Some Baby Names Mark Troublemakers

Jack Kennedy or Jack Nicholson?! Maybe it's because of "Jack O' Lanterns"......

Anyway, I (kind of - sort of) agree with the French. France has an authorized list of acceptable names for children and you pick one!
The idea is for children to have a good start in life and not be shackled by a horrible or stupid name. Thus, (maybe) no teasing or bullying! These would be names that would allow children to grow up to be a doctor or professional person without ridicule....

Just a thought. Yes, I'm glad (as an American) to have had the freedom to choose my (one) child's name.....but in choosing....the person I thought of the most was my child! I didn't want him to have a freakish name....or be made fun of....even tho I liked some unusual names - Celtic names, etc. I wouldn't name him Seamus or Finn for the same reason I wouldn't name him Kanye or LaShawn or Barack or George or Billy Bob. Dignity!

Reply

Jack is indeed a manly name. "We need every man Jack of you to win this fight". I wonder if in this metro culture of ours that some teachers penalize anything and everything that is manly?

Reply

Perhaps some people may remember this old nursery rhyme:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day,
Is bonny, and blithe, and good, and gay.

Since so many comments mentioned that it is the Brits that are addressing their own culture and society, I'd like to remind readers that the University of Shippenburg, Shippenburg, PA did a similar study reported in March 2009 of Social Science Quarterly. In the report, they found that children with "uncommon" names tend to be subject to teasing and as a result act out.

As a teacher, there are times when a certain name reminds me of the behavior of another child bearing the same name and I wonder if there would common behavior (either good or bad). Sometimes there is the similarity, and others not.

I have found that some names carry more "power" and influence upon how a child feels about themselves. In many cultures and throughout the ages, names were given with the idea that the child would "live up to their name." I like the idea that names "mean something" and would expect that parents and families would encourage telling the history/story behind their child's name. The child would grow up to give honor to their name and to the family.

Whether "ordinary" or unique, names should be chosen with care and love, just as the child given the name should be cared for and loved lavishly.

Opps...perhaps I'm just living with my head in the clouds.

Reply

MY name worked out well for me!!~~~


(I DESPISE "LADY" gaga! ~ barf!)

Reply

I worked in public education for 7 years before quitting to be a stay at home mom. It was hard picking my own kids names because it seemed like every one I tried , i could think back and remember oh wait that really bad kid from 2 years ago had that name, or no that was what that kid that always peed himself's name was. Names do have bad connotations sometimes BUT I never expected every kid with the same name to have the same behavior. I had two kids named Corbin in the same year. One was Satan's spawn. One was the sweetest kid you'd ever know. My youngest is now named Corbin. lol I think this survey is crap. But my son is bipolar, one minute he is satans spawn, the other he is super sweet.. chew on that.. I wish I were kidding.

Reply

"We named my son Calvin after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes"

You and about 5 million other people did that.

Reply

My take on the names is often more about parents -- it often seems that the more complicated/strangely spelled the name, the younger the parent ... and consequently, the child has the experience of being raised by someone who may not have a lot of "parenting resources" to draw from.

Being raised without strong parenting is a real challenge for a lot of kids. So when I see certain names, I'm on alert for those "back story" situations -- and hope to be pleasantly surprised once I meet the actual child.

