The name in the middle

Naming a child isn't easy. But Colter has always loved his name, his full name, and announced it proudly to anyone who asked: Colter Lee Moos.

Ask him about its origins and he'll tell you that he's named for John Colter and for my grandpa Louis. But last week, as we were signing papers for our house, he refused to tell our realtor his middle name.

This refusal was especially baffling because she had just told us she had a pregnant friend who planned to name her son Colter at our realtor's suggestion. And our realtor had just told us that her own middle name is Lee.

Later that night, I asked Colter why he didn't want to share his middle name with her. He told me that someone at school teased him about it.

Sometimes I hate other kids.

Has your kid ever been teased about his or her name?

Editor's Note: This post was re-scheduled for publication Monday morning in case we don't have power.

Comments

[Tia]

I always get the teased about my name, espacially at secondary school. When ppl 1st ere my name its like haha Tia Maria, but when they see the way its spelt "Tihar" I get T-hahahahahah. And i hate it, i first said it was my parents thought, but they told me the reason they spelt it that way was so that i didnt get bullied for being named after a drink. Their is no way of winning, but when you put up with, it makes you the better person.

[VJ]

Tony really hasn't been teased - yet. But as he gets older I see the possiblity of him being teased because he has the same name as a pop star. (Though I didn't know about this musician when Tony was born.)

I was teased with a rhyming name by the school bully when I was kid. At first it hurt, but I quickly learned to ignore the kid. He never did quit teasing....

[Meg]

Names? Whoa boy, is my six-year-old (step) son going to be teased about his name. I tease his father about it constantly - never, ever while the kiddo is around, though! His name is Peregrine Cosmo. I feel so sorry for him. The kids are going to have a blast with this one at school.

[Gary M.]

I used to get teased about my last name, a lot. I hated it. Now people don't tease me about my name, but they remember it. I like that.

[kristal]

All my kids have been teased about their names, but they all feel special because of them:

Justin, Mia, Mica, Mikal (girl), Bleu, Butterfly, Jonathan, Echo

There are too many to list the reasons, but you can read them HERE.

[toni]

I was constantly teased (Toni Macaroni, Toni Toni Bo Bony, ugh) and was determined to give my kids names that couldn't be used so easily for teasing. So my oldest is Luke. Star Wars had come out and we had not seen it. Later, I thought when he hit school, he'd have a zillion Lukes to contend with, but he was the only Luke out of 1500 kids. No one could really rhyme or tease with his name, but everyone he met would do a mock Darth Vader voice with, "Luke, I am you father." Even now. (His answer, "Yeah, like I haven't heard that one before.") Our youngest son, Jake, (Jacob, but he likes the nickname), gets called "Jake the Snake" after some silly wrestler on TV, but he doesn't mind it much.

Kids are going to get teased for just about anything. If it's not their name, then it's their size or their glasses or their hair or clothes. The only thing I've learned I could do for my kids (proactive, not just comfort) was to teach them how to sort of laugh and say, "Yeah, well, that's original," or somesuch, look bored and go on about their business. I think it also helped our kids when I lined up a bunch of adults to talk about how they had been teased for one thing or another -- the kids started realizing it was a universal problem and not just about them.

[Michelle]

Tell Colter that when kids do that it's because they're jealous and are self-conscious about their own shortcomings. (I'm kidding, but that's what I like to think.) Poor guy. He'll surpass those brats in life, I'm sure.

[emily]

One of my saddest moments was when Hannah came home from school and told my mom she didn't want her to call her "hannah-banana" anymore.My mom had always called her that,but a child at school had used that to tease her.

[Shelly]

Too tease about names is horrible. Paul was teased and kinda still is as joke between him and his best friend. THey call/ed him Polly Pocket. He wasn't thrilled about it while in Grade school, but he now knows it is a joke between him and his friends. Glad he does!

[Rachel Ann]

Ah, poor boy. But kids pick out something to tease each other about. I like your son's name. It is strong, and unique. A smart, handsome, strong young man, who can do many things (yeah, that is kind of for him to hear if you want him to. Sometimes it helps for a child to hear "So and so thinks this and that" Mom they know is in their corner)

My kids names are all Hebrew and with many of them their names were unusal and they had trouble in the secular world; not being teased so much as not having their names pronounced properly, which can be annoying.