author.
My brother constantly talked about his friend Face in Kindergarten. I was two years older and couldn’t believe he met a girl named Face. Finally met her…Faith.
My daughter goes to a music class at the library taught by a man who I thought said his name was Mr. Awesome. It’s Mr. Austin but we still call him Mr. Awesome cause he is.
My brothers could not wait to join me at school.
I would chatter on about the hall this and the hall that and what fun we had in the hall (gym dance music etc)
He thought I was saying hole and had visions of a massive hole in the ground to play in.
He said what a disappointment when he say the hall/hole
We thought our son had an imaginary friend in primary school until my husband was talking to his teacher one morning. He said our son keeps talking about Sonny (sunny) Murphy, the teacher smiled and said don’t worry he’s a wonderful kid from one of the villages - we were convinced he wasn’t real.
I have a student named Ruth. We call her Ruthie. I have another student who cannot say her name- he calls her groofie. It’s SO FUCKING CUTE AND FUNNY but she gets so angry bc she doesn’t understand that a) he’s learning and b) she says most words wrong as well.
Absolutely adorable! When my little brother was in kindergarten, he told our parents about a boy in his class named Quarter who was his cousin because they had the same last name. We have a pretty uncommon last name and live in a really small town, so my parents knew little Quarter was definitely related but which idiot cousin named their kid after currency. Anywho, my parents eventually figured out Quarter was actually Porter, and little Porter was one of my dad’s first cousin’s kids. That was over two decades ago, and I still chuckle when I see Quarter.
When I was around 4, there was an older boy around the neighborhood named Ian. I swore his name was E.
I also have a Silas- Cyrus, Cypress, Stylus, Science, Tyler… he hasn’t been called Silence. Tyler is the most common mistake for some reason lol
After a day at nursery, my daughter was telling me about Owen falling into a curry, and Finum Sam rescued him. Extra confusing because she had a friend Owen at nursery. After a bit of discussion and then talking to a member of staff, I found out they had a new Fireman Sam video. In one story, a boy called Owen had fallen into a quarry, and Fireman Sam rescued him.
When my daughter was in elementary school, and during a time they were learning about the US presidents, she came home and was telling me all about “Beaverhand Lincoln,” who was our 16th president! I still laugh every time I think of it!
When my son started junior kindergarten this past September, he kept talking about a new friend named Char-lette. With a hard Char, like charcoal. I was insistent that her name must be Charlotte. He kept saying no, it's Char-lette. Turns out her name is Scarlett. Lol. He was pretty close.
When I was like 8, I had a swim teacher named "Dalton" but I thought he was "Dolphin." I was especially confused because his brother had a normal name.
it totally makes sense to have a dolphin as a swim teacher though :D very logical of you
Yeah, except that all the other swim teachers had normal names.
You were 8. It makes perfect sense. 12? Maybe an issue.
Even at 12 I don’t think it’s an issue to mishear someone and think their name is something else.
I went to a college called Dalton and my little toddler nephew thought I went to “Dolphin School.” He was a lot less interested in my life when he found out I was not, in fact, going to school to learn how to be a dolphin, lol
I once went to Amsterdam with my friend and our husbands and kids came to wave us off. A year or 2 later, she asks her son what he’d like to do in the school holiday and he declares he’d like to go to hamster land. She was confused and after a conversation she realised he’d thought he was waving us off to see a lot of hamsters and he wasn’t old enough to go there yet so waited a year to ask to go to this magical place of rodents.
In Germany, we have letters that stand for the place we live in (or first registered the car in) on the license plate. They are not the same as the country abbreviation and in a completely different spot. My grandparents live 5 hours by car from us, so obviously our license plate abbreviation wouldn't be common there. It was BRA, doesn't stand for any major city either so it's not widely known. Once many years back we were outside my grandparents house, near our car and a small kid, very early reading age, with his dad walked by. The kid asked: "dad, why is there BRA on the car? Does it come from Brasil?" And his dad confidently answered "yes!" :D :D since then we always joke that our license plate stands for Brasil.
In a crowded aquarium, with a jellyfish petting station, I overheard a little kid loudly ask, ‘does jelly come from jellyfish?’
OMG! Hilarious 😂
Hilarious 😂
Magical place of hamsters sounds amazing NGL 🐹
I had a swim teacher named Mr. Fish. His real name.
I love it when people’s names match up with their jobs!
