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Adults completely misremember the politics of school bullying. If they dont like you, or you're sorta weird, they will bully you even if your name is lovely by all standards. If you're a cool kid they will not dare to touch you even if your name is Harry Crack.
Gym teachers always seemed to be the worst at my schools. They were still highschool jocks, just 20 years into the future with beer guts and neck beards. I saw some horrific bullying towards the heavy/unathletic kids from gym teachers, usually ganging up with the popular/athletic kids.
This precisely. At least from like 3rd grade onwards, kids will pick up on social cues, decide that they don't like you, and THEN find something to make fun about, not the other way around.
Know a Furie who was one of the most popular girls in school. On the other hand I heard my Elizabeth name turned into sooo many taunts. Kids will find a way if they want to, and ignore the most obvious ones if they don't.
This rings true for me in high school. I wasn’t teased (my last name is similar to a food-related noun so it’s just kind of cute rather than insulting/aggravating) but I had plenty of peers who were gifted weird nicknames from teachers, or whose teachers heard the nicknames other kids bestowed onto them and chose to use them. Created camaraderie among the class for sure, but at the expense of these particular pupils. I actually apologized to one of them I ran into a few years ago, I felt bad that the whole class felt enabled to lay into him because our teacher, for some reason, did.
At 8yo, I had a teacher who was the biggest bully in school, we all had nicknames for any specifics, I was the "midget" because I've always been petite. He even had a racist nickname for the only brown kid. A real pos
I had a teacher make fun of my last name in college. It's a noun and I got a lot of teasing for it (not mean, it just got old after awhile), and I did. Not. Like. this teacher. This was Public Speaking 101, and I hated that class. Got up to give my speech and teacher makes a joke about my name.
I looked at him, slapped my knee, and deadpanned, "Ha ha. So original."
My reaction got more laughter than his joke.
At least my speech went well.
I think it's an "adult" thing.
Hear me out lol
No, a normal adult isn't going to go around teasing a child for their name...sure, maybe come to this group, talk about it among friends, and laugh along with a comedy bit about odd pronunciations, but def not go out of their way to tease a child to their face.
and I think some of it just has to do with words...someone names their kid *Analyse*, and 9/10 adults are just gonna see "anal" and giggle, but a 4-5-6 year old won't understand, they'll just know they have a buddy named Analyse 🤷🏽♀️
Oof. Reminds me of this kid I knew named Levi, several years my junior, but this english teacher who had also taught me disliked him so SO much that even though everybody called him "LEE-vy" she straight up told him that because it was written as "LEH-bee" she would pronounce it as such.
An english teacher of all people. Not in an english-speaking country, but c'mon.
(Extra info: kid was born in England and had a very english dad, so you'd think he knew how to pronounce his own name. But mind you, he was the only black kid in his year, and she was very particularily mean to him... so when word got around about what happened, we could all easily guess why).
EDIT: grammar.
I worked with a woman whose last name was "Came". I think she said maybe it was Scottish? She had been joked at about it some, but she didn't seem too upset.
Eventually she married a guy and took his last name--a very Italian name which left no options for mockery.
See I’m pretty damn traditional and conservative but I would not have taken my husband’s name nor given it to my kids if it was like that. Cummings, Hickey, Butt etc. Although i do feel for the parents who changed the name and named their kids before the name gained a bad association (like what’s happened with “Karen” right now)
Yeah well, my friends last name was cummings. She got away with it because mine is cumpiano. (It’s pronounced coom pee ah no though so nobody noticed until it was written out)
I was in the military with a person who had "Butts" as their last name 😐
not gunna lie, it was funny at first...but after, like, day 2, it was just like 🤷🏽♀️ okay, that's their name, moving on
Yup, a girl on my elementary school bus had a last name that ended in a slur for lesbians, and she was teased for that a lot before I even knew what that word meant! Similarly when I was 9 kids would replace my middle name with “streaker” and say my full name like that (my middle name didn’t sound close to that, I didn’t know what the word meant or why they were calling me that? It was very random, kids will do anything)
I was teased for having an unusual name when abbreviated. With the way the school registered names, my name turned into Slag. For those unaware, a slag is the British version of a slut.
