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By any other name

(91 Posts)
Redwitch Mon 26-Nov-18 11:26:04

Just wondering how many of us have a similar experience.

When number 2 son was in primary school I was summoned by his teacher for a “chat” one afternoon. So I sat in trepidation on the tiny chair whilst Miss towered over me on the edge of her desk.

Mrs Witch we have a problem with your son says she.
Oh dear says I, what’s the matter?

Insubordination! she announced . I asked her to elaborate and she told me that son constantly ignored her when she was addressing him.
Totally out of character I said.
I am thinking of excluding him for a few days she says.
Thinking that’s a bit extreme I said let’s call him in and speak to him, so off she goes to call him in from the playground and I hear “ Joseph, Joseph, JOSEPH, no responce JOSEPH WITCH and he duly trots across playground.
I knew exactly then what the issue was and took pleasure in telling her she was calling him by the wrong name, he is called Joe, not Joseph so only noticed her calling him when she used his surname.

Why is it if you have a long name people shorten it but if you have a short name they extend it?

ninathenana Mon 26-Nov-18 11:35:58

I have suffered the same all my life smile
People constantly lengthen my name (not nina) there are two longer versions and I get "is that @#$/* or #%€/$"
No it's just YYYY ! DGS has the same problem.
I never shorten a name without asking unless I'm introduced to the person my the shortened version.

ninathenana Mon 26-Nov-18 11:37:07

by the ......

M0nica Mon 26-Nov-18 11:42:56

Yup, I am entirely with Joe. One of the teachers at my secondary school consistently shortened my name and I consistently ignored her whenever she did it, when she finally gave me my full name, as with Joe, I turned and said, 'Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realise it was me you were speaking to.'

It was done deliberately to annoy (by the teacher), so I felt fully justified in ignoring it.

Witzend Mon 26-Nov-18 12:01:54

A friend of a dd was christened Katie, and had a teacher who, despite being told that that was her official name, persisted in calling her Katherine. Profoundly annoying - and IMO ill-mannered, too.

Willynilly Mon 26-Nov-18 12:07:53

I've had to suffer the mispronunciation and/or misspelling of my forename all my life, even after telling people the correct ways. I live in hope of someone, somewhere getting it right at some point!

Rufus2 Mon 26-Nov-18 12:18:24

Why is it if you have a long name people shorten it
It can have unforeseen consequencies at times. I know of a Mr. & Mrs Head who christened their son, "Richard" confused

Riverwalk Mon 26-Nov-18 13:16:09

In the 60s a classmate was called Irene, a very common name at the time and universally pronounced 'Ireen'.

To this day I remember one particular teacher constantly saying 'Ireenee'.

Irene used to ignore her!

jusnoneed Mon 26-Nov-18 15:04:41

My nephew is Joe, my son is Gregg. Yes Joseph and Gregory have been said more than once. Obviously they have never been introduced as the longer versions so it is annoying when I hear it.

MissAdventure Mon 26-Nov-18 15:07:31

I don't mind. I like all versions of my name.

ninathenana Mon 26-Nov-18 15:35:26

MissAdventure if my name was Margaret for example I'd be happy with Maggie, Mags or whatever but it's annoying in my case when the lengthening makes it a different name completely.
Hard to explain without revealing it.

tinaf1 Mon 26-Nov-18 16:00:30

When I had my two sons I thought I would give them names that you can't do a lot withgrin so one was Scott and one was Adam. Scott soon became Scotty when he was at school and playing football the other one has always been Ad !!

ninathenana Mon 26-Nov-18 16:24:15

My friend's daughter is Chloè a short very pretty name. Why then do they call her Clo hmm

LullyDully Mon 26-Nov-18 17:08:55

Teacher should check names with parents! Stupid woman.

MawBroon Mon 26-Nov-18 17:12:10

2:18:24
Why is it if you have a long name people shorten it
It can have unforeseen consequencies at times. I know of a Mr. & Mrs Head who christened their son, "Richard

An old one Rufus.
hmm"

KatyK Mon 26-Nov-18 17:15:20

We have been in our house for over 30 years and my next door neighbour calls me by a name that isn't my name! I've tried to tell her on many occasions but I've given up. Most of the neighbours call me this now because of her!

callgirl1 Mon 26-Nov-18 17:27:42

My granddaughter was christened Jenny, and yet her godfather insists on calling her Jennifer, but only after being corrected when he called her Jessica.
When I started grammar school, the form teacher wanted details of our families, when I told her my stepfather was called Wilson Charles, she wrote down Charles Wilson. I corrected her, and suffered a long explanation as to why I had to give his Christian name first, and it took me ages to convince her that his Christian name was Wilson.

M0nica Mon 26-Nov-18 19:09:07

I had a friend with that problem. He was always having to explain that 'John' was his surname not his christian name.

Grannybags Mon 26-Nov-18 21:18:32

We called our youngest son Anthony, thinking that if it was shortened to Tony that would be OK. Everyone calls him Ant!

mimiro Mon 26-Nov-18 23:46:10

the reason i lasted 2 days in a catholic school .nun tried to make my name into something it wasn't.i refused to answer it wasn't my name.as a matter of fact it was the name my mother was avoiding when she named me.nun said it wasn't a "christian"name.was only going there to please rc grandmother.
got beat with a metal ruler.mom saw the welts and went ballistic.nun was removed and i went to local non religious school. thanks mom!

Oakleaf Tue 27-Nov-18 00:10:51

I'm confused. Is the OP's son's given name Joe or Joseph? Is he Joseph and his family shorted it to Joe or is he just Joe? What was he is the school register and what was called as at registry? I ask as so many given names now are the shortened version or traditionally longer names. So many Charlies who are not Charles or Kate's or Katie's who are not Katherines, Lilys who are not Lilian and so on.

Ailsa43 Tue 27-Nov-18 02:09:03

I can see the OP named her son Joe ...not joseph which is what the headmistress was calling him, and so he wouldn't respond until he heard his surname being called too and realised the teacher was trying to get his attention, but to the teacher because he wouldn't respond to Joseph ( which isn't his name).. he was being classed as insubordinate ...

absent Tue 27-Nov-18 04:15:29

My name is Linda. The only person in the world who could get away with calling me Lin more than once was my mother. Just for the record, the only person in the world who could get away with calling my pet was my much loved father-in-law – and he could do it any time he liked. I miss them both.

Baggs Tue 27-Nov-18 06:02:33

Some teachers are very stupid, it would seem.

Maggiemaybe Tue 27-Nov-18 06:19:01

My niece Jill and her colleague Gill (Gillian) were told by their manager that as it was confusing to have two people with the same name in the office, she’d like one of them to be known at work as Gillian. She really couldn’t understand why my niece said it couldn’t be her, and claimed never to have heard of the name Jill. confused