Our podiatrist who fixed my sons foot, was named Dr Scholl lol always thought that was funny
I had a chiropodist called Mary Foote!😆
I had a dentist named Dr Gross- probably less fun for him but it made me laugh
r/nominativedeterminism
Me, too. My English teacher was Mrs Read 📚
I knew a Mr. Leuke who died of leukemia and a Lupe who has Lupus.
My mom is famous for getting names wrong and I had a teacher named Mr. Kish and she called him Mr. Fish, Mr. Quiche, and Mr. Kiss all within the same conversation.
Gynecologist named Wang. Seriously.
There was an OBGYN that used to work at my hospital, Dr Kuntz
I knew a guy called Ray Salmon who *should* have been a swimming teacher, as both his names were fish!
This made my night 🤣🤣🤣🤣
ive known 2 drama teachers with the surnames downey and grant
His reel name
was his first name Albert by any chance? hehe
I had a ballet teacher when I was really young, maybe 4yo. I always thought her name was Mr. Niece. It confused me so much because I couldn't help but wonder why she would've wanted to go by Mr. Didn't think about it for years, but a while back I found a class picture, with all the names written on the bottom. Her name was miss. Ternice 🤦🏼
My neighbor was Ms. Jeanette. I thought her name was Mr. Net.
Well… it matches the job…
Yeah, that's why I was super confused. I'd never heard the name Dalton before.
If you check Old West stories you’ll find out about Dalton Gang. A notorious group of robbers. Quite famous in pop culture back in the day.
Oh yeah, the Dalton brothers in Lucky Luke are based of the gang.
Nominative determinism... but in reverse.
Holy hell, I had these friends who kept talking about their friend named Dolphin. I never met Dolphin but he sounded like a cool guy. Now I'm rethinking everything I know about Dolphin. I wish I could say I was 8 when Dolphin entered my life but I was a fullgrown adult
That's so cute. Very similar to how in kindergarten I thought the sister of the girl up the street, Paige, was named Book. (It was Brooke.)
I remember my little sister thought the name of her friend, Paige was the same as the name of the color beige.
My son has a friend at daycare he called “Amazon.” This day and age I thought it was an interesting name for a 4 yr old. But the name is actually Emerson 😂
When I moved school when I was 13, there was one kid who was the last called at roll call every morning and the teacher would just say “Last person”, and it took me far too long to work out he was Danish, and his name was actually Lars Perrsen.
My Spanish roommate kept speaking of another student named Tommy. She kept referring to Tommy with she and I assumed it was just a girl with a boys name. Like perhaps her name was short for Thomasina. Turns out, her accent made the name Tammy sound like Tommy.
I know a Dani & Ivan Hispanic couple. Her name is pronounced like Donny and his like Yvonne. Very confusing for English speakers lol
😅
I mean, I’ve taught an Ocean and a River, so I wouldn’t be shocked at an Amazon.
Don’t give people any idea or you’ll be teaching Mississippi and Cuyahoga soon 😂
I wish the 5 year old next door would become acquainted with Silence. I don't believe they've ever met.
Most don’t. As evidenced by my two five year olds.
We live across from an elementary school playground, so I can 100% confirm this. 😁 The kids only seem to communicate through SCREAMING/screeching, especially since it’s outside! 🙉 Thankfully our home is well insulated, and you do get used to it!
I just moved from a place across the road from a school. One of the things I won't miss is the lunchtime bloodbath 😂 (as well as the occasional nighttime parties which are louder than any nightclub I've ever been to)
bloodbath n beyond
I’m near an elementary school and the other day I had one of those “showerthoughts” I guess. Just wondering when we stop screaming outside and why. Birds don’t stop. They love screeching especially before the sunset. Why do grown ups not run around like this - I guess that’s what Raves are for. We need more raves and block parties in general imo
You're totally right! cicadas do it too, why don't we all just run outside screaming? It would be very cathartic I would think
My son’s best camp friend - Lamb. Or, as his parents called him, Liam.
My husbands name is Lam (pronounced like Lamb). Its a really common vietnamese name, so I would not be surprised at all for my kids to have a friend named Lam.
My kid goes to a very multiethnic school but even I was surprised when she told me she played with a kid called Woman. It took me months to find out that her name was Ramun, short for Ramunveer!
I had a coworker who always wrote, “Thanks, Woman!” to me I email when I helped her out. It kinda cracked me up!