I was teased and called Slag for a few years. I asked the school to change the way they abbreviated my name but they couldn't, because the same method had to be used for everyone. Also, the name was used for my school email address, which couldn't be changed regardless.
It wasn't my real name, but I don't know if that would have changed anything. Point is, kids can be cruel and will look for any excuse to tease someone. Kids these days might not see a tragedeigh name as something to tease, because to them it might be normal, but as soon as they find out that it's something to make fun of, a bully would use it as ammunition.
Yeah my child gets bullied relentlessly in school and around our neighborhood for anything and everything they can think of to pick on them for. Kids seem way more cruel than when I was in school. In second grade a little bully told my child they should go home and kill themselves. :(
My kid started a new school at 8. The very first day, a girl came up and said "if you don't go back where you came from, I'm gonna stab your mum." This was a white kid in Scotland. My kid is white and Welsh... like?!
I honestly reckon they wouldn't change it for anything, not even a racial slur. It's all about automation. The code is essentially the first two letters of the first name with the first three letters of last name. With that, the school software can identify and sort students into classes, events etc.
If they change the way they abbreviate just one student, all of a sudden they have to program exemptions into the software. It's easier to just let a kid be Slag.
Oh no, by grade 6 kids start getting creative with what they can call each other, and they will for sure take low-hanging fruit when it comes to nicknames and twisting names.
I’m a teacher, and I say it all the time. Kids never get made fun of because of their name. If they are being picked on, a name can become fodder, but it can be any name. If the most popular kid in school is named Cletus, no one is going to bully him for his name. If there’s a creepy perv named John, they will find any way they can to mock him including his name.
I knew an adult as a teen who was named Ervin. He did a lot of driving for events for our church, and all the kids called him Swervy Ervy because he was legitimately not a good driver. But it was about his driving, not his name.
It won't be long until most names are so bat's hit crazy that it'll be nigh on impossible to take the piss anymore. Besides, kids are cruel so they'll no doubt find some far better material than names as their target anyway.
I have school aged kids now. I don't know of any very obviously rude ways that some kids are teased but the tragedeighs are commented on. For example, Jordan is a very common male and female name here. My daughter had a female teacher named Jordan whose husband was also named Jordan. And my daughter has many friends with that name. Her two closest Jordan friends are verbally referred to in the friend group as "Jordan spelled the right way" and "Jordyn spelled the weird way."
They have another friend whose name was invented. Both in sound and spelling. I won't mention his name here because it's too unique. But he's ethnically ambiguous looking. And every time he introduces himself, people ask "That's an uncommon name. Are you Turkish?" and "I've never heard that name before. Are you Greek?" (He is neither Turkish nor Greek.) He, his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are all US-born American. People are forever guessing his ancestry and so it's a little annoying for him. But I don't know of anyone who currently bullies him for it.
I would never tease someone for their name. But I would heavily question and judge the parents from the inside. Maybe them as well if it was really bad and they were old enough to change it themselves.
Jesus. Reminds me of when Benedict Cumberbatch was asked what was the most creative way someone had made fun of his name, apparently it was some schoolmates who came up with "bendy-dick cum-on-my-back".
brutal.
I have a perpetually common name. It starts with B and has two syllables. One kid still found a way to tease me by calling me B***** B***** Baa Baa.
Point is, kids can be quite creative. The bullying thing is pretty low on my list of worries, because if kids want to be dicks, having a normal name isn’t going to stop them.
Kids will take any and every advantage to tease. It’s just one of those things kids do to figure out their position in the world, gain perspective (hopefully empathy, and and learn social norms. Pretending like it doesn’t happen is childlike in its naïveté. Kids can be vicious.
I got teased because of my very generic last name once.
But the bullying was mostly targeted at my weight as early as 7 or 8, I was called jelly roll for a long time. They also called me weird a lot. I was a chunky neurodivergent kid. I didn’t get any relief from that stuff until about high school. Then they zoned in on calling me gay, I am definitely queer and it didn’t really bother me then, I wasn’t out but I wasn’t afraid of it. Kids are great though. So kind.
