Shouldn't he be "q" until he reaches puberty?
Judge allows UK couple to keep "Q" as their child's legal name
- Thread starter jefferiestubes8
- Start date
You are seriously overeacting. Children are not inherently cruel. I was never cruel, for one
. The reason many are is simply a result of the way society currently functions. Names are important. You should give your child the name you want for them, and not let those foolish enough to give other people hassle for their names intimidate you. I personally hate common names- I have one myself. What's the point in wasting a naming on the most common one you can find? I was bullied very, very seriously during childhood and adolescence. If a child is going to be targeted, they will be targeted, whether they're named Q or John. Try to take away anything unique and you won't protect them, you'll hurt them more, because the bullies will always find an excuse and you'll simply strip the child of anything uniquely theres or different so they have no defense.I love unusual names. I have always, from young childhood on, reacted with interest at hearing unusual names.
So the whole world should choose names from a small pool of bland "safe" names? We should change our surnames to only Smith and Brown?
You obviously haven't met enough bullies, or you'd know that if they don't make fun of your first name they'll pick on your surname, height, weight, parents, food preferences, running ability, nerdishness, colour of backpack, promptness in handing in assignments...
The key is to educate children how to be resilient to the possibility of bullying, and to educate the community to reject bullying at every hint of it.
Therin is right, and he said it far better than I did. Bullies almost never bully because of any particular characteristic, they simply pick that characteristic as a convenient "excuse". I've seen children and adolescents bully peers for certain characteristics, only to instantly switch 180 and make a fuss over the exact opposite when the targeted child ends up with that instead. If young Q is going to be bullied, he will be bullied whatever his name. There is no living in peace in that situation, and trying to look small and "normal" and blend into the crowd doesn't save you. It only makes the problem worse, because you deny yourself a unique identity at the exact time other people are going out of their way to tear that identity apart.
For that matter, would the names Yochanon, Guillaume, Sarai, or Gwynevere be "weird"?
Well, most of those names weren't even unusual. It was just an excuse to insult tens of thousands of people all at once in the name of "comedy". Deliberately being rude to get laughs. I personally very much dislike it (there's nothing funny about the idea of "soft" boys getting beaten for it), but I wouldn't take it at all seriously. If it had been one name he picked on, that would have been far worse. As it was, he insulted about a full 5% of boys I've ever known...
I'm quite well aware of this.
A point I neglected to make, though, is how much - because of the issues I mentioned previously in regard to my own name - I loath such. I hate my name. I don't use it as often as possible. I've considered legally changing it. I'd do so except for my concern over any complications.
So because of what I went through as a kid in regard to my name, every time I hear it spoken aloud, some part of me deep down cringes. It's a sore spot, something I dislike, and that's never going to go away...
...Well, maybe of someone like Jessica Alba or Megan Fox was screaming my name is ecstasy, then, maybe, I could grow to like it...
My point is not to name your kids all the same. But just not to go so far out into left field.
It's tough to go through life hating your own name, hating the sound of it, hating to hear it spoken, hating to tell people what it is. For no other reason than, as a kid, is was something that was picked on. Which is something that this poor kid in question is going to endure.
A bully will find something to pick on, yes, of course.
But don't give them a giant red flaming circle target like this. Because whatever you're picked on about as a kid sticks with you. And when that's something you have to live with every day, and you can't help but connect it back to that school-yard idiocy? Just makes it all the worse...
I knew a kid who had big ears as a kid. Stuck out and what not. He was picked on for such. To this day, he's still sensitive about such, despite having grown into those ears and them no longer being any issue. It's stuck with him. Just as the name thing has stuck with me.
Make life easier on your kid by giving them a name that at least 1 other person in the town has, at the very least. Bob of John or Bill too common for you, fine. Plenty of other acceptable alternatives before we start going down the road of fictional sci-fi characters, fruits, vegetables,and lord knows what's next...
What about Flavius, Titus, Julius, Brutus, or Scipio?
Christopher Titus is a pretty cool guy, but you don't see much of him any more.
Nah, just to be clearer:
Yochanon = Hebrew root of John
Guillame = Germanic root of Bill
Sarai = Hebrew root of Sarah (I'm not convinced Sarai is a proper transliteration at all, but bear with
)Gwynevere = Welsh root of Jennifer
My point is that names change and grow.
Well, welcome to my life. Despite being given a very sensible name (Ian) by my parents (which kids still found ways to pervert into all manner of cruel nicknames), I ended up with big ears, a lisp, a gap in my teeth, very pale skin, glasses, no sporting prowess whatsoever, and - shudder - good grades. I may as well have tattooed a target to my scrawny little chest. (Incidentally, being Ian McLean, my name essentially means "John, son of John". Ho hum!)
You might have had a problem with your first name, but mandating "sensible" names for all is not the solution. I guarantee, if your name was John or Bob, the bullies would have picked on your height, your weight, your favourite TV show, or the colour of your hair - and you'd be writing now about how all kids with carroty hair should get a dye-job before attending Kindergarten. (Be grateful your "sensible" name doesn't clash with a "sensible" surname, such as Richard Cranium or Phillip McCavity.)
When I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, most immigrant children with "foreign" names in Australia were "encouraged" to anglicize it. Yani became John, Carmelo became Charlie, etc. Australian Aboriginal children were also given "sensible" names and now, decades later, some of these people are complaining that they were robbed of their rightful heritage, and are now trying to restablish connections with their cultural heritage.
If you hate your name, change it! A friend of mine has changed hers at least four times. Sometimes by deed poll, and sometimes just unofficially. Her friends and workmates eventually come to accept her new name, and it makes her feel a bit different/happier. Go for it. Who's gonna stop you?
Johnny Cash is the man. *high fives*