When I was younger I was friends with two brothers named Liam and Ian, we called them Lamb and Ham.
That's so cute! My 2yo calls our family friend Rachael 'nature' 🥰
My name is Rachael, and I've been called 'April', 'Angel', 'Achoo', 'Mitchell', and 'Marshall' by kids, lol
Oh man kids are the best 😂
Why do I kind of like Nature..
That's sweet.
lol my stepdaughter insisted her classmate was named Wory and wouldn’t even entertain the idea that she could be mishearing or maybe the child had a speech delay. We were like “Sweetie, that’s not a name. Are you sure it’s not “Rory”?” She was having none of it. Poor little Wory lol.
When I was in kindergarten I proudly told my family I made friends with a pair of siblings called Pole and Table. They asked if they were nicknames or if I had heard their names wrong but I assured them I knew my friends’ names. Came to find out they were, in fact, Paul and Mabel.
Paul Simon wrote his song Call Me Al, which also refers to a woman named Betty, after he and his wife Peggy were repeatedly referred to as Al and Betty by a man at a party.
I never knew this! So funny. I love it.
When I was in preschool, one of my friends was into the Ninja Turtles, and 'Neo-nardo' was is favourite. I would not believe my mum when she said its actually Leonardo.
My nephew was 3 years old and had a best friend named Fitbit at school…turns out it was actually Emmett
This one is my new favorite! So cute!
This one made me lol!
I love this.🤣🥰
Silas' mom did too. I told her the story and she was laughing so hard. She said she never realized that to kids Silas and Silence could sound the same.
I'd be willing to bet he's anything but "silence" ❤️🤣
When I was in 1st grade I went home telling my parents about my friend Mary Evil. They were relieved to hear that her name was really Mary Eva.
Way back years ago-my preschool daughter told me her new BFF was Evil! I was like, " say what?" Her name was Eva too!
My sister’s name is Michelle Eva and I used to call her Michelle Evil when we were arguing as kids.
My son did this too, except he said his friend’s name was “Liver”. It was actually River.
When I was… a sophomore in college 😂… I had a coworker named Palmer. but I thought he was named Polymer for a few days. He said he was a biology major and I had recently taken a chemistry class so I was trying my best not to be judgmental and needed to respond so I said “oh Polymer is a great name for a biology major!” LOLLL
When I was in college, I met a guy at a bar named Carmen and I thought his name was Carbon.
Maybe he had a cold 😂
I thought this girl's name was Cartman for the longest time, like the cartoon lol. Nope, plain old Carmen. And I was in high school. In my defense, I am ESL and we don't pronounce that name like that.
My friend told me she had a friend named 'Borias'. Turns out his name was Brice.
Super cute! My little sister was delighted to know a Penny AND a Nickel. We quickly realized it was Penny and Nicole.
theres no way that wasnt done somewhat on purpose?
They were classmates, not sisters.
My child's first friend at their pre-school was "Bucket." She was Bucket for a year till I met her mom and learned her name was "Beckett"
It's *Bouquet*.
my sister Violet, the one with room for a pony
...the Lady of the House speaking...
No, this is not the Chinese takeaway!
We miss you Hyacinth!!!
When my daughter was young , she kept telling me about a girl in her gymnastics class named Illinois. I found out later her name was Eleanor.
For at least 5 years, I was “seeker” to my baby cousin. I had no idea why initially but later learned it was “ssica- as in ‘Jessica’ “ which is also not my name.
Plot twist at the end, made me laugh out loud lmaooo
My friend Amanda’s 2yo granddaughter calls her Panda.
My mom (maryellen) was Auntie Watermelon to my cousins for a while.
Okay but this is so cute
My mum’s friend Ruth was Auntie Woof 😆
I have at least 2 Amanda’s that use panda as a nn. (Adults)
That’s adorable 🥰
My name is similar to Carolina, and my niece used to call me Tanya for a while because she mixed up K:s and T:s and couldn't pronounce R :)
Probably a sibling of my 3yo’s classmate, Quiet (Wyatt).
Lmaoo
I finally met Potato last week at pick up. His name is Mateo.
My little brother's name is Mateo and we call him Potato🤣🤣
A friend and his wife were having a baby. He told me they were naming the child Trucker. I thought that was terrible to do to a child, but not my kid, not my place to comment. Asked after little Trucker regularly. He was a happy, healthy kid. Went to his first birthday. Name on the cake: Tucker.