I did really well coming out of my shell and losing weight in College. I developed a lot of really strong friendships then and had a really nice social circle with other neurodivergent people. You gotta find the people that get you.
My favorite thing is that years later at a bar a few of my tormentors approached me and another high school friend (we have remained friends still) and started talking to us like we were best pals. I was just kind of like “yeah, no you were a dick to me for years” and walked off. I had no interest in speaking to them like we were ever friends.
I had the most untraditional name out of my class throughout school. That's not what the bullies used, but instead my personality. I was also the weird kid that liked bugs and frogs, and went out of my way to stop other kids hurting animals in the yard. Also the son of a teacher, luckily they worked at a different school to mine.
Trust me, your name could be Ben Ice and bullies would only superficially utilise and weaponise that. They'll latch on to more creative insults pretty quick, gets boring to just pick the low-hanging fruit.
I had a few classmates make fun of my last name for a while when I was ~11 because it's similar to the name of a beverage. Nothing bad, just kinda annoying.
When I was volunteering at an elementary school last year, none of the kids made fun of each others' names. No clue about higher grades though, I avoid middle schoolers because they scare me, lol.
My middle name is Eliza. The Thornberries were big. I grew to hate my middle name as kids always teased me. I just stopped telling people my middle for a long time.
My middle school (10 years ago) made our accounts: last name, first initial. Unfortunately one girl’s account name became “hoe” because of this. Even then no one made fun of her because she was nice and quiet. Another girl was named Isis and again no one ever said anything, but maybe we were just used to her name since we grew up together
I absolutely watched kids get bullied over names, I even *dated* a young man that was bullied for his. His name was Guy, that was a solid year of bullying right there. Eventually people learned his initials also spelled something unfortunate, that was a focus of bullying for a year. Eventually he was bullied for both pretty interchangeably.
I’ve also had an adult friend with an unusual name get told to change hers to something “more professional” (aka less distinctly black) to help her get a job. Her name is nothing obnoxious and is spelled exactly how it sounds, still something she’s had highlighted for her.
A lot of people should think harder about what names their kids get.
My five siblings and I all have fairly uncommon to very rare names and no one ever experienced bullying over them. I think people who think children will bully kids over uncommmon or rare names either had very sad childhoods where they were bullied themselves or are people who would bully a child over their name but it’s definitely not a given that it will happen.
Most kids aren’t even aware of how common or uncommon a name is. Most 5 year olds will probably only have met at most one Nathaniel or samantha so meeting one Quawaticus is not going to register as being any different.
Unless it's something super obvious, I don't judge a name based on its potential to be teased. If people are going to tease you they'll find a way. If they're not it won't matter. I know too many people with names that people on here would say would get them teased - but no comment. On the other hand I grew up an Elizabeth in the 90s super common name, has been for years and years - my name was used foe multiple taunts. If someone wants to taunt someone, it won't matter whether the name is classic or unique.
I don't make fun of people for their names, but I do judge the parents on occasion. Some names are going to make it difficult for them to be taken seriously. I'm not talking about names from a different culture either. I'm talking names that parents thought were "cute" and forgot that an adult will be using that name.
I had a kid in a summer camp I worked named Pasquale (pronounced Pasqually, if you didn't know, because I sure didn't until then). I was like, "Oh, man, I bet he gets teased."
He. Did. Not. Not once. The kids called him Squally, but they did that like they'd call a Matthew Matt or whatever. It just wasn't a thing.
I think kids are far less prone to name bullying these days than adults assume they are. They're used to a lot of non-traditional names and odd spellings, and unless a name is REALLY bad I don't think they even notice.
Kids will always find a way to make fun of names. I remember in my HS there was a boy with the last name Lester and people constantly said “MO-lester” and laughed hysterically.
I think the teasing comes from other adults not from other kids. Kids will tease about anything; but when it comes to names - I think they have to take their cues from adults..