Reply

IT FIGURES, MY NAME IS J A C K !!!!! DARN

Reply

in reply to sal's reply... for starters, calm yourself... sky didn't mention anything about practicing psychology in his/her classroom... also, did you see that they said specialists are included in their meetings, you do know that every school has at least one psychologist on staff, right? So... there's the rebuttal for your unnecessary comment about them practicing psychology anyway... there are people in the school licensed to, you idiot.
and about the home schooling, yeah, it's real damn easy to be successful when you have the entire day at your disposal to teach your own few children. For starters, a low teacher to student ratio is already a recipe for success. Also, there aren't as many distractions - you don't have them getting distracted by their friends, or their phones or ipods that students are constantly trying to use in class regardless of the fact that they are prohibited in most schools. You can control the atmosphere completely when it's your own child, own home. It's a little more difficult for schools to enforce for example, the cell phone policy when it's the students' parents texting or calling them half the time! (and I’ve seen it about stupid trivial stuff like texting to ask their son or daughter where the tv remote is. Really? You had to txt your child in the middle of math class b/c you're too damn lazy to get off the couch and manually change the channel until 3pm when your child gets out???)
Also, a lot of the trouble in classrooms today stems from many (not all, but many) parents not doing their part. Whether it be setting the ground work when the children are real young or just following up with proper praise & discipline when their older. Way too often do we get parents of unruly children in conferences saying "i don't know what to do, I yell at him/her, but he/she just doesn't listen". Well, when your child refuses to do their hw, or study or try harder, do you take away your child's million and one luxuries like cell phones? internet? tv? video games? etc. etc. etc.!? But, when a parent is putting in the effort of teaching the material to their own child, I'm pretty damn sure they're going to make sure that child follows up with whatever work and studies they should be doing.
And, on a side note... my aunt home schooled my cousins while they were in elementary school. You don't just keep them home and teach them whatever you feel like teaching them. There's some kind of process you must go through and I’m pretty sure there is some kind of curriculum that they need to follow.
Get your facts straight next time before you go on an angry internet rant!

Reply

My sister taught for over 30 years in elementary school special ed. Her advice: beware of kids named Michael.

Reply

wow tht werid y do they care wut ther names are i wouldnt
a name dosent give the children the behavior to act bad good or a teacher pet!!
the teachers over ther shouldnt be sayin tht

Reply

It can totally go the other way. Some of the worst kids I ever knew were named overtly religious names like Jesus, Christian, and Angel.

Reply

My son is Jake and one of his best friends is named Jack. They are well behaved sweet boys who have their good days and "melt down" moments like all pre-schoolers do. They will hopefully live up to their "strong" names and be good men and fathers one day!

Reply

Humm, unique? Actually nowadays you can have an old name and not end up with anyone with the same name. My name is Clarence yet in my entire lifetime, I have only met 2 others (my father and a guy back in high school, we ended up in a 10th grade class together for a few weeks) with that name and heard of three others (Clarence Carter, Clarence Williams III & Clarence Thomas) It's not a unique name its just not popular at all, probably what someone would call 'old school' or really really old school. Usually if you see someone with the name, they are a Jr, a III, or so on.

Reply

wow tht werid y do they care wut ther names are i wouldnt
a name dosent give the children the behavior to act bad good or a teacher pet!!
the teachers over ther shouldnt be sayin tht

Reply

What about redheads? I think they are automatically pinned as "trouble makers" but honestly, most are lol. Any redheaded boy I have met were a little on the fighting side... but I think that's because redheads are picked on A LOT.

Reply

I can see how SOME teachers might make assumptions based on names. As a 16 year old girl I do all the time. Unfortunately I live in an underprivlaged area so when I hear girls and boys with "ghetto" names I immediately assume that they will be loud and obnoxious. Most of the time it's true. Even the popular girl names like "Chelsea" and "Ally" are almost always the unnatural blonds with too much make-up on. This is not by chance though, if you look at the households, uneducated parents will be more likely to name their child after a name brand or city or jewel in one case (I once had issues with a girl named Diamond. Why would you do that to your kid?). And even the "rich kids" in my neighborhood with parents that teach their children to care solely about their looks are more apt to naming their children with more celebrity type names, i.e. Paris. And sometimes they prove you completely wrong (My best friend's name is Britney and she's the nicest person you'll ever meet). But most of the time they're spot on.

Reply

Red heads are judged immediately as well. They are known as the bully... which isn't fair because no one really sees how much red heads get picked on.

Reply

Red heads are marked as being the bully. However, they are picked on so much that they start acting out. But the minute someone sees a red head they think "bad temper" or "bad attitude"

Reply