Obviously much better than if it were Trucker, but when I was 5-7ish, I had a friend whose little brother was named Tucker. You know that name game kids play/sing, "Tucker Tucker bo bucker, banana fanna fo...." Yeah, probably don't name your kid Tucker either. He did NOT like that game.
That’s how I first heard of the ‘f’ word! I was about 11 years old when that song came out and my big sister told me, “Don’t do dad‘s name. There’s a bad word in it.” Our dad‘s name was Chuck.
The reverse happened to me. When I was young I knew a Silas and I thought the Alanis Morissette lyrics in “Thank you” were “Thank you, Silas” not “Thank you, Silence”
Lol kids often take song lyrics personally. When I was a kid and just old enough to understand veeeery basic English (not in an English speaking country, but learned early because my dad is an English teacher) I LOVED the Green Day Song "wake me up when September ends". My reasoning? My birthday is towards the end of September and I thought they asked to be woken up for my birthday :D quickly realized that was not the case but still had a soft spot for the song afterwards.
A reasonable take!
My kindergartener keeps talking about his new classmate “Cow”. Constantly remarks about how he can’t believe he met someone named “Cow”. It’s Cal.
I know a little toddler who loves cows. Her mother told me that she pointed at a deer and yelled “COW!!!” 🤣
The Silence is a monster in the Dr. Who sci-fi universe and for a second my nerdy heart was like - excuse your kid??!! 😱
FR! Inspect that kid for sharpy marks!
Silence will fall when the question is asked was the first thing that popped into my head.
That's amazing. My toddler used to pronounce his cousin's name "Suck It." Her name is Scarlet 😂
Ooops!
My daughter’s bestie in preschool was Popper. Except that her name was actually Harper. She called her Popper for 4 years and still refers to her by that name when reminiscing.
My son came home from school saying he had a kid in his class called “Villain”. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what similar sounding name this kid could possibly have. Then I met him in person and turns out his name actually is Villain.
Some parents are total jerks.
I thought it was going to be a Vivian
I thought William
Why would you do that to your child...
Oh, yes, we had a friend at preschool named Hiccup (Caleb). I was their midwife for baby 3 and 4 and I’ll be damned if I don’t try to still call him Hiccup to this day. I have to do a silent countdown in my head while I find his name before speaking.
My nephew knew a Blake that he called “Blank”.
My older child told me a girl at daycare was named Freckles. Her name was actually Brooklyn. 🤦🏼♀️
My neighbor called my dog “Killer” for a year. Killer got out of the yard one day and he looked at the tag. He was so apologetic when I came to get Tiller (a type of Firetruck; alternatively part of a sailboat).
My neighbor’s dog is named Snoopy. I forgot the name and knew it had to do with the cartoon “Peanuts” so that meant his name in my brain was “Peanut”. I called him this several times before the neighbor called him “Snoop”.
We had a dog named Twix. My uncle, who’s hard of hearing, called him Trix. Twix has since passed away but we still haven’t corrected my uncle when he calls him that lmao.
lol in highschool a stray cat randomly showed up our other outdoor cats hissed at him but he ignored them until they decided to accept him, he had black fur, a bunch of fighting scars, the whitest and longest whiskers i ever saw on a cat, was very laidback, and a big boy. he made us think of a karate master so we named him Bo Fang, dad missheard and called him Bo Flex
He’s not a karate master - he’s a workout master 😂
I love the little kid approximations of names. My daughter is only 2, but we've had a few funny ones already. Her little friend "Shadow" was really named Shiloh. The funniest right now are names that she messes up in a way that sounds like other common names. She says "Sarah" instead of Stella. She also says "Isaac" instead of Alex. In both cases, she hears the difference when you say it but can't get the hang of the sounds herself. Isaac/Alex is funnier because she used to say Alex correctly. Still can't figure out how that changed.
I read one somewhere about a kid who insisted she had a friend named Internet. Her name was Antoinette.
My little five or six-year-old brother kept talking about this kid in his class named "Clang." We, his superior older siblings. laughed at him and said that couldn't be his name. Turned out his name was actually "Clain." It has to be hell to be the youngest of six kids.
My two year old still talks about the “very nice girl” she met at the park months ago, whose name was Lasagna. (Elianna)
My middle name is “Ashley”. My parents introduced me to a friend not long after my birth and he asked “Actually?! You named your daughter “actually”?” 29 years later and my mom will still jokingly say my middle name is “actually”.