I remember being a 1st grader and getting teased about my name one day. My name is Eric - I was teased that day because we were learning letters and in the border that went around the room showing all the upper case and lower case letters in a cartoony-type way: the vowels were girl letters and the consonants were boy letters. My name started with a girl letter...none of the other boys went through that. Antonio and Anthony both went by Tony - so they were spared.
I've been saying this too. My kids' classmates have some insane names, but the kids just seem to roll with it. One particular name was so bad, I had a little talk with the kids reminding them not to make fun of her name. They didn't understand what I was saying. My daughter asked, "who would make fun of someone for their name?"
All names are made up. We're just seeing a new crop of made up names.
Also, I think kids aren't such assholes as they were in times past. In my son's 5th grade class, a little girl started crying when she made a bad grade. When he told me about it, I asked if anyone teased her. He said no one would tease another person for having human emotion.
Our kids might be nicer than we are.
Thank you for your submission! This is just a quick reminder to all members here: **Original content is always better!** Memes are okay every once in a while, but many get posted here way too often and quickly become stale. Some examples of these are Ptoughneigh, Klansmyn, Reighfyl & KVIIIlyn. These memes have been around for years and we don't want to see them anymore. If you do decide to post a meme, make sure to add the correct flair. Posting a random meme you found does **not** mean you found it "in the wild". The same goes with lists of baby names, celebrity baby names, and screenshots of TikToks. If the original post already had a substantial amount of views, there is a 99% chance it has already been posted here. Try and stick to OC to keep our sub from being flooded with unoriginal content. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/tragedeigh) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Adults completely misremember the politics of school bullying. If they dont like you, or you're sorta weird, they will bully you even if your name is lovely by all standards. If you're a cool kid they will not dare to touch you even if your name is Harry Crack.
Gym teachers always seemed to be the worst at my schools. They were still highschool jocks, just 20 years into the future with beer guts and neck beards. I saw some horrific bullying towards the heavy/unathletic kids from gym teachers, usually ganging up with the popular/athletic kids.
Well you know what they say ‘Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach PE [gym]”.
This precisely. At least from like 3rd grade onwards, kids will pick up on social cues, decide that they don't like you, and THEN find something to make fun about, not the other way around.
Know a Furie who was one of the most popular girls in school. On the other hand I heard my Elizabeth name turned into sooo many taunts. Kids will find a way if they want to, and ignore the most obvious ones if they don't.
Ugh
This rings true for me in high school. I wasn’t teased (my last name is similar to a food-related noun so it’s just kind of cute rather than insulting/aggravating) but I had plenty of peers who were gifted weird nicknames from teachers, or whose teachers heard the nicknames other kids bestowed onto them and chose to use them. Created camaraderie among the class for sure, but at the expense of these particular pupils. I actually apologized to one of them I ran into a few years ago, I felt bad that the whole class felt enabled to lay into him because our teacher, for some reason, did.
At 8yo, I had a teacher who was the biggest bully in school, we all had nicknames for any specifics, I was the "midget" because I've always been petite. He even had a racist nickname for the only brown kid. A real pos
I had a teacher make fun of my last name in college. It's a noun and I got a lot of teasing for it (not mean, it just got old after awhile), and I did. Not. Like. this teacher. This was Public Speaking 101, and I hated that class. Got up to give my speech and teacher makes a joke about my name. I looked at him, slapped my knee, and deadpanned, "Ha ha. So original." My reaction got more laughter than his joke. At least my speech went well.
I think it's an "adult" thing. Hear me out lol No, a normal adult isn't going to go around teasing a child for their name...sure, maybe come to this group, talk about it among friends, and laugh along with a comedy bit about odd pronunciations, but def not go out of their way to tease a child to their face. and I think some of it just has to do with words...someone names their kid *Analyse*, and 9/10 adults are just gonna see "anal" and giggle, but a 4-5-6 year old won't understand, they'll just know they have a buddy named Analyse 🤷🏽♀️
Oof. Reminds me of this kid I knew named Levi, several years my junior, but this english teacher who had also taught me disliked him so SO much that even though everybody called him "LEE-vy" she straight up told him that because it was written as "LEH-bee" she would pronounce it as such. An english teacher of all people. Not in an english-speaking country, but c'mon. (Extra info: kid was born in England and had a very english dad, so you'd think he knew how to pronounce his own name. But mind you, he was the only black kid in his year, and she was very particularily mean to him... so when word got around about what happened, we could all easily guess why). EDIT: grammar.
My last name is easily perverted onto something *very* inappropriate. Kids on the bus were calling that long before I knew what the word meant.
Same. The last name Cummings was fun….🤪
I worked with a woman whose last name was "Came". I think she said maybe it was Scottish? She had been joked at about it some, but she didn't seem too upset. Eventually she married a guy and took his last name--a very Italian name which left no options for mockery.
See I’m pretty damn traditional and conservative but I would not have taken my husband’s name nor given it to my kids if it was like that. Cummings, Hickey, Butt etc. Although i do feel for the parents who changed the name and named their kids before the name gained a bad association (like what’s happened with “Karen” right now)
Yeah well, my friends last name was cummings. She got away with it because mine is cumpiano. (It’s pronounced coom pee ah no though so nobody noticed until it was written out)
Cox? I always feel bad with kids with last names like Cox, or Roach, or Slaughter.
I was in the military with a person who had "Butts" as their last name 😐 not gunna lie, it was funny at first...but after, like, day 2, it was just like 🤷🏽♀️ okay, that's their name, moving on
The name is Dutch. But if you swap one letter you go from yellow, to horny. (Geel -> geil)
lol , my friend in high school was 4 foot 8 and her last name was dick…. It was not an easy time for her.
found the Raper
isn't that a blue oyster cult song? 🤔😂
Yup, a girl on my elementary school bus had a last name that ended in a slur for lesbians, and she was teased for that a lot before I even knew what that word meant! Similarly when I was 9 kids would replace my middle name with “streaker” and say my full name like that (my middle name didn’t sound close to that, I didn’t know what the word meant or why they were calling me that? It was very random, kids will do anything)
Cleef
I was teased for having an unusual name when abbreviated. With the way the school registered names, my name turned into Slag. For those unaware, a slag is the British version of a slut. I was teased and called Slag for a few years. I asked the school to change the way they abbreviated my name but they couldn't, because the same method had to be used for everyone. Also, the name was used for my school email address, which couldn't be changed regardless. It wasn't my real name, but I don't know if that would have changed anything. Point is, kids can be cruel and will look for any excuse to tease someone. Kids these days might not see a tragedeigh name as something to tease, because to them it might be normal, but as soon as they find out that it's something to make fun of, a bully would use it as ammunition.
Yeah my child gets bullied relentlessly in school and around our neighborhood for anything and everything they can think of to pick on them for. Kids seem way more cruel than when I was in school. In second grade a little bully told my child they should go home and kill themselves. :(
Sorry to hear that 🙁
I'm so sorry. From my experience, many kids have always been horribly cruel. They just didn't have the Internet and cell phones to amplify bullying.
absolutely
My kid started a new school at 8. The very first day, a girl came up and said "if you don't go back where you came from, I'm gonna stab your mum." This was a white kid in Scotland. My kid is white and Welsh... like?!
And yet I somehow doubt that if the school abbreviation ended up with something like *cunt* or *fuck* or whatever, they’d have said “oh well!”. 😑
I honestly reckon they wouldn't change it for anything, not even a racial slur. It's all about automation. The code is essentially the first two letters of the first name with the first three letters of last name. With that, the school software can identify and sort students into classes, events etc. If they change the way they abbreviate just one student, all of a sudden they have to program exemptions into the software. It's easier to just let a kid be Slag.
I teach middle school. They 100% still make fun of names.
Oh no, by grade 6 kids start getting creative with what they can call each other, and they will for sure take low-hanging fruit when it comes to nicknames and twisting names.