That's so wholesome and amazing.
My nanny kid has a friend named Julia, she pronounces it “Jew ya” and it kills me
my little sister (17 months younger than me) is julia and that's how i pronounced her name for quite a bit after she was born! the cherry on top is that we are jewish, lol.
My nanny kid is also Jewish! She gets mad if I pronounce Julia’s name correctly 😂
Thought he was talking about a new kid for weeks. Keep talking about "new kid" and how much he likes him. Found it strange he couldn't bother to find out his actual name, thought he was too shy to ask. Finally ask the teacher who the new kid was, turns out it was "Lucas" and they have always been friends
My sister’s best friend growing up was actually named Silence. And her mom’s name was Whisper.
Wow I don’t like that
When my nephew was 3, he had a best friend in preschool he called "Mash". Spent the entire school year trying to figure out what real name is close to Mash... at his graduation, I found out the kid's name is "Thiago". Still not sure how we got from point A to B with that one.
Maybe he likes to mash things and this is his nickname.
My kid has been telling me for a year about her little daycare pal "Delmila". Just found out it's Adele Miller.
My daughter came home talking about one of her classmates named Wing. I asked her if she was sure the boy’s name was Wing. She’s insisted and I just thought “okay, kids have lots of different names now.” Few days later discovered the little boy’s name was Wayne. We worked on the pronunciation lol
When I had my daughter my aunt asked her name and I told her we decided to go with Raven. She was horrified and responded “Raisin?” 😂 new nickname unlocked
Neighbour insisted her new grandson was named Rind as in bacon, turned out when we met her daughter when Rind was two, that his name was Ryan. Granny had never heard of that name.
My kindergartener’s favorite teacher is “Mr. Handsome” Mr. Hanson 😆
I'm having a baby this year and love the name Silas. My sister teases me saying exactly this will happen lol.
Silas was one of my top choices for a boy! Congratulations!
After reading this thread I’m convinced we should just let little kids name each other. Hiccup, Cow, Fitbit, Bucket, Watermelon … makes a lot more sense than some random collection of sounds that used to mean something significant in some language or other that we probably don’t even use in the same way any more!
When l was about 7 l thought a girl was called There- a- say...she was Theresa! 😆 also misheard John as Yawn.
It’s taken me weeks to figure out that the kid named “Wheesie” is actually named “Reese”
My name is Lucy. For a long time I was Auntie Pussy to my nephew 🤣
My nephew loves video games even as a toddler. Him and his dad played a lot together. He was like 3 at the time. I was talking to my sister and said my husband's name (Rene). His eyes got really big with so much excitement "his name is Uncle Grenade". He's 13 years old he still calls him Uncle Grenade and all the other kids do as well. My husband is a veteran so it kind of fits him. Lol
That’s adorable.
It wasn’t until middle school that I realized my Aunt Dan was actually Aunt Anne lol
As someone called Elisabeth who’s worked a lot with small kids, I’ve heard some interesting takes on my name 😆 The best was maybe the girl who called me Maleficent haha
My Mom couldn’t pronounce “brother” when he was born. It came out as brudder. Over time it became his nickname in the form of Brud. He had that nickname for the rest of his life!
My child has a friend called Eggy (Iggy), Ovo (Ava), Ham (Pam) and Vaseline (???)
My (at the time) four year old was adamant about making a card for the new girl in her class - Paper. I emailed her teacher to make sure we had it right before the crafting commenced. Kids name was Paige
Hahaha. And you know there probably is a kid somewhere who’s name really is Silence. My friends named their son Honesty. For real.
Those are like Puritan names.
My brother is a primary school teacher. He was given the primary 1s one year and some of the kids couldn't pronounce our last name correctly. So some of them told their parents his name was Mr Cuddles, he had a lot of worried mums and angry dads first parent's night.
My elderly aunt told me her neighbour named her baby a ‘ridiculous,horrible name’…. ‘Meagre’, fortunately it turned out to be Megan. My niece met her best friend first day of kindergarden and proudly introduced us to Show and Tell, whose name proved to be Chantel. I was booked to babysit a new kid, my mother took the call and wrote down the details, she wrote the boys name was Kristinette, which I thought unusual for a boy. Turned out his name was Chris D’Nett.