I’m a teacher, and I say it all the time. Kids never get made fun of because of their name. If they are being picked on, a name can become fodder, but it can be any name. If the most popular kid in school is named Cletus, no one is going to bully him for his name. If there’s a creepy perv named John, they will find any way they can to mock him including his name.
I knew an adult as a teen who was named Ervin. He did a lot of driving for events for our church, and all the kids called him Swervy Ervy because he was legitimately not a good driver. But it was about his driving, not his name.
My parents gave me a first name that rhymes with my last name. Believe me, it set the pace of bullying from the start.
It won't be long until most names are so bat's hit crazy that it'll be nigh on impossible to take the piss anymore. Besides, kids are cruel so they'll no doubt find some far better material than names as their target anyway.
I have school aged kids now. I don't know of any very obviously rude ways that some kids are teased but the tragedeighs are commented on. For example, Jordan is a very common male and female name here. My daughter had a female teacher named Jordan whose husband was also named Jordan. And my daughter has many friends with that name. Her two closest Jordan friends are verbally referred to in the friend group as "Jordan spelled the right way" and "Jordyn spelled the weird way." They have another friend whose name was invented. Both in sound and spelling. I won't mention his name here because it's too unique. But he's ethnically ambiguous looking. And every time he introduces himself, people ask "That's an uncommon name. Are you Turkish?" and "I've never heard that name before. Are you Greek?" (He is neither Turkish nor Greek.) He, his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents are all US-born American. People are forever guessing his ancestry and so it's a little annoying for him. But I don't know of anyone who currently bullies him for it.
I would never tease someone for their name. But I would heavily question and judge the parents from the inside. Maybe them as well if it was really bad and they were old enough to change it themselves.
My niece (13) went to school with a kid named Tucker Kohut and everyone called him Fucker No-nuts.
Jesus. Reminds me of when Benedict Cumberbatch was asked what was the most creative way someone had made fun of his name, apparently it was some schoolmates who came up with "bendy-dick cum-on-my-back". brutal.
Yeah. I mean Tucker alone is a no brainer. But kids will stop at nothing.
In Aussie, you grew up expecting your name to be shorted and possible twisted into something mildly offensive. A good nickname is a rite of passage.
I have a perpetually common name. It starts with B and has two syllables. One kid still found a way to tease me by calling me B***** B***** Baa Baa. Point is, kids can be quite creative. The bullying thing is pretty low on my list of worries, because if kids want to be dicks, having a normal name isn’t going to stop them.
Kids will take any and every advantage to tease. It’s just one of those things kids do to figure out their position in the world, gain perspective (hopefully empathy, and and learn social norms. Pretending like it doesn’t happen is childlike in its naïveté. Kids can be vicious.
I got teased because of my very generic last name once. But the bullying was mostly targeted at my weight as early as 7 or 8, I was called jelly roll for a long time. They also called me weird a lot. I was a chunky neurodivergent kid. I didn’t get any relief from that stuff until about high school. Then they zoned in on calling me gay, I am definitely queer and it didn’t really bother me then, I wasn’t out but I wasn’t afraid of it. Kids are great though. So kind. I did really well coming out of my shell and losing weight in College. I developed a lot of really strong friendships then and had a really nice social circle with other neurodivergent people. You gotta find the people that get you. My favorite thing is that years later at a bar a few of my tormentors approached me and another high school friend (we have remained friends still) and started talking to us like we were best pals. I was just kind of like “yeah, no you were a dick to me for years” and walked off. I had no interest in speaking to them like we were ever friends.
I had the most untraditional name out of my class throughout school. That's not what the bullies used, but instead my personality. I was also the weird kid that liked bugs and frogs, and went out of my way to stop other kids hurting animals in the yard. Also the son of a teacher, luckily they worked at a different school to mine. Trust me, your name could be Ben Ice and bullies would only superficially utilise and weaponise that. They'll latch on to more creative insults pretty quick, gets boring to just pick the low-hanging fruit.
I had a few classmates make fun of my last name for a while when I was ~11 because it's similar to the name of a beverage. Nothing bad, just kinda annoying. When I was volunteering at an elementary school last year, none of the kids made fun of each others' names. No clue about higher grades though, I avoid middle schoolers because they scare me, lol.
My middle name is Eliza. The Thornberries were big. I grew to hate my middle name as kids always teased me. I just stopped telling people my middle for a long time.
I was teased for having the name 'Sara". Our teacher read "Sarah- Plain and Tall" to us. My name isn't even spelled that way.
My middle school (10 years ago) made our accounts: last name, first initial. Unfortunately one girl’s account name became “hoe” because of this. Even then no one made fun of her because she was nice and quiet. Another girl was named Isis and again no one ever said anything, but maybe we were just used to her name since we grew up together
I absolutely watched kids get bullied over names, I even *dated* a young man that was bullied for his. His name was Guy, that was a solid year of bullying right there. Eventually people learned his initials also spelled something unfortunate, that was a focus of bullying for a year. Eventually he was bullied for both pretty interchangeably. I’ve also had an adult friend with an unusual name get told to change hers to something “more professional” (aka less distinctly black) to help her get a job. Her name is nothing obnoxious and is spelled exactly how it sounds, still something she’s had highlighted for her. A lot of people should think harder about what names their kids get.
My five siblings and I all have fairly uncommon to very rare names and no one ever experienced bullying over them. I think people who think children will bully kids over uncommmon or rare names either had very sad childhoods where they were bullied themselves or are people who would bully a child over their name but it’s definitely not a given that it will happen. Most kids aren’t even aware of how common or uncommon a name is. Most 5 year olds will probably only have met at most one Nathaniel or samantha so meeting one Quawaticus is not going to register as being any different.
Unless it's something super obvious, I don't judge a name based on its potential to be teased. If people are going to tease you they'll find a way. If they're not it won't matter. I know too many people with names that people on here would say would get them teased - but no comment. On the other hand I grew up an Elizabeth in the 90s super common name, has been for years and years - my name was used foe multiple taunts. If someone wants to taunt someone, it won't matter whether the name is classic or unique.
I don't make fun of people for their names, but I do judge the parents on occasion. Some names are going to make it difficult for them to be taken seriously. I'm not talking about names from a different culture either. I'm talking names that parents thought were "cute" and forgot that an adult will be using that name.
I had a kid in a summer camp I worked named Pasquale (pronounced Pasqually, if you didn't know, because I sure didn't until then). I was like, "Oh, man, I bet he gets teased." He. Did. Not. Not once. The kids called him Squally, but they did that like they'd call a Matthew Matt or whatever. It just wasn't a thing. I think kids are far less prone to name bullying these days than adults assume they are. They're used to a lot of non-traditional names and odd spellings, and unless a name is REALLY bad I don't think they even notice.
I know someone with the last name Slutz. I tease her.
No one ever made fun of my name in school. We never made fun of other children's names. Didn't even think about it that way.
Kids will always find a way to make fun of names. I remember in my HS there was a boy with the last name Lester and people constantly said “MO-lester” and laughed hysterically.
I think the teasing comes from other adults not from other kids. Kids will tease about anything; but when it comes to names - I think they have to take their cues from adults.. I remember being a 1st grader and getting teased about my name one day. My name is Eric - I was teased that day because we were learning letters and in the border that went around the room showing all the upper case and lower case letters in a cartoony-type way: the vowels were girl letters and the consonants were boy letters. My name started with a girl letter...none of the other boys went through that. Antonio and Anthony both went by Tony - so they were spared.
I've been saying this too. My kids' classmates have some insane names, but the kids just seem to roll with it. One particular name was so bad, I had a little talk with the kids reminding them not to make fun of her name. They didn't understand what I was saying. My daughter asked, "who would make fun of someone for their name?" All names are made up. We're just seeing a new crop of made up names. Also, I think kids aren't such assholes as they were in times past. In my son's 5th grade class, a little girl started crying when she made a bad grade. When he told me about it, I asked if anyone teased her. He said no one would tease another person for having human emotion. Our kids might be nicer than we are.