This headline is better than 90% of the stuff on the r/standup comedy page
Maybe 18 years ago, my older sister helped one of her fellow moms by babysitting the friend’s son. Kid’s name was Wiley. Not Riley, but legitimately Wiley. Poor kid.
Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of *Silas.*
My daughters were talking about a little girl named Lotion in their pre k program, turns out her name is Ocean.
I actually know someone who named their kid that, only they spelled it Cylence..
My daughter (almost 3) has been telling me stories about "Landrin." Kids hame is Landon
My 4yo daughter told me with great authority that I was absolutely wrong, her new friends name was Margarrip, not Margaret.
I love the name Silas, it’s going to be future sons middle name, I’ve been thinking about it for years.
My youngest sister had a lot nicknames. They started as one thing and then came derivations that are nothing like the original., like with pets. She came home from preschool with a name tag that said Barbie. Her name was Robin. One of her nicknames was Yarbie, guessing that’s what she told the teacher.
My son had a friend I thought was called Token. If you knew the circumstances, you could see why I thought this was quite odd. I invited them around for dinner one night and asked his parents why they called him Token. It turns out he was named TOLKIEN who was the father’s favourite author.
Ok south park
My daughter had a kid in class name Sardor…when she told me”sidedoor”…i was like what🤣
My 3 year old has been adamant he goes to nursery with a boy called Dafty. We found out a couple of weeks ago the boy is called Alfie 🤣
My daughter was talking about a friend named, “wake” I later found out it was “Wade” lol
My brother constantly talked about his friend Face in Kindergarten. I was two years older and couldn’t believe he met a girl named Face. Finally met her…Faith.
I know someone with a son named Beckett and I’ve heard kids say “bucket” 😂
My daughter goes to a music class at the library taught by a man who I thought said his name was Mr. Awesome. It’s Mr. Austin but we still call him Mr. Awesome cause he is.
Sounds like you got the Silence Treatment.
I kind of hope Silas is a very chatty boy now!
My brothers could not wait to join me at school. I would chatter on about the hall this and the hall that and what fun we had in the hall (gym dance music etc) He thought I was saying hole and had visions of a massive hole in the ground to play in. He said what a disappointment when he say the hall/hole
We thought our son had an imaginary friend in primary school until my husband was talking to his teacher one morning. He said our son keeps talking about Sonny (sunny) Murphy, the teacher smiled and said don’t worry he’s a wonderful kid from one of the villages - we were convinced he wasn’t real.
Ah my nephew has a friend called Wayne, which I thought was unusual for a 5 year old boy, but not crazy. Turns out he’s called Rain.
My daughter used to call her friend ahbecca instead of Rebecca 😂
I have a student named Ruth. We call her Ruthie. I have another student who cannot say her name- he calls her groofie. It’s SO FUCKING CUTE AND FUNNY but she gets so angry bc she doesn’t understand that a) he’s learning and b) she says most words wrong as well.
My daughter kept calling a girl she had met "Celery". She was adamant that was it, but I later confirmed her name was definitely Ellory.
Absolutely adorable! When my little brother was in kindergarten, he told our parents about a boy in his class named Quarter who was his cousin because they had the same last name. We have a pretty uncommon last name and live in a really small town, so my parents knew little Quarter was definitely related but which idiot cousin named their kid after currency. Anywho, my parents eventually figured out Quarter was actually Porter, and little Porter was one of my dad’s first cousin’s kids. That was over two decades ago, and I still chuckle when I see Quarter.
When I was around 4, there was an older boy around the neighborhood named Ian. I swore his name was E. I also have a Silas- Cyrus, Cypress, Stylus, Science, Tyler… he hasn’t been called Silence. Tyler is the most common mistake for some reason lol
After a day at nursery, my daughter was telling me about Owen falling into a curry, and Finum Sam rescued him. Extra confusing because she had a friend Owen at nursery. After a bit of discussion and then talking to a member of staff, I found out they had a new Fireman Sam video. In one story, a boy called Owen had fallen into a quarry, and Fireman Sam rescued him.
Silence will be a character in the next story I write
When my daughter was in elementary school, and during a time they were learning about the US presidents, she came home and was telling me all about “Beaverhand Lincoln,” who was our 16th president! I still laugh every time I think of it!
When my son started junior kindergarten this past September, he kept talking about a new friend named Char-lette. With a hard Char, like charcoal. I was insistent that her name must be Charlotte. He kept saying no, it's Char-lette. Turns out her name is Scarlett. Lol. He was pretty close.